THE man overseeing struggling Somerset Council’s finances has requested voluntary redundancy – at a cost of more than £500,000.
Jason Vaughan is executive director resources and corporate services at the authority, which is cutting jobs in a bid to address a £100 million funding blackhole.
His request for voluntary redundancy is among more than 200 received during the first phase of the council’s bid to axe roles – asking for volunteers.
A Full Council meeting in Bridgwater on May 22 will see councillors asked to approve redundancy settlements for a total of 49 of those roles, which require payouts of more than £100,000.
Mr Vaughan’s settlement is the most expensive of those, totalling £522,942.69, according to the report to be considered by councillors. The total includes pension costs of more than £447,000.
It comes after Mr Vaughan, during a budget-setting meeting in February, reported how there was a “high likelihood” the council would need to issue a Section 114 notice – effectively declaring itself bankrupt – ahead of the 2025/26 financial year.
The report going before councillors on May 22 said if Mr Vaughan’s redundancy is confirmed, he could still lead the process leading up to the setting of the 2025/26 budget, leaving post in February next year.
Other roles to be considered for redundancy at the May 22 meeting include the executive director public health Trudi Grant – who is part-funded by the NHS – as well as the roles of corporate relations manager, procurement manager and strategic manager – head of vulnerable learners.
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A total of 201 applications for voluntary redundancy were received by the council in the first stage of the cutbacks, which the authority says would achieve a reduction of more than £9.4m in salaries each year.
The cost of all redundancies would total more than £12.8m, meaning they “will be paid back in less than two years”, the report added.
It would be paid for from a £40m fund the council requested from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) “for the planned reduction in workforce”.
They shouldn’t get a penny, you don’t reward failure!
What is the point of shovelling money at the current Finance Chief? You can make him redundant, but you cannot make his post redundant, so there will be no long term saving.
Ditto the director of Public Health. It’s a statutory requirement to have a finance chief and a director of public health, so where is the saving.
It is this kind of financial illiteracy that has caused the Lib Dems to run through £100 million of reserves and bankrupt the Council in two years. And from this, they are only getting started.
And what’s the betting that Jason Vaughn has an equally well paid job lined up for when he takes his (hopefully legal minimum, not enhanced) redundancy payment?
This is the sort of merry-go-round that happened at SSDC with their “transformation” project.
If the post has to be filled by someone, how can they be made redundant?
The whole thing stinks!
Very odd