On 7 September, Dennis Bacon takes charge of Norfolk County Council, an organisation employing around 8,000 people and spending £2.3bn a year. He has never worked in local government, and the latest accounts for Apple Homecare, which he led for eleven years, show that the company employed 15 people. But council leader David Bick says he has considerable experience dealing with the council.
Bacon’s appointment as Chief Executive followed an unusually rapid recruitment process after Reform UK took control of the authority in May. Although the five-member interview panel failed to agree on the appointment, there was no readvertisement. The appointment went instead to an extraordinary meeting of the full council on 14 August, where Reform councillors, backed by Great Yarmouth First – the local party founded and chaired by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe – had the numbers to secure his appointment.
Councillor Dan Roper (Lib Dem), who had taken part in two previous chief executive appointments, told the meeting that confirmation would normally be a formality, with cross-party support giving the successful candidate a mandate from the whole council. This time, leaders of four opposition groups spoke strongly against the appointment. Bacon takes up the post facing a difficult challenge.
The appointment process
Bacon will replace Tom McCabe, who left for reasons which have not been made public, shortly after Reform UK took control of the council. The council leader, Councillor David Bick (Reform UK, Thetford West), wanted to fill the vacancy as quickly as possible. Opposition councillors argued that the urgency was unnecessary since the Director of Legal Services had proven an effective interim substitute. They argued that she could have continued in the role, allowing more time for advertising and consideration.
Despite this, the vacancy was advertised only on the county council website and on LinkedIn, with a very short timescale. The process nevertheless attracted 49 applicants. Councillor Maxine Webb suggested that this was an unusually limited approach for such a senior post which might expect national and perhaps international interest. She pointed out that it was contrary to the advice of the Local Government Association. Later in the meeting, the council’s monitoring officer confirmed that the process had been “legal and proper”.
Councillor Davis expressed surprise that, given Reform’s commitment to reducing local government spending, the post had been advertised at a higher salary than the previous CEO. At £215,000, it is now more than the Prime Minister’s salary. Previously the post ranked as 45th highest paid council officer in England; it is now 24th. An officer subsequently confirmed that the increase resulted from the council’s annual salary uplift.
There was no technical or psychometric testing of candidates, the interview panel was not involved in shortlisting, and candidates had a 30-minute online exchange with a leadership stakeholder panel followed by a one-hour interview with the member appointment panel. Councillor Roper said that a colleague at a District Council had told him that waste operatives went through a more extensive interview process. Councillor Webb had requested sight of all the applications and the scoring grid used for shortlisting, but this had not been provided by the time of the meeting.
Councillor Webb argued that the five-member panel did not properly reflect the political balance of the council, despite the constitution requiring political balance. It included a representative from Great Yarmouth First but excluded the Conservatives, although both groups have nine councillors. A request to extend the panel to allow wider representation was dismissed.
At the end of the interviews, the panel failed to agree on the appointment, and the Director of People suggested alternative ways of resolving this, including further discussion with the stakeholder panel, another conversation with Bacon or bringing the two preferred candidates back for a presentation. But Councillor Bick had already said that there would be no readvertisement, and a recommendation to appoint was made only by a majority.
The appointee
For the last eleven years, Dennis Bacon led Apple Homecare, which provides domiciliary care from a base in Norwich, employing 15 people to care for 39 people. He also spent 19 years as chairman of the Norfolk Independent Care Association, which supports more than 600 organisations and 11,000 staff in social care, and served as a member of the Norfolk and Waveney Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, bringing together local NHS organisations and councils. He is also a past recipient of Norfolk County Council’s Outstanding Leadership in Public Services Award.
In 2022, the Care Quality Commission rated Apple Homecare as ‘good’ for effectiveness, but ‘requires improvement’ on safety and the ‘well-led’ category, which assesses leadership, management and governance. After eleven years in post, Bacon resigned from that role nine days before the county council post was advertised.
Opposition councillors questioned whether Bacon had the experience required to run an organisation with 8,000 employees and an annual budget of £2.3bn, given that he had no experience working within local government, and had previously led a much smaller organisation whose CQC rating included ‘requires improvement’ for leadership, management and governance.
Concern was also expressed about a potential conflict of interest. Although Bacon resigned his role with Apple Homecare at the end of June, Councillor Weston told the meeting that control of the company had passed to John Bacon and that public records showed Dennis and John Bacon remained in business together through other companies.
Councillor Roper expressed regret at the situation, saying it was “very unfortunate and unfair on Mr Bacon” that councillors lacked confidence in the appointment because of the process.
At the end of the debate, the chair invited the leader, Councillor Bick to ‘sum up’. His response to the suggestion that psychometric testing might have been used, was to offer such testing to councillors. He criticised opposition councillors for referring to a £2bn budget, when the real figure is £2.3bn. He rejected the claim that Bacon had no background in local government, saying he had “considerable experience dealing both with this council and with the NHS”. He described councillor Weston’s remarks about Bacon and Apple Homecare’s CQC record as “unworthy, personal remarks”.
The future
The outcome of the council meeting was never in doubt. Although Reform do not have a majority on the council, they were backed on this appointment by the nine councillors from Great Yarmouth First, the local party founded and chaired by former Reform MP Rupert Lowe and affiliated with his new national party, Restore Britain. In the event, both turned out almost all their councillors, and the appointment was confirmed by 45 votes to 18, with five abstentions.
But Dennis Bacon faces a council in which opposition councillors have publicly questioned both the recruitment process and whether his experience equips him for the job. And he also faces the challenge of leading the work of local government reorganisation which the Reform administration is opposed to, and which will abolish his own job in less than two years. He takes up the post at an unusually difficult moment for both Norfolk County Council and local government in the county.
You can see the full council debate on YouTube here.
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