Liverpool City Council is advertising seven new top director positions with annual salaries totalling nearly £900,000.
The council is still recovering from a devastating government inspection report in 2021 that saw a team of Whitehall commissioners appointed to oversee key departments. That government intervention was expanded further last year to include financial and governance powers.
The council has struggled to fill permanent senior officer positions in recent years. In November the ECHO revealed the cash-strapped local authority was forking out nearly £100,000 extra per year on interim positions in the senior leadership team than it would have been with permanent roles.
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One of those interim roles is held by current chief executive Theresa Grant, who replaced Tony Reeves as he dramatically quit last summer. Ms Grant is now leading a major restructure of the council's senior leadership team, including the creation of several new top roles.
In a statement, Ms Grant said: "The council is committed to delivering a fundamental improvement and transformation programme on behalf of our residents. To achieve this, we are looking for people who have a strong track record in delivery, improvement and transformation.
"This is a city that requires leaders with vision, passion and dedication – candidates must be able to demonstrate how they inspire and deliver transformation. Our Mayor has reflected that ‘for too long we have been an organisation that has imposed decisions on communities and have done things in a way that is not acceptable. This has to change.’"
Currently the council is advertising for seven new director positions, which all have annual salaries of nearly £100,000 or more. The highest paid of these is a new position of corporate director for neighbourhoods and housing, which offers a salary of between £134,215 and £157,900.
The council says it is looking for an "outstanding, experienced and dynamic director who will take overall responsibility for the transformation and strategic delivery of the Council’s exciting future neighbourhood delivery model." It adds that this is a "key leadership role in the regeneration of the city and part of the leadership team."
Also advertised are roles for a director of adults social care and health opportunities and director of children's social care - both of which offer salaries ranging between £106,675 and £125,000 and come after news that current Childrens services boss Steve Reddy is leaving the council. The council says both roles will lead on its mission to "improve the lives of the Liverpool City residents, providing the best possible value balanced with providing opportunity and improving life chances."
The council is also looking for a director of economic strategy, skills and sustainability and a permanent director of highways and transport, with successful candidates in each post paid between £96,050 and £131,000. The same salary range will be offered for a newly created role of director of housing, who will play a "critical role in establishing a responsive, effective and stable housing market across Liverpool." That same salary officer will be provided for whoever is appointed as the council's new deputy director for city law and governance.
The council is hoping the new roles and positions, which form part of the strategic improvement plan, will provide some stability and end the cycle of interim appointments - but the volume of large salaries will undoubtedly raise eyebrows at a time when £73m of cuts are being made including plans to cut back on services that support some of the most vulnerable people in the city.
In a blog explaining the restructure at the top of the council, Ms Grant said: "This is not just a shuffling of positions or giving people new job titles. It will stabilise the organisation by ending the recent cycle of interim appointments. Crucially, it will give us more capacity and capability so we can achieve better outcomes, drive improvements at pace and better serve our residents.
"There will be several brand new positions to address some of the fundamental issues affecting the quality of life for our residents, and enable us to deliver services in a smarter and more efficient way."
"It is no exaggeration to say that we are reviewing absolutely everything we do – and how we do it – this has led to the introduction of a new set of leadership behaviours and will mean that every person in the organisation will either be in a different role, or working in a very different way, in the next couple of years. After consultation has been completed, we hope to have everything in place by the end of February."
Lib Dem and opposition leader Cllr Richard Kemp said: "Bringing in large numbers of staff at a senior level has both advantages and disadvantages. They should bring in new ideas from their experience working in other authorities. On the other hand they don’t have the history of Liverpool, its people and its opportunities in their brain. Such hard and soft knowledge takes years to gain and understanding of.
"As we go through the recruitment process I will continue to question whether we are introducing higher rates without any proof of whether or not they are needed. Council staff across the Board only received a 5% increase this year. We should not be loading up higher salaries for second and third other directors if we cannot afford increases for care workers who are also facing financial difficulties and where we are also finding difficulties with recruitment."
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