Barnet's Section 151 finance chief has resigned and an interim is planned. Two new assistant director posts follow, one costing about £150,000 a year.

Barnet Council’s most senior finance officer has resigned. The council plans to appoint an interim to cover the job while it recruits a permanent replacement.

The post is the Executive Director of Finance, who is also the council’s Section 151 officer. That is the statutory role responsible for the council’s finances. The resignation comes days after the council published its plan to close a £200 million budget gap.

The resignation is recorded in a report to the council’s Employment Sub-Committee, which met on Monday 5 October. The report does not name the post-holder or say when they leave. It was added to the agenda as urgent business at the chief executive’s request, “to allow the recruitment process to commence”.

The same meeting was asked to approve two new assistant director posts and the upgrade of a third role. The papers are on the meeting page. The decisions had not been published when we checked on 6 October.

The finance chief’s job

The council’s role profile, attached to the report, sets out what the Executive Director of Finance is responsible for:

  • about 70 staff, plus management of an outside contractor
  • £618 million of direct budget responsibility, most of it housing benefit (about £282 million), council tax income (about £220 million) and business rates income (about £111 million)
  • indirect oversight of the council’s gross spending of £982 million

The report says filling the job permanently is likely to take “several months”. In the meantime the chief executive would appoint a “suitably qualified and experienced” interim. Only Full Council can formally designate who holds the Section 151 role.

The chief executive is also given authority to change the job title and description before recruitment starts.

The new and upgraded posts

Post What it is for Cost in the papers
Assistant Director of Finance (new) Oversee procurement and internal audit, and manage the Head of Exchequer About £150,000 a year including on-costs; salary band £100,818 to £122,824
Assistant Director, Financial Sustainability Programme Delivery (new) Lead a new team of four or five driving the savings plan to 2029 Grade 6; no annual figure given
Director of Resident Experience, Digital, Data and Technology (upgraded) Existing assistant director role, now also running the IT service taken back from Capita £15,000 a year more at the top of the grade, including on-costs

Both new assistant director posts would be paid for from the council’s contingency budget. The upgrade would come from existing budgets.

Why the council says it needs them

The Assistant Director of Finance answers the CIPFA external assurance review, commissioned by the government earlier this year. The report says CIPFA made recommendations on procurement and internal audit. It also found “weaknesses in first line control ownership, financial planning and governance discipline”. We covered that review in our report on CIPFA’s findings. The council says it lacks senior management capacity to put the recommendations into practice.

The financial sustainability team would be an assistant director, a head of service and two or three more staff. The report says doing the work with existing staff or outside consultants would be “less cost-effective”. It would also risk the programme “not delivering sufficient results in the timescales required”.

The director upgrade follows the decision to bring IT back in-house when Capita’s contract ended. The post-holder now manages the IT service directly. The council says the post is not becoming a chief officer, and the holder does not have to reapply.

What happens next

  • Full Council, 20 October: councillors must approve the salary packages for the new and upgraded posts. Full Council also designates the Section 151 officer, including any interim.
  • Recruitment: for the permanent finance chief, candidates will be interviewed by the Employment Sub-Committee after a search.
  • Cabinet, 12 October: the council’s medium-term financial strategy and the financial sustainability plan go to Cabinet, as set out on the Cabinet agenda.

What it means for you

The Section 151 officer is the person who signs off that the council’s budget is robust. They would also be the one to issue a Section 114 notice if the council could not balance its books. A change in that role, while the council is in talks with the government about a council tax rise above the usual cap, matters to every household in the borough.

Barnet’s council tax bands and this year’s charges are in our council tax guide. The council’s budget survey is open to residents now.

We will report the sub-committee’s decisions and the Full Council vote.