Hunt for new council chief with 'passion and spirit' launched in Barnsley

A search has been launched to find a new £160,000 a year chief executive for Barnsley Council, to replace Diana Terris who has announced she is to retire this year.
Barnsley Council's retiring chief executive, Diana TerrisBarnsley Council's retiring chief executive, Diana Terris
Barnsley Council's retiring chief executive, Diana Terris

The council is using an agency called GatenbySanderson to identify prospective candidates, with the organisation describing itself as 'the UK's leading people intelligence business'.

Candidates have until February 3 to apply for the job, with the first round of interviews taking place later than month and final interviews in March. It is unclear at this stage when the successful candidate will join Barnsley Council.

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However, they will be stepping into the role at a key moment.

The job description describes Barnsley Council as a local authority 'with ambition, flair and imagination with a real drive and focus on continuous improvement.

'Equally, we're proud of our values and genuine commitment to put our customers and communities at the very heart of everything we do.

'You'll join us at a crucial time as we move into a new and exciting period in our Future Council planning.

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'We've already made excellent progress. Our Children's Social Care service is rated good by Ofsted, our adventurous town centre redevelopment is progressing well, as is our local economic and cultural offer.

'We have real strength and resilience within our local areas with our devolved governance arrangements and we're on track to deliver our new state of the art Library @ the Lightbox which will become a hub for our communities.'

The new chief executive will also be expected to continue internal changes within the council, which is said to be 'creating an innovative, digitally and commercially driven culture, investing in our workforce and encouraging distributed leadership.'

Qualities the council wants to identify in the new boss are 'passion and spirit for serving and engaging with our residents and workforce', 'working collaboratively with local and regional partners to benefit our borough' and 'strong leadership, innovation and creativity.'

The pay range offered is in line with current pay rate for the role, which appears in the council's accounts.