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Town Hall chief is quitting hot-seat job
ISLINGTON’S chief executive, whose appointment was at the centre of the longest-ever Standards Board inquiry, has revealed plans to quit her job.
Helen Bailey – a one-time Liberal Democrat party organiser – has spent five years in the council’s hot seat and is the latest in the string of senior officials to leave the Town Hall.
She has received a glowing reference from Islington’s Lib Democrat leader Councillor James Kempton, but was yesterday (Thursday) having to bat away claims that there has been a falling out at the top with speculation growing over the reason behind her departure.
“Something very strange is going on in the operational offices of the council,” said one Labour councillor.
Ms Bailey has always remained silent over a three-and-half-year inquiry which saw five Liberal Democrat councillors face investigation over their role in her appointment to the £130,000 job – one of the most coveted in local government. All members were later cleared of wrong-doing and there was no suggestion at any time that Ms Bailey had acted inappropriately at any stage.
In an interview with the Tribune, she said yesterday: “I would like you to write something quite dull really – another dull bureaucrat, one dull bureaucrat comes and another one goes. I don’t want to say a lot because I haven’t talked about it [the inquiry] before. I wasn’t at the centre of it. I wasn’t the subject of the investigation. The only way you cope with something like that is to understand it’s going on somewhere else and that my focus and my day job were in this building and every now and then I had to pay it some attention.”
She added: “It did take a long time and it was really important to demonstrate to people that Islington can be famous for something else and that I could be a chief executive who was leading the council at the same time. I’m not a brooder, not somebody who goes home and worries. I do the best I can and when I go home I try and put the door down and say that’s it. I’m not going to comment on the conduct of the case. It would have been better for everybody if it had been over quicker.”
Ms Bailey is due to leave in the summer and will follow other high-ranked civil servants, including housing chief Gwen Ovshinsky and deputy chief executive Andy Jennings.
She said she has no regrets, adding: “Clearly, if I’d known when I started six years ago some of the things I know now, maybe I would have done things differently. Only little things – the only things that worry me are the people things – how you are with people, how you treat people, how those relationships work out.”
Ms Bailey denied suggestions she was forced out, adding: “It is my decision. I talked to the leader of the council about it and got his consent because I want to do it in a well-managed way, but it is absolutely my decision, my timing and I am not being pushed.”
Lib Dem council leader James Kempton said: “The borough is a very different place now to when Helen arrived here eight years ago. More parents name an Islington school as their first choice; we’re building the first new council homes the borough has seen for a generation; we’ve won national recognition for our pioneering approach to green issues; and the government has just described our care services for adults as ‘excellent’.
“We could have achieved none of this without an enthusiastic, efficient and well-managed workforce, and I am extremely grateful for Helen’s excellent leadership.”
Unison deputy secretary Andrew Berry said: “To lose three officers in less than one month is quite incredible and could be considered a cull. I would be very worried if I was a senior officer in Islington at the moment.”
Labour councillor Paul Convery said: “Something very strange is going on in the operational offices of the council. It’s a very significant departure. Most people agree Helen Bailey is the most political chief executive Islington has ever had.
“She has been in my view a very partisan chief executive - not to take away from her many achievements.
“It leaves a suspicion in my mind that there have been disputes at the top over who’s in charge. I think there’s been a definite clash of personalities.
“Before the election she had a very compliant council, dominated by the Lib Dems, who were very, very compliant. The ones in power now are not necessarily going to be told what to do.” |
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