Sheffield City Council leader Terry Fox issues statement on Kate Josephs
The City Council's Chief Executive admitted breaching Covid-19 lockdown rules on her final day in the Civil Service
Last updated 18th Jan 2022
Today, the leader of Sheffield City Council Terry Fox has made a statement on Chief Executive Kate Josephs.
It's after she issued an apology last week for drinking with colleagues in the Cabinet office to mark her leaving day back in December 2020.
Kate Josephs left her role in the Civil Service on the 18th December 2020, and has now admitted socialising the night before, at a time when indoor mixing was banned.
Mr. Fox has said:
“Because of Kate Josephs’ senior role as Chief Executive, we need to set up a cross-party committee to consider what steps, if any, should be taken next.
I have heard strong and emotional views from across the city. I absolutely understand the reaction after all that Sheffield has been through these last couple of years.
We now need to let the committee carry out this work, and we also continue to await the outcome of the Cabinet Office’s wider report. There is nothing further to add at this time.”
Additional information:
-There is a prescribed statutory procedure when dealing with a role at this level in local government. This is not something that the Leader or Co-Operative Executive can deal with alone. A cross-party committee must be set up.
-Kate is taking a short period of annual leave this week.
-The committee will meet in private and will be made up of a small number of Members, politically proportionate, including at least one who is a member of the Co-Operative Executive.
-We expect the committee to begin work in the coming days. While we cannot yet know how long it will take, we expect it to move at pace. We expect that it will also take in the findings of the Sue Gray report.