Children’s services head is paid £350,000

Stoke-on-Trent City Council paid the former director of children’s services Dr Sharon Menghini just short of £350,000 in 2011/12, it has been revealed.

Menghini left the council in April and her role was then merged with adult social care services. The figure she received over a 12-month period comes from adding the £174,000 ‘golden goodbye’ she got to her £151,515 salary and expenses of £22,953.

However, Menghini – who now runs the Sharon Menghini Education & Children Services Consultancy – was responsible for implementing cuts in children’s services totalling £14.6m. The cuts were said to be justified by the council because every bit of money possible had to be saved – this policy saw parents having to pay for previously free baby sessions and teachers losing their jobs – but this pay-out has had fellow councillors fuming.

The chairman of the children’s services scrutiny committee, Dave Conway, said: “Along with the protesters, we fought tooth and nail to reduce the cuts to children’s centres. We were told every penny had to be saved. Now we find she has walked away with this astronomical amount. It is the sort of money that most people can only dream of.”

Claiming to be “passionate about children and education”, Menghini says she is good at improving local authority performance of children’s services, including “service redesign/implementing budget cuts”. Menghini also claims to have “over 30 years experience sand proven track record [sic]”.