Recruitment campaign for new Pembrokeshire Council CEO tops £26,000

THE cost of recruiting a new chief executive will top £26,000 as a recruitment campaign is signed off.

Pembrokeshire County Council’s senior staff committee approved a job description profile, advertising channels and recruitment schedule at a meeting on December 11.

The committee did not vote to go into private session but documents relating to discussions were considered exempt information and not made public.

Seb Lowe of recruitment agency Gatenby Sanderson outlined the costs for advertising in the Sunday Times, The MJ – a specialist site for senior local government jobs, a social media campaign, a micro website with details of the role and agency fees, with a total of £26,550.

“At the end of the day we all knew this was going to be an exercise that would cost us money, we all want the best person available for the job,” said council leader Cllr David Simpson.

A move to discuss the matter in private was not considered necessary, with Cllr Michael Williams added it was “public money” being discussed.

The committee were also told that there could be a cost of £750 per shortlisted candidates for “psychometric tests” which could be carried out if desired.

Cllr Di Clements highlighted that the spelling and grammar of the draft advert needed checking and it was agreed that the leader would sign off the final versi