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Obtaining authority to recruit

Authorisation to recruit is required from any confirmed Extended Leadership Team (ELT) officer in Cumberland Council from 1 April 2023.

Before a vacancy can be authorised, recruiting managers must seek authority to recruit, using the following steps:

  1. Recruiting managers should complete the Cumberland Council: Vacancy Authorisation form (DOC 70KB)
  2. Once completed, they should obtain initial sign off from their Assistant Director or Director.
  3. Once the member of DMT has signed the form, this should be emailed to VacancyRequest@cumbria.gov.uk
  4. Finance Business Partners and Strategic HR Business Partners (HRBP) will review the request to ensure it is within budget requirements and align with service and workforce commitments
  5. Your Strategic HR Business Partner will act as the point of contact for your requests; their job is to keep you informed of progress and ensure that if it is supported by the service’s Assistant Director or Director, it is then considered for approval by the Jacqui Green, Assistant Director of HROD and then Jo Atkinson, Director for Business Transformation and Change *where required.
  6. Once authorised, your Strategic HRBP will liaise with your service’s Resourcing Partner who will raise a ticket on the portal on your behalf and be in touch regarding advertising and candidate attraction. Authorisation to recruit is valid for 4 months
  7. You can now move to step 3 of the process

Recruitment freeze

There is an ongoing recruitment freeze in place, as agreed by SLT. Only roles which meet the following agreed criteria will be progressed:

  • there is a legal and statutory requirement for the role
  • there is a Regulatory requirement for the role
  • there is a Health and Safety requirement, including possible risk to life, for the role
  • there is time limited funding attached to the role and failure to progress would result in loss of funding
  • there are savings targets dependant on the role being appointed to deliver and failure to progress would result in risk to savings delivery
  • the role is vital to supporting the council deliver its Transformation agenda

If you have any further questions, please speak to your Service Manager or Assistant Director in the first instance.