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Gwen Ovshinsky |
Under-fire social services boss retires
ONE of the Town Hall’s top officials has announced her retirement just three months after calls were made for her to resign over the privatisation of Islington’s care homes.
Gwen Ovshinsky, 60, said the decision to give up her £126,000-a-year post as social services and housing director was not connected to the controversy.
While tributes were paid to her eight-year service, there were claims that her department had been too geared towards privatisation.
Ms Ovshinsky said she had been considering her future for 12 months and was now thinking about doing voluntary work in India and Cambodia.
Headhunting firm Saxton Bampfylde Hever has been instructed to help find a replacement. Ms Ovshinsky came under fire when, to cut costs, care home staff saw their wages slashed by more than 50 per cent.
She was accused of being “uncaring” by unions concerned about the fate of 83 care home workers. Calls for her resignation were made when a council report in September revealed up to £1.5 million of Town Hall money due to be paid to council contractor Care UK remained unaccounted for.
“It has absolutely nothing to do with that whatsoever,” Ms Ovshinsky said when asked about her decision to retire. “The most significant thing is that I was 60 in December so you do start thinking about what your plans are.
“I’m looking into a number of options. I’m particularly interested in voluntary work abroad through friends I have in India and Cambodia.”
Her pension package has not been disclosed. “I just have the usual local authority pension but I haven’t served 40 years,” Ms Ovshinsky said. “I don’t know the exact details.”
Ms Ovshinsky, who has worked for local authorities across London for 30 years, added: “I wrote a letter to all my staff at the beginning of December letting them know I was intending to retire. I’ve been talking about this during 2007 to the chief executive and members because clearly a reasonable length of notice is needed.”
Labour councillor Paul Convery said: “It’s a mixed score for Gwen. There have been some significant improvements in some parts of social services but there have also been some worrying events.
“Care UK seems to sum up a sort of bunker mentality within social services. The department has been run in a slightly authoritarian way with a tight group of officials saying we will sort everything out, we will hide a lot under the cloak of commercial confidentiality and we will privatise services.
“There’s an almost doctrinal obsession with outsourcing private services and I think Gwen has been one of the driving forces behind all of that. There seems to be a real determination to get the council out of social services.”
He said there were rumours about fallings out among senior Town Hall officials. “There’s something very odd going on in the highest echelons which I find quite unnerving and Gwen’s departure is symptomatic of that,” Cllr Convery added.
Andrew Berry, deputy branch secretary of Islington Unison, said: “I’m sure the Care UK issue had an influence on her decision.”
Liberal Democrat social services chief Councillor John Gilbert said: “The political initiatives are our initiatives. It’s Gwen’s job to deliver them and she’s done an absolutely fantastic job.
“She came to the borough in 1999 when social services in Islington were a complete basket case. Gwen has played an enormous role in taking us to where we are now, which is literally the best in the country. She’s an absolutely excellent director.”
Ms Ovshinsky is not the only high-ranking official to be leaving. Richard Hill, director of customer focus, is to retire, while Andy Jennings, deputy chief executive, retired in the summer.
Council chief executive Helen Bailey said Ms Ovshinsky and Mr Hill had made “great contributions”. |
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