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The Health Minister has defended the appointment of the former leader of the service – who left with a £187,000 pay-out around five years ago – to a key advisory role.
Former Chief Officer of Health Julie Garbutt has been appointed as a non-executive director for the Health and Community Services Advisory Board, which was set up to improve standards of care in the wake of a highly critical report that suggested the existence of a 'Jersey Way' within the service that was threatening patient care.
For an annual salary of £13-£14,000, Non-executive Directors of the overseeing board are contracted to work up to 36 days a year, 10 of which will involve attendance at board meetings.
Mrs Garbutt was in charge at Health for just over eight years, leaving her role in July 2018 following a shake-up to the upper echelons of the civil service instigated by former Government CEO, Charlie Parker.
In an email to colleagues in June 2018, Mrs Garbutt said she had decided not to apply for a new Director General role under Mr Parker’s new government structure, opting instead to retire on her 60th birthday and helping to care for her parents in the UK.
Departing, she acknowledged that Health and Social Services are “complex and challenging to deliver safely for a small island community” and that “much remains to be done".
At around the same time, an investigation into a controversial pay review – which saw 36 different health and social care roles regraded, which involved some staff being bumped up as many as two pay grades, at a £746,000 cost to the public purse – was begun. Conducted by external consultants, that investigation said that the senior managers in place at the time had acted with "poor judgment". The pay review was then scrapped.
Pictured: John Richardson, Julie Garbutt and John Rogers (left to right) were all given severance payments as per their contract when they left their posts.
Government accounts published in 2019 showed that Mrs Garbutt received a “contractual entitlement” of £93,820 following her departure, plus a further payment for the same amount in lieu of notice. The 2018 accounts showed she had amassed a pension pot of over £2.1 million.
Since leaving her role at the Health Department, Mrs Garbutt has served as chief executive of Methodist Homes for the Aged and as a non-executive director of Citizens Advice Jersey. In total she has amassed 38 years’ experience in the health sector.
Announcing Mrs Garbutt's appointment yesterday, Health Minister Karen Wilson welcomed the “experience and expertise” that she said the new recruit brought.
This morning, however, Deputy Wilson was challenged over the role.
At a hearing of the Health and Social Security Scrutiny Panel, the Health Minister was asked whether she considered the new appointee to be a suitably "independent person".
Pictured: Health Minister, Deputy Karen Wilson praised Mrs Garbutt's "experience and expertise" yesterday.
Deputy Wilson responded that she was satisfied this was the case, and that she considered the process had been considered appropriately by the Appointments Commission – an independent body tasked with overseeing the appointment of high-level public roles.
Deputy Wilson explained this morning that the commission made recommendations, after which she made the decision about appointing a member to the board.
She also said that she hoped there would soon be a decision about a new Chair of the board.
It's not the first time one of the Health board appointees has been challenged.
Professor Hugo Mascie-Taylor – whose own £85,000 'Jersey Way' report led to the creation of the board – was appointed as Chair on a contract that is due to expire at the end of this month.
Express learned that he was also a former mentor of Medical Director Patrick Armstrong.
However, when grilled on the appointment, Chief Minister Kristina Moore denied that there was any "conflict of interest".
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