Vacancy -- Chair - Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales

The Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales (the Panel) is independent of Welsh 
Government and local government. It was established on a permanent basis initially 
to determine the range and levels of allowances payable by county and county 
borough councils to their councilors and co-opted members with voting rights.

The Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011 extended the remit and gave the 
Panel its current statutory status. Its remit now also includes town and community 
councils, national park authorities and fire and rescue authorities. The Panel’s remit 
was then further extended in 2015, and the Panel may now also make 
recommendations in respect of any proposal to change the salary of the chief 
executive of a county or county borough council as and when required. 

Membership
The Panel usually comprises a Chair and four other Members. The Panel must 
appoint one of their Members as Vice-Chair. The Panel usually meet once every 
calendar month. The quorum for meetings is three and must include either the Chair 
or Vice-Chair.

Organisations for which the Panel determines remuneration 

Principal Councils
The 22 principal councils on Wales are responsible for a very wide range of services, 
many of which are statutory (i.e. they are legally required to fulfil them). These 
include:

 Education for example providing schools, transport to get children to school and 
providing opportunities for adult learning 
 Housing such as finding accommodation for people in need and maintaining 
social housing 
 Social Services for example caring for and protecting children, older people and 
disabled people 
 Highways and Transport including maintaining roads and managing traffic flow 
 Waste Management including collecting rubbish and recycling 
 Leisure and Cultural Services for example providing libraries, leisure services 
and arts venues 
 Consumer Protection such as enforcing trading standards and licencing taxis 
 Environmental Health and Services for example making sure that the food 
provided in pubs and restaurants is safe to eat, and controlling pollution locally 
 Planning including managing local development and making sure buildings are 
safe 
 Economic Development for example attracting new businesses and encouraging 
tourism 
 Emergency Planning for things like floods or terrorist attacks

Community and Town councils 
There are currently 735 community and town councils in Wales with over 8000 
councillors. The levels of services these councils deliver vary across Wales, and 
whilst some are small and act mainly as a community voice, many also deliver a 
range of services on behalf of the community such as:
• maintenance of community halls
• bus shelters
• public spaces
• play grounds

National Park Authorities
The three national park authorities work in partnership as National Parks Wales 
(NPW). NPW promotes the purposes and interests of Wales’ three National Parks; 
the Brecon Beacons, the Pembrokeshire Coast and Snowdonia.

NPW provides national park authorities with the means of identifying issues of joint 
interest and agreeing outputs. Information and experiences are shared between 
colleagues, policy makers, local communities within the national parks and visitors to 
these protected areas.

National park authorities consist of elected members from the principal councils 
within the national parks boundaries and members appointed by Welsh Ministers.

Fire and Rescue Authorities
The 3 fire and rescue services (FRAs) in Wales: Mid and West Wales, North
Wales and South Wales were formed as part of local government reorganisation
in 1996. FRAs comprise elected members who are nominated by the principal
councils within the fire and rescue service area.

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of setting the range and level of payments
for:

 Members of county and county borough councils
 Members of town and community councils
 Members of national park authorities
 Members of fire and rescue authorities

Role and responsibilities
The Panel is required to produce an annual report, which will prescribe the payments 
and allowances for councillors and members of the organisations listed above. The 
Panel must produce an Annual Report and may produce Supplementary Reports at 
any time that it considers necessary. In preparing its reports the Panel is required to 
take into account the likely financial impact of its decisions on the authority or 
authorities in question. Panel members also consider any proposed changes to the 
salary of the chief executive of county and county borough councils, as and when 
required.

Chairs role description
 To set the strategic direction in respect of the remuneration of local councillors 
and members of the NPA and the FRA. To ensure the work of the Panel is set 
within this overall strategy.
 Leadership skills – Including chairing meetings and setting standards for the 
effective operation of the Panel and the timely completion of reports.
  Develop a strategic approach to engagement with individuals and 
representatives of the bodies for which the Panel has responsibility for 
determining remuneration levels. 
 Ensuring the public is aware of the role of the Panel and how they can 
contribute to work of the Panel.
 Ensure the work of the Panel is transparent and open to public scrutiny and 
debate.
 Attendance at Panel meetings and other stake holder meetings with senior 
officials 
 Ensuring value for money approach to the Financial and resource 
management of Panel resources.
 Effective communication skills 
 Ability to challenge constructively both within the Panel externally with 
stakeholders
  Identification of a research programme to support the development of 
determinations of the Panel. To consider the outcome of the research, analyse 
the results and communicate how that evidence supports the Panels 
decisions. 
  Contribution to policy development – including the preparation of discussion 
papers / report writing.
 Understanding and commitment to equality issues and challenging 
discriminatory practices.

The Welsh Government acknowledges the importance of developing and growing bilingual capabilities in public appointments in Wales, and welcomes applications from candidates who demonstrate their capability to work in both English and Welsh.  The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the recruiting body of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

To be considered, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the qualities, skills 
and experience to meet all the essential criteria for appointment.

Essential Criteria

All Candidates should show evidence of:

 Ensure the Panel adheres to the Nolan seven principles of public life, 
demonstrates commitment to equality issues and challenging discriminatory 
practices and working in a politically neutral way in discharging its 
responsibilities.
 Providing vision and strategic leadership including a proven record of delivering 
against objectives within appropriate timescales
 Strong interpersonal skills including the ability to negotiate, persuade and 
influence
 Ability to build good working relationships with colleagues, stakeholders and 
others including effective management of meetings and other key events;
 Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing to individuals 
ranging from members of the public to senior leaders
 Ability to identify and manage a research programme, consider and analyse 
evidence from a wide range of sources and reach decisions based upon that 
evidence which are both fair, reasonable and appropriate
 An understanding of the importance of local democracy and public service.
To be considered, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the qualities, skills 
and experience to meet all the essential criteria for appointment.

17/03/2022, 16:00

To apply for this role, click on the ‘Apply’ button below. The first time you apply for a post, you will need to complete a registration form for the Welsh Government’s online application system.  You will only need to register once, and you will be able to keep yourself updated on the progress of your application, and any other applications you make, via your registered account.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll be able to access the application form.  To apply you will need to submit two supporting documents. The first, a document outlining how your knowledge, skills and experiences meet the criteria for the role as outlined in the information for candidates.  This document should be no more than 2 sides of A4.  Your application may be rejected if you exceed this limit.  The second document is a full, up to date CV.  The two documents should be uploaded to the ‘Reasons for applying’ section of the online application form.

In your application, you will also be asked to provide details of any activities which have helped you to develop skills that would be useful in a public appointment role, and list the organisations for which you undertook these activities.  We also need to know about any political activity that you’ve undertaken over the last 5 years. 

It is recommended that you register for an account and access the application form as soon as possible so that you see how the application form is structured, before starting to prepare your evidence.  You don’t have to complete the application form all in one go.  You can save your responses, and log in and out as required, until you’re ready to submit – just follow the guidance in the application form.

If you’d like to apply for this opportunity in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

If you need any further assistance in applying for this role, please contact the Welsh Government’s Public Appointments Team on  PublicAppointments@gov.wales.

For further information about Public Appointments in Wales, please visit www.gov.wales/publicappointments