Falkirk Council: New education boss will get £125k salary

The local authority will also hire a new head of education earning £99,000 a year as part of a shake-up in the service.

Members of Falkirk Council agreed at a recent meeting that the new role of director of education will replace the former director of children’s services, Robert Naylor, who retired last month.

It means that children’s social work services will eventually be transferred to Falkirk Health & Social Care Partnership, while the new role will concentrate solely on education.

As agreed at a previous meeting, there will now be two heads of education as a current job planning educational resources will be replaced by a manager more directly responsible for the service.

The council leader, Councillor Cecil Meiklejohn, said it was a “good opportunity to start to reshape and transform our education services”.

She said splitting the head of education’s role into two posts will allow “transformational work to enable us to take it to the next level”.

“We recognise all the work that has been done previously, but it’s about striving to continue to get the best for our young people,” she said.

Chief executive Kenneth Lawrie explained that the new director would have overall strategic leadership of the service and the wider issues that are facing the council.

Children’s services is by far the biggest department in the council, with a budget of nearly £250 million – 58 per cent of the council’s net budget. And it is expected to take a share of cuts that will need to be made for the council to balance its books over the next five years.

At a previous council meeting, when splitting the role was agreed, Mr Lawrie told councillors: “Given the scale of the service, given the priorities that we are aware of and given the importance of that service for our communities, the scale of change required, and indeed the scale of savings that will be required, we need to think what the best way of structuring the service is.”

The new head of education will not be recruited until the new director is in post, so they can have some influence on the appointment.

The new director will be responsible for social work children’s services until arrangements have been agreed for the move to the Health & Social Care Partnership.

At Wednesday’s meeting, councillors also paid tribute to the retiring head of planning and resources, Gary Greenhorn, who was attending his final meeting after 20 years with Falkirk Council.

Provost Robert Bissett said Mr Greenhorn had been a “wonderful officer”, whose “passion for education is something we should all aspire to”.

Mr Greenhorn led several major projects including, most recently, the massive expansion of early years education and new-builds including Carrongrange and St Bernadette’s.

Council leader Cecil Meiklejohn said he was “leaving a legacy into his retirement” and wished him well.