Article 10 – Officers

10.1 Management Structure

(a) General

The Council may engage such staff as it considers necessary to carry out its functions.

(b) Chief Officers

The Council will engage persons for the following posts, who will be designated chief officers:

Post	Functions and areas of responsibility
Chief Executive (and Head of Paid Service)	Overall corporate management and operational responsibility (including overall management responsibility for all officers) Provision of professional advice to all parties in the decision making process. Together with the Monitoring Officer, responsibility for a system of record keeping for all the Council’s decisions. Representing the Council on partnership and external bodies (as required by statute or the Council) governance support, public relations.
Deputy Chief Executives (2)	Responsibility for the service areas of the Council identified in the Council’s management structure.
Chief Finance Officer	Responsibility for the proper administration of the Council’s financial affairs. Responsible for reporting to the Council if councillors or staff make or are about to make a decision involving unlawful expenditure, loss or deficiency, or if proposed expenditure is likely to exceed available resources.
Monitoring Officer	Standards, lawfulness, the Council’s Constitution, advice and assistance.

(c) Head of Paid Service, Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer

The Council will designate the following posts as shown:

Post	Designation
Chief Executive	Head of Paid Service
Group Head of Corporate Governance	Monitoring Officer
Deputy Chief Executive (Terry Collier)	Chief Finance Officer

Such posts will have the functions described in Article 10.2–10.4 below

(d) Deputy Monitoring Officer and Deputy Chief Finance Officer

A Deputy Monitoring Officer and Deputy Chief Finance Officer will be appointed from the Council’s staff to perform the functions of the Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer respectively, where the Monitoring Officer or Chief Finance Officer, as appropriate, is unable to act.

(e) Deputy Chief Officers

The Council will engage persons for the posts of Group Head within its management structure, who will be designated deputy chief officers, as defined in section 2(8) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.

10.2 Functions of the Head of Paid Service

The Head of Paid Service will:-

(a) Discharge of functions by the Council. The Head of Paid Service is responsible for the manner in which the discharge of the Council’s functions is co-ordinated, the number and grade of officers required for the discharge of functions and the organisation of officers;

(b) Restrictions on functions.  The Head of Paid Service may not be the Monitoring Officer but may hold the post of chief finance officer if a qualified accountant;

10.3  Functions of the Monitoring Officer

The Monitoring Officer will:-

(a) maintain an up-to-date version of the Constitution and will ensure that it is widely available for consultation by councillors, staff and the public;

(b) maintain the Register of Members’ Interests;

(c) after consulting with the Head of Paid Service and Chief Finance Officer, report to the Council if they consider that any proposal, decision or omission would give rise to unlawfulness or if any decision or omission has given rise to maladministration.  Such a report will have the effect of stopping the proposal or decision being implemented until the report has been considered;

(d) contribute to the promotion and maintenance of high standards of conduct through provision of advice and support to the Standards Committee

(e) investigate allegations of breaches of the Members Code of Conduct following a referral from the Standards Sub-Committee and following consultation with the Independent Person, or appoint another person to investigate;

(f) provide advice to all councillors on the scope of powers and authority to take decisions, maladministration, financial impropriety, probity and budget and policy framework issues.

(g) ensure that Committee decisions, together with the reasons for those decisions and relevant officer reports and background papers are made publicly available as soon as possible.

(h) The Monitoring Officer cannot be the Chief Finance Officer or the Head of Paid Service.

10.4   Functions of the Chief Finance Officer

The Chief Finance Officer will:-

(a) after consulting with the Head of Paid Service and the Monitoring Officer, report to the Council and the Council’s external auditor if they consider that any proposal, decision or course of action will involve incurring unlawful expenditure, or is unlawful and is likely to cause a loss or deficiency or if the Council is about to enter an item of account unlawfully;

(b) have responsibility for the administration of the financial affairs of the Council;

(c) contribute to the corporate management of the Council, in particular through the provision of professional financial advice;

(d) provide advice on the scope of powers and authority to take decisions, maladministration, financial impropriety, probity and budget and policy framework issues to all councillors and will support and advise councillors and officers in their respective roles;

(e) provide financial information to the media, members of the public and the community.

10.5  Duty to provide sufficient resources to the Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer

The Council will provide the Monitoring Officer and Chief Finance Officer with such officers, accommodation and other resources as are in the opinion of those officers sufficient to allow their duties to be performed.

10.6  Conduct

Officers will comply with the Staff Code of Conduct and the Protocol on Councillor-Staff Relations set out in Part 5 of this Constitution.

10.7  Employment

The recruitment, selection and dismissal of officers will comply with the Officer Employment Procedure Rules set out in Part 4 of this Constitution.