Cash-crisis council splashes out

A county council department responsible for the planned closure of old people's homes and day centres in Staffordshire is set to splash out almost £100,000 on spin doctors to minimise damage.

Staffordshire County Council is advertising for both internal and external communications officers who can expect to pick up to £26,928 each per annum.

It is also on the look-out for someone to fill a head of communications and complaints role – they will pocket £40,803 a year.

The cash-strapped social care and heath directorate has battled against overspends and in December was told it needed to make 14 redundancies.

A report at the end of 2006 said "very significant investment" is needed and showed the budget shortfall this year is set to be £14 million.

The authority has also made a 'financial and political' decision to close 22 care homes and 10 day centres – claiming it can no longer afford to run them.

Councillor Philip Atkins, leader of the Conservative group at the authority, said: "This comes at a time when there is supposed to be a moratorium on staff recruitment. The number of staff employed by the authority has risen by almost 32 per cent since 2000 and it has been acknowledged by the authority that the size of the workforce needs to be reduced if the council is to meet the costs of single status."

"There has been an issue about communicating changes in the department – but do we need three extra members of staff? Why can't existing workers do this?"

The ads appear on the The Guardian website, and are looking for people to communicate information to the public and staff – 'demanding audiences who have been critical of our communications to date.'

Council spokesman Steven Jenkins said the changes will save money.

He said: "We have restructured the communications team for the social care and health directorate and this is not a new unit but does work out cheaper.

"We deal with around 32,000 members of staff and over 810,000 members of the public so communication work varies hugely from the frontline press office to officers who work behind the scenes producing marketing materials or support for our 400 schools."