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Highland Council announced series of major promotions to the newly created role of chief officer covering areas like education, care, housing, property and health and social care





Highland Council headquarters on Glenurquhart Road. Picture: Gary Anthony.
Highland Council headquarters on Glenurquhart Road. Picture: Gary Anthony.

Highland Council has chosen to promote from within as it makes five appointments to the newly created role of chief officer in education, care, housing, property and health and social care.

The move follows a period of uncertainty within the local authority with a new structure put in place by chief executive Derek Brown as well as some high profile departures.

Under the new structure consisting of three service clusters ‘People’, ‘Place’ and ‘Corporate’ – Fiona Duncan, Fiona Grant and Fiona Malcolm join the People service under the leadership of assistant chief executive Kate Lackie.

Fiona Duncan is now the chief officer – health and social care (chief social work officer). She had been the executive chief officer of health and social care since 2021.

Fiona Grant will take on the role of chief officer for secondary education having previously been headteacher at both Thurso and Wick high schools and is currently the head of secondary education.

Fiona Malcolm has been appointed as Chief Officer - Integrated People Services. Fiona is currently Head of Integration Adult Social Care and has held that post since 2019 prior to which she was a legal manager for the Council. She has worked for the Council for 23 years.

Two others – Alison Clark and Finlay MacDonald both from Inverness – will join the Place service cluster under the leadership of assistant chief executive Malcolm MacLeod.

Ms Clark will be the new housing and communities chief officer. She is currently the head of community support, contact and engagement where she has worked for eight years having been with the council for over 20 years.

Mr MacDonald from Inverness has been made the chief officer for property and assets – before that he was the head of property and facilities management for the last decade and has been with local authority since 1996.

Convener Bill Lobban said: “Congratulations to all three Fiona’s, Alison and Finlay on their appointments to Chief Officers. They will make excellent additions to the new senior management structure of the Council.”

While leader of the council Raymond Bremner added: “With these five appointments I am pleased to see the second phase of the new senior management structure progressing with pace.

“The new structure will initially deliver savings of £310,000, as part of the budget savings agreed by Council in February, and it is anticipated that savings will eventually equate to around 20 per cent of senior management team costs as part of a more streamlined management structure.”



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