Last month I published an article about the Director of Public Health at Cheshire East Council taking voluntary redundancy with a package of nearly £300,000, which includes pension costs to be met from within the Public Health Grant.
As part of a reorganisation, the current post of Director of Public Health, which reports to the Chief Executive, is being replaced with a Director of Public Health which reports to the Director of Adult Social Care and Health which resulted in a drop in salary for the position from £183,328 pa to £86,636 pa.
Dr Heather Grimbaldeston indicated that the new DPH post is not a suitable alternative to the present post, no other suitable alternative roles were available in the Council and as a result she requested to be allowed to leave the Council on voluntary redundancy terms.
Whilst looking for a photo of Dr Heather Grimbaldeston on wilmslow.co.uk I came across an article from April 2013 when Cheshire East Council announced the first wave of appointments to new senior management posts, which replaced the previous structure at the top of the organisation. Amongst the new senior team of 15 managers was Dr Heather Grimbaldeston, appointed as Director of Public Health.
This made me wonder how many of the 15 senior managers were still employed by Cheshire East Council, whether any others had taken voluntary redundancy and the size of their severance packages. I thought this would be in the public interest so I submitted a Freedom of Information request.
On Thursday, 15th September, I published the result of the FOI request and in my normal style I reported the information I had been provided with by Cheshire East Council without comment or opinion. Just before 9pm that evening I received a call from an irate member of the communications team at the Council about this piece. At their request I changed the headline from "Senior management team disbanded at hefty cost", which he said was "very unfair and totally misleading", and offered to publish a statement from CEC as they were keen to "balance the story".
Below is a "rebuttal" from the Leader of Cheshire East Council Rachel Bailey sent for publication on wilmslow.co.uk:
I refer to your on-line article which appeared on Thursday, September 15, 2016. I am disappointed yet again at the negative portrayal of Cheshire East Council for no good cause. You refer to a whole host of staff who have very appropriately moved on in their careers after working for the council over a three year period.
Local government is a fast-moving and dynamic and exciting career and changes over a three year period are not uncommon in large and complex organisations in the public, voluntary and commercial sectors.
Cheshire East Council attracts a high calibre of employees and we are rightly proud of their dedication and commitment and achievements. The Tour of Britain, recently hosted by Cheshire East Council, is a fantastic example of officers getting behind a wonderful initiative to bring a sense of prestige and prosperity to the borough for the benefit of business and residents.
Their hard work and dedication leaves a legacy that will benefit the borough for years to come. But staff who drive and innovate and are ambitious, do sometimes move on and up in their careers. That paired with a redesign of services to deliver better value means that, yes, some managers have taken redundancy options open to them.
In the case of Dr Heather Grimbaldeston, featured in your article as a case study and who received £296k, this figure was largely made up of pension contributions over her long and successful career in the NHS. This was not paid for by Cheshire East Council taxpayers. The actual cost of the voluntary redundancy is met from the money CEC gets directly from NHS England and relate to pension cost entitlements under NHS pension scheme rules.
Dr Grimbaldeston worked for the authority for three years but her service to the people of Cheshire East as DPH covered far longer. She was formerly Director of Public Health with the former Central and Eastern Cheshire Primary Care Trust, prior to joining Cheshire East Council when the public health service was transferred into local councils.
The decision to consider the voluntary redundancy request came as the Council sought to further integrate adult social care and health services under the new strategic director of adult social care and health, within the new 'People' directorate. The new structure will support greater integration, clearer accountability and clearer reporting lines. The revised role will lead public health services within the new structure and will result in a saving of £96,000 per year, together with further savings to be created from a review of the team structure.
Staff have the right to opt for voluntary redundancy, leave their employment for new challenges and change their mind with regard to life priorities. We cannot – nor should we try – to stop this. For anyone who has ever worked for the authority they will know that the Council is a great place to work and Cheshire East is a great place to live and bring up a family. Going into the future, we pride ourselves on this very point. I will defend our valued officers' good name, at all times.
Comments
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This is just typical of mis-management of public funds, very blasé of the council leader to say its not CEC's mine its from the NHS, still money from taxpayers that should be used on public services, not lining someone's pockets because proper due diligence was not carried out before creating these positions.
There are many dedicated employees at Cheshire East who attempt to deliver services despite the revolving doors at senior levels.
http://bit.ly/2cC3zgm
did not work at all and you are re-organising, yet again, at enormous cost
Is it any wonder that CEC comes if for criticism? The on-going cost of Lyme Green is reportedly over £3m now; the results of the inquiry into it were suppressed to protect the guilty, despite the FOI request from a local newspaper no "unredacted" copy of this report (paid for by the tax-payers) has been seen by anyone, other than CE Councillors.
The former Leader is under Police investigation.
A Cabinet Member did not disclose that he was disqualified from being a Company Director.
The Local plan is years overdue and has become a farce.
CoSocius has cost what? £8m?
The company appointed by CEC to run the bus services went bust.
Every time it rains the roads around Wilmslow flood because the privatised Highways Department has not cleaned out the gullies.
As for claiming that officers got behind a bike race...well it's just laughable. Is that really the best example of the Council in action when your trying to defend, another PR mess surrounding Senior Management actions - again.
It's about time the local authority ombudsman was called in to look at what is going on in Sandbach.
In the meantime, the local services diminish each year.