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The States Employment Board considered only interviewing Jersey candidates for the Interim Government CEO role, but decided against it due to a risk of delays and wanting local hopefuls to have a ‘benchmark', it has emerged.
In a letter responding to questions from Scrutiny, the Chief Minister, who acts as Chair of the SEB, said that doing a "sole search on-island" had been considered amongst other options, but that “any candidate from Jersey ought to be benchmarked against other candidates.”
Senator Le Fondré further stated in the letter sent on Wednesday, that “if a sole search on-island had failed, then the delay would leave either a gap in the leadership of the public service at a critical time.”
Pictured: Senator John Le Fondré said the panel decided not to exclusively look at Jersey candidates as they wanted to hold them to the same benchmark as the UK.
He also addressed other options put on the table for filling the vacancy left by outgoing CEO, Charlie Parker, including one that the Executive Leadership Team should ‘act up’ into the role.
This was dismissed due to the team’s “concern about the capacity of individuals to step up," as well as “the back-fill arrangements required during a period of considerable time and investment.”
The option of immediately launching a search for a permanent CEO was also quashed due to the long lead-in time of six to 12 months combined with covid travel complications. Leaving the role vacant for so long, the SEB decided, would be “untenable.”
Doing this would also mean having to fill the CEO's statutory roles of Head of Public Service role and Principal Accounting Officer from officers internally while the recruitment process continued - something that raised similar issues to trying to get existing executives to 'act up'.
Though a candidate from Jersey was considered within the Government’s final shortlist, the role eventually went to London borough head, Paul Martin.
Pictured: The eventual interim CEO decided on was London borough head, Paul Martin.
Mr Martin was picked by a panel consisting of: the First Commissioner of the UK Civil Service, a non-voting Chair, the Chief Minister, the Chair of the Jersey Appointments Commission, and two local Jersey Appointments Commissioners (one acting as the Independent Member from the island).
On the solution that was eventually decided upon, Senator Le Fondré commented: "...The natural conclusion was that an interim appointment, drawn from a range of candidates who met a previously drawn up specification, would be put to the appointing panel and a contract put in place to allow interim leadership whilst a thorough search for a permanent Chief Executive both on-island and internationally took place."
The Chief Minister further revealed that after a tender process, and presentations from six firms, search firm Odgers Berndtson, have been selected to help choose the new permanent Chief Executive, with officers meeting them in February to discuss the timeline.
His letter to Scrutiny also provided an update on ongoing public sector pay negotiations, explaining that discussions for Police, Prison, Civil Servants, Manual Workers, Fire and Rescue, Headteachers, Nursing, and Teaching are all ongoing.
Awards for senior managers on an individual contract and the Local Negotiating Committee for doctors have not yet opened, and all senior leaders except doctors have had a pay freeze since 2018.
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