Health Director hands commuting ex-colleague £45k contract…for 12 weeks' work

Monday 10 June 2019

Jersey’s new Director General of Health has handed her former colleague of almost a decade a 12-week consultancy contract worth £45,000 – plus accommodation and flights, allowing her to commute to the UK every fortnight.

Caroline Landon, who was involved in recruitment for the £750-a-day role, worked with Senior Nurse Charlotte Hall at various NHS hospitals in the UK.

Ms Landon, who was appointed in December, and Ms Hall worked together over a nine-year period between 2008 and 2017 – firstly at Oxford University Hospitals, and then at the Epsom and St. Helier NHS Trust.

Pictured: Ms Landon and Ms Hall worked together over a nine year period between 2008 and 2017.

Questioned by Express over the pair’s previous working relationship, a government spokesperson said that the Director General declared that she knew Ms Hall during the process.

They also emphasised that this recruitment was no different to any other, as Ms Landon’s status as Director General means she has oversight of all appointments. 

Clarifying the details of Ms Hall’s interim contract, the spokesperson explained that the role is paid at £750 daily, with the former NHS Chief Nurse working in Jersey two weeks per month. This means that her six-month contract in Jersey should total £45,000. 

The Health Department is also paying for her accommodation in the island and her return flights to the UK.

Pictured: The six month contract will earn Ms Hall £45,000 for twelve weeks' work. 

While the spokesperson said this is “in line with the normal travel and accommodation policy for contract and interim workers”, when pressed, they later added that they did not know how much this would cost taxpayers. 

“The full cost will not be known until the contract has ended. But the flights and accommodation, in line with Government policy, will be at the lowest price available at the time,” they told Express. 

Having joined in May, Ms Hall is now said to be “working with Health and Community Services to strengthen [its] arrangements around risk and governance” in response to recommendations by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

“She is also supporting the Chief Nurse [Rose Naylor] with her portfolio of work while the Department implements the new organisational structure for Health and Community Services,” the spokesperson added.

Pictured: The Chief Minister defended the use of expensive consultants to the hilt in the latest States Assembly. 

The news comes after the Chief Minister defended the use of highly-paid government consultants last week.

In response to questioning from Deputy Mary Le Hegarat during the last States Assembly meeting over the number of consultants employed on temporary contracts or from outside Jersey, Senator Le Fondré confirmed that there were as many as 509 individuals are employed in the Government in such roles.

Of these, he said 414 are on fixed-term contracts, 78 are agency staff, and 17 are interims.

Speaking in his role as Chairman of the States Employment Board, the Chief Minister later stated: “Yes, there’s been some great headlines about what individuals are earning. If an individual is earning £150,000 as a result of consultancy fees, say, but they deliver savings of half a million or a million pounds a year – they’ve paid for themselves. That’s what we’re doing. And then when they have done their job, they go.”