City council abandons plan to merge two key jobs, as it cannot fill the position

RESPONSIBILITY FOR some of York Council’s most important services is set to be split back into two jobs after the authority failed to fill a position in a recruitment exercise, sparking a war of words on the council.

The authority approved the merging of the director for adults and the director for children roles into one job in 2020 as part of an efficiency drive.

But the new £100,000-plus director for people role has been empty since Amanda Hatton left the council towards the end of last year.

Recruitment experts told the council the salary it was offering was not enough to attract top candidates with experience of adult and children’s services.

It means the council will have to spend an extra £39,000 as it creates the roles of both corporate director of adult social care and integration and corporate director of children and education, while the ‘people’ role is scrapped.

Changes to the senior management have been ongoing since former chief executive Mary Weastell’s early retirement in 2020 cost the authority £400,000. She had launched a bullying complaint against council leader Keith Aspden before her pay-off. Labour linked the latest changes back to Ms Weastell’s controversial exit, which was later the subject of a critical audit report.

The Liberal Democrats, which runs the council with the Greens, said savings made as a result of her departure still stood. Labour group leader Pete Kilbane said decisions by the council’s leadership were being made “week to week and for their own political convenience”.

But the Lib Dems’ executive member for finance and performance, Nigel Ayre, said Labour was putting “party politics above the needs of the most vulnerable residents”.

Councillor Ian Cuthbertson, executive member for children, young people and education, said the new posts will enable greater investment in frontline social work.