KENT WATCH - The Disappeared Officers and the cost

What is it with Kent Conservative Council lead by Cllr Paul Carter, and Senior Officers who manage the council day to day. It's not just the latest announcement that Katherine Kerswell has now left the council with an alleged payoff circa half a million, it's those others that have disappeared in recent times, the director of regeneration and transport paid off after a year with £365,000, last year another director "agreed" to take leave and has since left (in that case the details never became public), controversially former Chief Executive Peter Gilroy cost the council around an additional £200,000 (bonus) in his final year.


I guess Cllr Paul Carter and his administration has wasted well over a million pounds with it's handling of senior staff in the last three years.


My view of the last few days, is that Paul Carter's cabinet have not been as open as they could have been which is disgraceful in my opinion the press release issued on the 16th November seems like a master class in mis-information.

We like to think we live in a democracy, and we like to think, general principles like equality, honesty, and transparency exist, and also in a democracy we don't like to see, nor do we expect resources paid for by taxpayers to be used in a political manner.


I'm taking a guess that the new slim line management at KCC in which no "officer" has overall charge of management, has more to do with justifying and side stepping, this latest embarrassing debacle than any concept of management.


I understand a number of Conservative county councillors are annoyed at Paul Carters handling of the latest departure, a feeling shared I would guess by most of us taxpayers. Lets hope Paul Carter's the next to disappear from KCC.


Katherine Kerswell in Three KCC Press Release's confusing and meaningless to me but that's my view.

1 April 2010

Kent County Council today formally agreed the appointment of Katherine Kerswell as the authority’s new Group Managing Director.  The decision was made at today’s full council meeting.

Katherine is currently Chief Executive of Northamptonshire County Council and is the President of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE). She has had a successful and varied career at the cutting edge of local government spanning more than 20 years.

Paul Carter, Leader of KCC and Chairman of the Personnel Committee, said:

“We were all enormously impressed by Katherine’s breadth of vision and energy and her absolute commitment to placing Kent citizens at the heart of the services we deliver. She will be a worthy successor to our outstanding Chief Executive Peter Gilroy who leaves in May.”


16 November 2011
Since joining Kent County Council in May 2010, Katherine Kerswell has been an outstanding Managing Director. In a very tough financial climate and against a background of severe budget cuts, she has done a great deal to relieve the financial burden on Kent council tax payers and has implemented Paul Carter and the Cabinet’s strategy for reshaping the council. Significant savings have been made possible through the continuing restructuring process and the new operational framework presided over by Katherine Kerswell and the Corporate Management team so far.


We would like to make it clear that Katherine Kerswell is and remains the Managing Director of Kent County Council. It is completely untrue to suggest that she has been dismissed or put on garden leave.


Neither the council nor Katherine Kerswell will be making any further public statement.

8 December 2011

Katherine Kerswell has done an exceptional job at Kent reshaping our approach to service delivery and recasting our overall management arrangements.  She is a first-rate public servant with tremendous skills at making large organisations work well.  Her management direction has helped produce very significant savings to the council and confirmed Kent’s position as a leading authority. In just 18 months we have shifted from an approach that was highly departmental to one based on the whole organisation working together for the people of Kent. We now expect our Cabinet and Chief Officers to work more collaboratively together. This way of working has already resulted in improved services to Kent’s residents and lower costs to Kent’s taxpayers.

Now that these arrangements have begun to bed in, Katherine has discussed with the Leader, Paul Carter, the next phase for Kent and for her.  She is very keen to continue working at the leading edge of organisational and service change through investigating new models of service delivery.  Katherine will therefore be leaving the council by the end of the calendar year to pursue these new interests.

KCC now has the chance to review its management and governance arrangements and these will be considered at the County Council meeting on 15 December.  The decision will also enable Katherine to have the chance of taking a further bold step in her distinguished managerial career.