But town hall leaders have said that no one will start in the new consultant assistant director for children’s services role until it is formally approved by a vote at Bolton Council.
This comes after a previous attempt to create the role was withdrawn after councillors complained they had been “kept in the dark” about it.
At a meeting of the council’s chief officers’ appointments panel, Conservative group leader Cllr Nadim Muslim asked about rumours that a candidate had already been found before the vote.
Cllr Muslim said: “I know there were some posts circulating on social media that an appointment had already been made, let’s say.
“There were email addresses already created for the person likely to fill the position and things like that.”
Conservative group leader Cllr Nadim Muslim raised questions about the role (Image: Phil Taylor)
Cllr Muslim asked for confirmation that no one was going to start in the role until it was confirmed by full council.
In response, chief executive Sue Johnson said that someone was identified who the council felt had the skills needed and was an “excellent fit for Bolton”.
She said as part of a “twin tracking” process the council had started some processes such as setting up an email address “in the background”.
Ms Johnson said: “If we get approval at full council and if an individual is appointed to that established post we want the individual to be able to start as soon as possible.
“We don’t want to have to wait for the IT process, etc so whilst there may have been admin work in the background the individual definitely has not started, will not be appointed in any way until there is a post that has been approved by full council at which point we will follow the process back to chief officers panel.”
The consultant assistant director – transformation and workforce development role is expected to cost £151,000 a year, with a fixed term contract expected to run for two years.
The job role will involve helping to drive the transformation of Bolton’s children’s services over the next two years in line with the government’s Family First Partnership Programme.
This will involve the transformation of social care and early help, reform of the special education needs and disability system and building on the family hubs network.
It will also involve work to prevent offending across the youth justice network and working on the Kinship Zone.
The Kinship Zone refers to a Bolton pilot on supporting children to stay with their families rather than coming into the care of the local authority.
The vote to create the post is expected to be taken at a full council meeting on Wednesday July 22.
