Stability is promised after spate of changes at authority

YORK COUNCIL’S chief operating officer has promised to bring stability to the council’s senior leadership team after three restructures in as many years.

Ian Floyd, who is also the council’s head of paid service, denied that the latest changes to his senior team represented a failure.

The council has decided to scrap the role of director of people and split the role into corporate director of adult social care and integration and corporate director of children and education.

The authority merged the roles as part of an efficiency drive in 2020. Labour has accused the council of making “erratic” decisions and claimed the reshuffles in senior management were brought about to offset the costs involved in the early retirement of the council’s former chief executive, Mary Weastell.

Coun Bob Webb said “there is absolutely no stability nor consistency”. Labour leader Coun Pete Kilbane said the restructure was a “fudge” for political reasons.

But council leader Coun Keith Aspden said: “For me, the People directorate structure in front of us is all about making sure that you do bring in that permanence and strong leadership in areas that represent a significant amount of spend, but are also incredibly important services for children and adults.”

Facing questions from Coun Kilbane, Mr Floyd said: “The need to fill these posts is absolutely crucial. The need for strong leadership is absolutely crucial – the need to hopefully have stability. It’s certainly not my intention to come back unless I absolutely had to with a further report on the structure.”

Mr Floyd denied that the previous decision to merge the heads of children’s and adult’s services had failed.