Easing Highland social work boss’s workload to cost £25,000

UNION leaders have voiced concerns that Highland Council wants to spend £25,000 of tax-payers’ money on easing the workload of one of its most highly-paid council officers so she can continue to represent a national organisation.

The move has sparked anger and led to calls for senior officials to consider standing down from outside bodies at a time when the authority is facing budget cuts.

Harriet Dempster earns £105,450 a year as director of the authority’s social work department, which is currently overspent by £3.4 million.

However, councillors are being asked to set aside a further £25,000 to temporarily promote a member of staff to act as chief operating officer for the department.

The move would allow Ms Dempster more time to attend meetings in her additional role as president of the National Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW) — an organisation whose role is to advise on government policy and help councils improve their service.

Whoever is promoted would be charged with, amongst other things, implementing the social work’s budget recovery plan.

However, Unison branch secretary Shane Manning said yesterday he was concerned at plans to invest money when budgets were already stretched and cuts amounting to £80 million were on the cards.

“Workloads should be prioritised without having to invest further money to allow chief officials to deal with national issues,” he said. “Perhaps it is time to set these aside at this difficult time.”

“We are being told by management that some very difficult choices lie ahead and staff are having to work as efficiently as they can.

“That does impact on members with them taking up more duties so these tough choices should be taken at the very highest level of the council as well.”

Councillor Donnie Kerr is shocked that councillors will be asked to approve this extra expenditure on Thursday.

“We are sending out the wrong message,” he said.

“This will go down like a lead balloon with staff members whose wages have gone down as a result of pay equalisation.”

He thinks Ms Dempster should be concentrating her efforts on problems within the council’s social work department and not outside matters.

But Councillor Margaret Davidson, who chairs the council’s social work committee, defended Ms Dempster’s position, saying in recent months she had been spending as much time as possible addressing the department’s financial issues.

She also insisted the director’s involvement with the ADSW was not to blame for the overspent social work budget.

“There have been problems with the social work budget for some time but they have become more acute this year,” she explained.

Ms Dempster admitted that her involvement with the association could take up between two and 15 hours a week, although stressed some work was done at home and at weekends.

She denied that she took on the role to further her career, insisting she was fully committed to the council.

She added that the decision to appoint an operating officer was not about her ability to the job, although it would give her “enhanced management capacity”.

“If I was not doing my job properly we would not be looking at this report, other things would be happening,” Ms Dempster said. “We now need to manage the situation and take charge of it and try and resolve it.”

Councillor David Alston, the authority’s budget leader said it was the right action to take and the council was trying to deal with its financial matters in a “business-like” fashion.