Cllr Stephen Reed

For those who have questions about the CEO position at Derbyshire County Council. Here are the Key points

Setting the record straight on Derbyshire’s new Council CEO

There’s been some confusion recently, fuelled by claims in the local press from Conservative figures, about the recruitment of Derbyshire County Council’s new Chief Executive. We want to clear things up and reassure residents that our commitment to delivering efficiencies for Derbyshire remains absolute.

Emma Alexander, our outgoing CEO, resigned in July to take up a new role at Tameside. Appointing her replacement should have been a straightforward process – unfortunately, it has been misrepresented and spun into something it’s not.
Here are the facts:

🔹 Pay scale rules for civil servants are governed by national pay structures first introduced under Tony Blair’s “New Labour” and carried on by successive governments. These had ample opportunity to reform or review these frameworks – they didn’t. We are operating entirely within the system they left behind. Only a future Reform UK government can truly fix this.

🔹 Derbyshire is one of the lowest-paid large county councils. After years of stalled pay reviews under Conservative leadership, Derbyshire has fallen behind – not only at senior levels, but across frontline roles too.

🔹 We face an additional recruitment challenge: with Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) coming in 2028, this Chief Executive role will only exist for a limited term.

🔹 We need the right CEO for change. Over the next two years, Derbyshire needs strong leadership to deliver real savings, reform services and put residents first. To attract the calibre of candidate required – while staying within national rules – we have included a performance-related bonus of £20,000. This will only be paid if the new CEO delivers the transformational results we need.

This is not a reckless pay rise. The base salary is already nationally set at a minimum of £181,000. The potential bonus is a prudent investment – one that will only be earned through proven efficiencies and improvements for Derbyshire.

Our priority is simple: appoint the best person to deliver better value, better leadership and better services for the people of Derbyshire.

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I am holding Surgeries every week up until Christmas. I'm looking forward to meeting as many people as possible.

Proud of our skate park and everyone who worked so hard to deliver this!

Well done!!

Killamarsh Active | Skate Park North East Derbyshire District Council has secured almost £100,000 of funding to improve the skate park in Killamarsh which will form part of the wider trans...