Plans to create a £151,000 per year senior management role in Bolton to oversee children's services transformation have been temporarily withdrawn after councillors claimed they had been 'kept in the dark' about it.
Council Chief Executive Apologises for Miscommunication
Bolton council's chief executive Sue Johnson apologised to members of the council about 'miscommunication around this issue' and conceded that they should have been better briefed prior to being asked to make a decision. The motion to make the senior level appointment was not voted on after several councillors expressed concerns.
Members of the council were asked for their approval to create the role of consultant assistant director – transformation and workforce development. The appointment on a fixed term basis of up to 24 months would be funded by central government and the person employed would be paid around £151,000 per year.
Cabinet Member Defends the Role
Cabinet member, Labour's Coun Rabiya Jiva said: 'The post will be funded through our transformation monies and not the children's budget, it's not council money. The post will bring together key transformation strands across SEND, families first, Best Start, youth justice and our kinship zone and ensure delivery against milestones set out by our government. The transformation money has to be used against certain criteria and for leadership to deliver the change agenda is one of the criteria. It is a fixed term appointment, it will not create a permanent chief officer post.'
Councillors Question the Cost and Process
Several councillors questioned the plans. Reform UK's Coun Derek Wunderley said: 'I cannot support the proposal. We've been asked to approve a post costing more than £300,000 across two years. While I recognise the scale of transformation in children's services I'm not convinced the solution is to create another layer of senior leadership. At a time when services are under sustained pressure residents would reasonably expect available funding, including grants, to be prioritised towards delivery not additional senior posts. Will this post make a tangible difference to frontline services?'
Horwich and Blackrod First leader David Grant said: 'I have been excluded from any briefings about this post only laying eyes on the proposal when the meeting papers were published. Our party represents a significant proportion of this borough and we are deeply perturbed to have been entirely cut out of these discussions. Slipping an expensive executive appointment into the agenda without fully inclusive group briefings represents a disappointing democratic deficit. The cost is stated as £151,000 a year but it completely ignores employer national insurance, pensions and associated executive benefits, the true cost of this single position will comfortably exceed £180,000 a year. Calling this obscene in the current climate is an understatement. Public money is public money, whether it comes from council tax or central government, every pound wasted on a temporary executive layer is a pound stripped away from frontline children's services, early intervention or direct help for struggling families.'
Support for the Proposal
Coun John McHugh urged councillors to support the plans. 'Children are suffering and ideology seems to take preference over children's lives. There are 31,000 children in Bolton who live in poverty. That is 42 per cent of all children. This is money that doesn't come from council tax it comes from grants. It's central government money to benefit our kids. It's that simple, we need to be thinking of putting children's lives first.'
Motion Withdrawn for Further Briefing
Coun Ismail Ibrahim said councillors had been 'kept in the dark' about the issue and 'had it sprung on us at the last minute'. Chief executive Sue Johnson said: 'My apologies councillors it seems we've had some miscommunication around this issue. I will take it as my responsibility that we should have had a better briefing than we had.' Coun Jiva withdrew the motion and suggested a briefing be given to all councillors about it before a decision was made.
