Brutal cuts made on Carruth’s watch

Dear Editor

I read with interest an article in the Observer recently on the departure of Stirling Council chief executive Stuart Carruth.

Whilst it is always regrettable to hear of somebody resigning their job, I have to say Mr Carruth, whilst having a difficult task in reducing the budget, appeared to do so without fully taking a quality assurance approach to those cuts that senior managers were proposing.

I did write to him regarding those cuts being made in early years services and asked what measures he was taking to ensure that they did not impact extremely negatively on children, families and staff. I received no reply.

He seemed to preside over brutal cuts to services and loss of experienced staff many of whom could not bear the pain of cuts that were being made and who were treated with a total lack of respect for their expertise by the management – with a degree of equanimity which quite frankly was staggering.

I understand from the article I read that there was speculation that senior managers wrote a letter to the leader of the council that led to his ultimate demise.

However, who is writing a letter to the leader of the council about the actions of other senior managers who, in my view, displayed a similar degree of equanimity in relation to their dismantling of leading-edge services over the last few years?

Pat Wharton, Stirling