Plaid Cymru Caerphilly Together, We Can Build a Brighter Future

Plaid Cymru councillor Greg Ead is calling for a comprehensive review by Caerphilly Council into why so few people outside the authority apply for and reach the final interview for top roles.

The Penyrheol councillor said that he was concerned that high potential external candidates might be put off applying for jobs under the council’s executive recruitment process.

Recently, two internal candidates were appointed to two executive positions with little outside interest. There were three applications for the role of chief executive officer (CEO) but two of them did not meet the criteria. All jobs came with six figure salaries.
 The current situation seems to be that all the four executive director posts, including the CEO, have NOT been recruited through a competitive selection interview process, raising serious concerns about the leadership of the council, he argued.

Councillor Greg Ead said: “All councillors should want to know why there are so few applications for highly paid roles so it can be addressed. For instance, has the debacle involving the former chief executive Anthony O’Sullivan, and then the departure of the last chief executive, led to the council having a poor reputation and put potential applicants off?  We need to find out and that is why I believe a comprehensive review of senior appointments needs to be carried out.”

The questions, Councillor Greg Ead wants answering include:

Why does Caerphilly struggle to attract external candidates to top jobs with salaries of £100,000+? Does the reputation of Caerphilly County Borough Council  prevent the authority attracting external talent?

Is the selection process objective and unbiased considering only one external candidate made it through to the final interview process before withdrawing, leaving two internal applicants to be selected for two  executive positions?

Does the authority have any concerns that the appointment of internal applicants might be seen by some as ‘jobs for the boys’, without a rigorous and unbiased selection process?

Why with so few internal candidates do the Authority not decide to repeat the recruitment process again to try to attract more talented candidates?