Margaret Doran, the former director of children and families for Glasgow City Council and who stepped down unexpectedly from her post, was given a combined redundancy package of £278,000.
A local authority spokeswoman said Ms Doran was given a redundancy payment of £64,000 as well as £29,000 in lieu of notice and a lump sum of £185,000 from the pension fund.
It is thought Ms Doran, whose salary was £120,000, left the council after relations with other senior council executives soured, partly as a result of a restructuring of departments at the end of last year. She was originally appointed in 2007 as executive director of a combined department of education and social work services with an £80m budget. The council's vision was to transform the fortunes of children from some of the UK's most deprived communities by bringing together the two services.
However, in December the council's executive committee decided to break up the new department after concerns it was too large and unwieldy - leaving Ms Doran effectively in charge only of education, which already had its own director.
It is understood Ms Doran, who is married to Michael Connarty, Labour MP for Linlithgow and Falkirk East, was concerned about the decision while, at the same time, others questioned whether her role was still a necessity.
The fact that Ms Doran is married to an MP I'm sure has nothing to do with her acquiring the post in 2007.
If you ever fancy a job with Glasgow Council make sure it holds a decent salary and then, after a couple of years, you too can negotiate handsome redundancy and early retirement terms. As a Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: "It is standard practice to compensate people for redundancy and early retirement."
Source: Herald
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