THE SNP group in Edinburgh have hit out at the “indefensible” contract the council is set to award to an interim adult social care director.
On Thursday, councillors from the Labour, Tory, and LibDem groups voted to appoint someone to a role “which will be for up to six months duration at a cost of circa £161,356”. The job is expected to require three to four days of work per week.
The SNP group said that calculates to a full-time equivalent pay of £403,000 per year, which they said was likely to be one of the most expensive public sector appointments in Scotland’s history.
READ MORE: 'Insulting': Anger at 'pathetic' Gaelic mistakes in Highland street signs
"I can’t look my constituents in the eye and tell them that this appointment is a good use of public money,” SNP social care spokesperson Vicky Nicolson said.
The interim director of adult social care will “primarily focus on the delivery and leadership of the adult social care portfolio of the Health and Social Care Partnership and drive forward the Improvement Plan”, according to City of Edinburgh Council chief executive Andrew Kerr.
The appointee will report directly to Kerr.
Nicolson said: "This is indefensible. When money is desperately needed to fix the problems in health and social care in Edinburgh, residents and staff will rightly condemn this scale of pay when Edinburgh is failing to provide care and clawing back millions in self-directed support payments.
"Edinburgh’s services need proper reform and health services and social care services need to be properly integrated or the city will remain in crisis.
“Savings proposals are coming forward to date and I lack confidence that the current approach provides any real change. Throwing obscene amounts of money at one role, I feel, will undermine relations with staff, undermine progress and undermine the integration work needed to move people from receiving crisis care to early intervention care.
“Preventing people needing costly crisis interventions is the only way we will get the significant service improvement required and bring the budget back under control.”
Edinburgh council is run by a minority Labour administration, propped up with votes from Tory and LibDem councillors.
In February, Labour council boss Cammy Day clung on to his role despite a humiliating budget defeat which saw him forced to back opposition proposals instead of his own.
Edinburgh Council has been approached for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel