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Top Highland Council bosses pay to tally more than £2.1 million annually with one chief executive, three assistant chief executive and 14 chief officers





Highland Council HQ: Top Highland Council bosses pay to tally more than £2.1 million annually. Picture: James Mackenzie.
Highland Council HQ: Top Highland Council bosses pay to tally more than £2.1 million annually. Picture: James Mackenzie.

Highland Council’s senior management team wage bill is more than £2.1 million with one chief executive, three assistant chief executive and 14 chief officers – once all positions are filled.

The current structure has a chief executive officer (paid £184,000); three assistant chief executives (paid £129,279 each) and 14 chief officer positions (paid at £109,285 each) bringing the total wage bill to £2,101,827.

And there are three more roles to be filled as no one has yet been appointed to be the chief officers in primary and early years; planning and economic development; and operations and maintenance.

What that replaces is the structure under former chief executive Donna Manson with a series of executive chief officers (ECO) leading each service (like education) reporting directly to her.

The new system sees chief officers focussed on particular roles so for example there is one chief officer for secondary education while there is another for primary and early years.

That allows for more oversight because there are more eyes on any given department because if the chief officer of secondary education reports an issue then it goes first to the assistant chief executive of people, then the chief executive.

It can do that because the overall structure of the council has been taken departments, usually related or overlapping somehow, and placed them into so-called service clusters:

People - combines Health & Social Care and Education & Learning

Place - combines Community & Place, Housing & Property and Infrastructure, Environment & Economy

Corporate - combines the existing Depute Chief Executive Service, Performance & Governance, and Resources & Finance

Highland Council senior management structure. Courtesy: Highland Council.
Highland Council senior management structure. Courtesy: Highland Council.

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