The Government commissioners which have been deployed to Slough Borough Council to sort its financial woes have been given greater powers to find senior staff.

The three Government commissioners have now been given the power to hire senior staff without having to go through the usual procedures.

It means the commissioners can use the power to hire second and third tier staff, which includes the directors of key council services.

The proposal to give the commissioners the powers was introduced in July and confirmed this month.

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Notification of the change was issued by the Government yesterday (Thursday, September 1) by Paul Scully (Conservative, Sutton and Cheam), the Local Government Minister.

Mr Scully’s letter states: “I am writing to confirm that I am publishing revised Directions under the Local Government Act 1999 that give you additional powers in relation to the structure of Slough Borough Council and the recruitment of tiers two and three staff.

“I understand that you intend to hold these powers in reserve.”

In July, the council announced it was looking for senior staff to manage the following directorates:

  • Chief Operating Officer – to manage governance, transformation, HR and customer services
  • Strategy – for strategy, data and insight
  • Finance and Commercial – for finances and audits
  • Place and Communities – to manage community safety, leisure, libraries and other services
  • Housing and Property – to manage housing services and council assets
  • People – Adults – to manage Adult Social Care and Health
  • People – Children – to manage childrens services

The commissioners can now work to assist in filling these positions at their discretion.

James Swindlehurst (Labour, Cippenham Green), the leader of the council, said: “We accept the previous restructure and S114 have left staff vacancies.

“There is an urgent task to fill the staff structure and have proper teams to do the jobs needed by the council.

“To get us to the place to be a functional organisation again we have accepted the Commissioners may need the powers to get this sorted and we are cooperating.

“This is short-term while we are trying to get into a better place.

“We all agree we want an appropriately skilled workforce which can represent the diverse community of Slough.

“We hope the Commissioners hold these new powers in reserve and use them only if they feel we cannot make sound decisions ourselves.”

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The council’s Chief Operating Officer, Stephen Brown, said: “We know there is more to do on the officer structure, and we welcome the decision to grant the Commissioners further powers to help us tackle this issue.

“We are committed to the pace of change needed and want to retain our dedicated and competent staff to see us through these next challenges and to best serve our residents.”

The commissioners came to Slough in December 2021 to address financial and management difficulties at the council following a Section 114 notice.