Ministerial appointments to public bodies: training pack for selection panel chairs

4. Stages in the Public Appointments Process

When a public body board requires new ministerial appointees the appointing Minister will instruct officials to start a new recruitment process.

As panel chair, you will be responsible for leading the panel through the following key stages:

i. Succession planning and public body engagement Before a round begins the Sponsor Teams and Board ensure that succession planning is up to date and well informed.

ii. Early engagement This stage includes any early planning discussions about the board's operational context and succession planning. This may be managed in a meeting or in an exchange of information between the Sponsor Team, Public Appointments Team and the Commissioner's representative (PAA) and the selection panel members. Clarity on the board's needs informs the further steps in the appointment process.

iii. Agreement from the appointing Minister to proceed The Public Appointments Team provide a Ministerial submission seeking the Minister's views about the outcome for the round and agreement to delegate key aspects of the appointment process e.g. agreeing the selection panel, delegating the fit and proper person tests.

iv. Planning You will chair a planning phase in which Ministerial views will be fed in to the panel, the panel will develop the appointment plan and you will sign it off. Detailed discussion will be required, in order to finalise the detail of the criteria in such a way as to reflect the Minister's wishes, and other aspects of the appointment plan. Once the plan has been finalised, it cannot be amended without reference to the Commissioner and this is therefore a critical part of the process. Getting it right will allow the rest of the process to proceed smoothly.

v. The appointment plan the selection panel will discuss the appointment plan and give their advice and views about:

• The role description and person specification
• The criteria for selection. These may be 'priority' or 'general'. The Core Skills Framework will be a useful resource for setting the criteria (see appendix A)
• The attraction strategy
• Positive action measures
• Application and assessment methods
• Delegation of assessment (optional)
• Timetable for key dates in the appointment round.

It is open to panels to select the forms of assessment they feel enables them to identify the most able applicant for the role in a fair and transparent way. Panels are encouraged to be innovative in designing application and assessment processes, and seek out alternative methods in order to secure the best possible outcome for the board. Assessments methods should always be appropriate to assess the criteria for selection.

In all cases, when considering alternative methods of assessment, panels should consider the validity of any method chosen. Information on types of validity is included in the statutory guidance on the Code and in the ESC's guidance on different assessment methods.

Once set, the appointment plan including criteria cannot be changed at any later stage in the appointment process. If a change to the plan is required in order to secure a successful outcome, the Commissioner can be approached for a view.

vi. Advertising The vacancy is advertised on the vacancies section of the public appointments website and across a range of social media. There may also be outreach events or specialised advertising that focuses on attracting interest from people with protected characteristics and diverse backgrounds.

vii. Shortlisting of applications The panel will review all applications. This is usually done at a meeting, but can be done by correspondence. If there is an exceptional number of applications, it may be agreed that a prior sift (longlist) is undertaken, to remove those applications which clearly do not meet the criteria being tested.

viii. Assessment Selection panel members will assess the applicants against the criteria sought. The Public Appointments Team will support the chair to finalise a candidate summary which will be provided to the Minister. The content of these summaries is a decision for the chair.

ix. Recommendation to Minister The appointing Minister will review the recommended candidates and make a decision. They may choose to meet the candidates.

x. Notification and announcement The candidates chosen by the Minister complete pre appointment checks and required paperwork. Their appointment is publicly announced by means of a press release.

xi. End of round report At the conclusion of the appointment exercise, the panel chair must set out in a report 'the extent to which it delivered or failed to deliver the desired outcome set by the appointing Minister. Reasons for success or failure must be included in that report'. This report will be provided to the appointing Minister and to the Ethical Standards Commissioner.