Four senior Suffolk County Council officers being paid six-figure salaries have seen their pay rise significantly over the last year – while other staff have had their earnings pegged by the government’s 1% pay cap.
In some cases, like outgoing chief executive Deborah Cadman, the salary went up after several years of being capped at its former level. Others earned more because they were taking on extra responsibilities after the departure of colleagues.
The figures are revealed in Suffolk County Council’s accounts for 2016/17, and have come into to the public domain just days after cabinet members received large increases in their allowances while other councillors saw their allowances linked to staff salary rises – currently pegged at 1%.
The accounts show that Ms Cadman saw her salary increase from £155,000 to almost £171,000 between 2016 and 2017.
Director of Children and Young People’s services Sue Cook got a salary rise from £120,000 to £146,000, service director Allan Cadzow’s salary went up from nearly £102,000 to just over £117,000, and Corporate Director for Resource Management Geoff Dobson got an increase from £100,000 to £116,000. He has recently retired from the authority.
Chief Fire Officer Mark Hardingham and Monitoring Officer Tim Ryder both saw more modest increases – both were near the 1% pay cap.
Mr Hardingham’s salary went up from £119,000 to £120,000 plus expenses while Mr Ryder’s salary increased from about £87,000 to £88,000. A new Director of Public Health took office during the year with Abdul Razzaq taking over from Tessa Lindfield.
The total cost of directors – including the cost of pension contributions – went down from £1,144,860 in the year ending April 2016 to £1,054,562 last year.
During that time directors Anna McCreadie and Lucy Robinson left the county council. That represents an 8% saving for the authority.
A county council spokesman said: “During the last financial year, there were some considerable changes to senior level roles following directors leaving the council.
“In response, we merged some services, either on a permanent or temporary basis. This meant a reduction in the number of senior officer roles, and therefore an overall saving on salaries.
“These changes gave those directors affected significant additional responsibilities, meaning they received temporary acting up payments during this period.”
Ms McCreadie left in 2016 and Ms Cook took over responsibility for adult services as well as children’s services. To compensate her for these extra duties she was given an “honorarium” of £25,000 a year while filling the double role.
She remained in that position until July 1 this year when Michael Hennessey arrived at the council as adult services’ director.
Although she has now reverted to being director of children and young people, she will be temporary chief executive for the authority for at least six months after Ms Cadman departs in September.
Allan Cadzow was appointed service director for children and young people at the same time on a temporary basis and we was given an honorarium of £15,000 a year to recognise his extra responsibilities.
Mr Dobson received an honorarium of £20,000 a year when the Economy, Skills, and Environment directorate was merged with the Resource Management directorate after the departure of Ms Robinson and he became responsible for both – but he retired from the authority in May and a full-time replacement has still to be appointed.
The accounts show that the number of county council employees earning more than £50,000 a year fell from 193 to 190 over the year – not including the directors named in the accounts.
During the year 294 council employees were made redundant or left voluntarily, one more than the previous year. But the cost of redundancy packages fell from £3.9m to £2.7m.
The accounts are due to be discussed by the council’s audit committee later this week. While auditors Ernst and Young have agreed them, they are concerned that the council might not be able to meet its ambitious savings targets in future years.
The spokesman said: “We’ve publicly identified that savings of £56m are needed by 2021. Whilst this will be a significant challenge, we are actively developing plans to ensure that we can make the required savings.”
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