Hertfordshire County Council pays ‘exit package’ in excess of £200k to former employee
A former member of staff left Hertfordshire County Council with an ‘exit package’ in excess of £200k, according to newly published accounts.
The council officer – who left the organisation in the 2023/24 financial year – was not made compulsorily redundant, but had their departure ‘agreed’ with their line manager.
And according to the council’s 2023/24 statement of accounts, they received an ‘exit package’ of £203,216.
The council has “no specified upper limit for exit payments”, which are made on a “case by case basis”.
And the payment of £203k in 2023/24 is the largest exit payment made by the council since a major downsizing programme undertaken in 2011 and 2012.
Overall, according to information in the statement of accounts, the contracts of 130 employees were terminated in 2023/24 – with ‘exit packages’ totalling £1,544,233.
According to a spokesperson for the county council, the £203k exit payment was “necessary in the circumstances” – and was approved by a cross-party group of councillors.
And, they say, exit payments are only made where there is a “robust business case” showing that there will be a net financial saving to the council.
“While we can’t discuss the details of individual exit packages, we aim to strike a balance that ensures we support staff who are leaving our employment while providing good value for taxpayers,” said a spokesperson for the council.
“Some of the payments in 2023/24 relate to the early stages of our organisational resourcing programme, and the associated management restructures.
“We are confident that the short-term costs of exit payments made as part of this programme will leave us in a better financial position in the medium term, and help us deliver services more efficiently.”
Overall, according to information contained in the council’s statement of accounts, of the 130 contracts terminated in 2023/24, 53 employees were made compulsorily redundant and 77 had their departure agreed with their ‘line management’.
Overall ‘exit packages’ were agreed incurred costs to the council in excess of £1.5m.
They included a package costing £145, 343 to a member of staff who agreed their departure – and £87,605 to a staff member who was made compulsorily redundant.
But the majority of exit packages – which are reported within the accounts in cost bands – were significantly smaller.
Forty-nine members of those staff who were made compulsorily redundant and 64 whose departures were agreed received an ‘exit package’ in the band between £0 and £20,000.
Those 113 ‘exit packages’ totalled £655,184, according to the accounts – making an average payment of £5,798.
A further 11 members of staff – of whom two were made compulsorily redundant and nine agreed their departure – received ‘exit packages’ in the £20k to £40k cost band.
Their packages totalled £295,029 – making an average payment of £26,820.
Meanwhile a further two members of staff received exit packages in the cost band between £40,000 and £60,000, totalling £91,369 – making an average payout of £45,684.
And a further member of staff who had their departure agreed qualified for an exit package of £66,477.
The information was contained in the 23/24 accounts that were presented to the latest meeting of the county council’s audit committee.
According to the data the cost to the county council in ‘exit packages‘ in 2023/24 was £1,544,233.
That compares to £862,578 in 2022/23, when there were 33 compulsory redundancies and 54 agreed departures.
An ‘exit package’ includes additional costs of ‘early termination’.
But it does not include any amounts paid to employees under the standard terms of their pension schemes.