Meet the council’s £100,000 Mr Fixit
Award-winning boss of social services
Published:
CRISIS-HIT Aberdeen council chiefs will spend £100,000 to hire a troubleshooter for six months.
Scottish Government ministers have ordered the local authority, which has to make £27 million of budget cuts this year, to recruit Philip Cotterill.
Mr Cotterill, who ran Kirklees Council’s award-winning social services department for 12 years and has been made a OBE for his contribution to the industry, will have line-manager responsibility for social work and health and care services and work a four-day week.
Aberdeen city councillors were to discuss the Yorkshire-based consultant’s appointment at an urgent business committee meeting today.
The council, which overspent its budget by £50 million in five years, is proposing to spend £3,000 to fly Mr Cotterill from Birmingham to work in Aberdeen for three days a week.
It will cost £800 to have Mr Cotterill, a member of the National Executive Council of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, work from his home for the other day.
As part of the £100,000 package, which will be drawn from the contingency fund, the council will cover Mr Cotterill’s travel costs, a return flight per week and his accommodation.
Opposition Labour housing spokesman Barney Crockett said: “This is a measure of the state the city is in and the administration is over a barrel. It is a desperate position and I suspect they are under very strong pressure from ministers in the wake of the damning social work report.
“We cautiously welcome the proposed appointment of an experienced professional to take emergency control of the whole of the city's social work and care provision.
“The survival of our city depends on this decision and some others yet to come.”
Officials have told councillors the fee is a “competitive rate” for a man of his expertise.
A source said: “This chap is the best of the best and if he is appointed we will be getting our money’s worth.”
Readers' Comments
More fantastic work from the clowns at the council! Pay £100k to fix the countless errors that they've made with one hand & decimate the wages, terms & conditions of their workforce with the other. I suggest a new banner for Union Street, "Welcome to Aberdeen, please don't laugh".
Billy Buchan
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Fantastic!!yet another superb decision from our council,but what else can you expect from councillors who live in the past with outdated ideas,until we have councillors from a younger generation with more modern views and policies,nothing will change,what,s Mr Cotterill going to bring back? trams,horse and cart
bruce love
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