RESPONSIBILITY for some of City 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 between the council’s two biggest parties.

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 lain 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 calibre candidates with experience of both adult and children’s services.

It means the council will have to spend an extra £39,000 on its top team 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 council’s senior management have been ongoing since former chief executive Mary Weastell’s early retirement in February 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 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”. He added: “It also helps to explain why the council is often failing to fill highly paid vacancies; there is no stability and no confidence in the way ruling councillors are running the organisation. The Lib Dem-Green administration has changed its senior structure every year for three years, creating a convincing impression that it has no idea what it is doing.” 

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 in the city”.

He added: “Rather than recognise the real context of the pressures facing social care services across the country and engage constructively on these challenges, the Labour group are once again failing to look beyond political point scoring.

“Unlike York Labour, we are determined to do everything necessary to ensure that adult and children’s social care services have the capacity, investment and leadership that they need.”

Councillor Ian Cuthbertson, executive member for children, young people and education, said: “These new posts will enable greater investment in front-line social work and in greater visibility for the needs of children’s and adult social care at a time when demands on social care are simply not being met by the government”.

Councillor Carol Runciman, executive member for health and adult social care, said: “The proposed restructure will help to ensure that those who most need the council’s help and support are able to access the services they need.”

The proposal will be considered by councillors at a meeting on February 1.