Finding top personnel for council will be an interesting process - John McLellan

City of Edinburgh Council chief executive Andrew Kerr

Finding top personnel to fill City of Edinburgh Council’s senior vacancies is going to be an interesting process after the resignation of interim adult social care chief Alan Adams after only a week.

Mr Adams was offered a six-month contract after a successful interview with representatives of the five political parties, only for the Greens and SNP to give backword and oppose the appointment at the last full council meeting.

Seeing he did not have the full support of all parties, as he was led to believe was the case, he handed in his notice, citing “a number of both professional and personal reasons” according to chief executive Andrew Kerr.

Part of his remit was to “facilitate the appropriate leadership” for social work, and to work out how the council would respond to the dreadful report from the Care Inspectorate which led to the resignation of Integration Joint Board (IJB) chief executive Judith Proctor who had responsibility for coordinating care services across the whole of the Lothian area.

And sure enough, Ms Proctor’s job is being advertised this week, so who knows what kind of responses it will receive under these circumstances.

But when interviews take place in August, it might be an idea to keep those councillors who skewered Mr Adams well away from the process.

Otherwise, if applicants for top jobs must go through any kind of process involving councillors, like, for example, a new chief executive, the candidates will be entitled to wonder if they can believe a word of what they are being told.