Councillors at Wokingham Borough Council have voted to approve a £191,000 a year package to fill a top management job.
The council is seeking to recruit a permanent Director of Children’s Services with a salary of £136,000 a year. That’s nearly £4,600 more than the current salary of £131,402 listed on the council’s website.
The rest of the approved amount will be spent on costs such as pension and national insurance contributions. An additional £7,219 will also be spent to advertise for the role.
It comes as the council seeks savings elsewhere in its Children’s Services department, including home to school transport.
Despite the salary increase, Liberal Democrat council leader Stephen Conway said he spending wouldn’t cost the council any extra as the job already exists. He also accused the media of trying to “sensationalise” the costs.
He said: “In reality this isn’t going to cost us any more than we’re paying already, so I don’t see any reason anyone could conceivably object to this.” He also said the job was a statutory post – meaning the council is required by law to employ one.
Cllr Conway said: “It is absolutely imperative that we have a permanent director in place because this role is overseeing a really important part of the council’s services.”
He added: “Children’s services represented “23 per cent of our revenue spend, and I think it’s vital that we have stability and we have really strong management in that area to control what have been very, very sharply rising costs.”
Conservative opposition leader Pauline Jorgensen agreed with the spending on the role, but questioned whether so much needed to be spent on job adverts – especially on advertising in the Municipal Journal, a magazine for council chief executives.
The planned spending includes £5,950 for advertising in the magazine, plus £970 in The Guardian newspaper’s jobs website and £299 on other job boards.
Councillor Jorgensen said: “The amount of money being spent on advertising, especially in Municipal Journal, which was more than £1,000, would empty a lot of litter bins.
“I’m hoping we won’t see much more of that sort of spend on that sort of advert because we should find a better way of doing it that’s more cost-effective.”
But Cllr Conway said it was important to advertise in specialist publications to ensure that the best candidates apply for the job.
He said: “It is important to say there are, if you like, house journals for different professions where you would expect to see roles advertised. I can understand the logic of that position.”
Councillors voted to approve the spending at a meeting of the council’s personnel board on Monday, August 14.
