Rushed email to the borough’s elected officials confirms pay-out to departing chief executive will be at least £50,000 – in lieu of notice.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES
In a hastily drafted memo rushed out in the minutes after Inside Croydon broke the story of Katherine Kerswell’s resignation, Mayor Jason Perry confirmed to the borough’s 70 councillors that the council’s chief executive had resigned.
Given the nature of the statutory warning Perry and Kerswell’s council have just received from auditors Grant Thornton, Perry’s little note, as well as being late with the news, provides yet more evidence of the delusional nature of his administration alongside the now ex-CEO.
In his email to councillors, Croydon’s failed Mayor says:
“I am writing to let you know that I have accepted Katherine Kerswell’s resignation and her last day at Croydon will be today.
Two of a kind: Perry and Kerswell, the worst comedy double act since the Chuckle Brothers
“Katherine has served as our chief executive for just over five years and, having worked with her, you will all know her dedication and commitment to Croydon and its residents. She joined Croydon during an incredibly challenging time, at the height of the council’s financial and governance crisis. Since then, she has led Croydon’s workforce through a period of unprecedented change and improvement, at an accelerated pace.
“Since I took office in 2022, we have seen significant progress. Achievements include a Good Ofsted, a Good CQC, the lifting of the voluntary undertaking by the Social Housing Regulator and an excellent Local Government Association Corporate Peer Challenge. Whilst it has been a demanding and challenging journey, Katherine has worked tirelessly to support the improvements that residents expect and deserve, and her experience and expertise as a local government leader have been invaluable. She has strengthened governance across the board and strived to embed a culture of openness and transparency at the council – and most importantly, one where staff put residents first.
“I know the decision to leave Croydon has not been an easy one for Katherine. As you will be aware the council is moving into the next stage of its journey, as our four-year Future Croydon transformation plan gets underway.
“Having done the preparation for our transformation programme, Katherine feels that the next phase of the work here at Croydon requires a continuity in this post, that does not fit with her own long-term career and personal plans. She has family overseas and needs to take some well-earned time to focus on them before embarking on her next appointment.
Pay-off: Jo Negrini got £437,000 in 2020, approved by a committee that included Jason Perry
“Katherine’s last day at Croydon will be 31 October, although she is taking annual leave from today.
“Given historic governance concerns at Croydon around payments to senior leaders, I know Katherine would want me to reassure you that there will be no payments to her other than her contractual notice period.
“It has been my privilege to work with Katherine to deliver significant change for our council and our borough. She will be much missed.
“I’m sure you will join me in thanking her for all she has done for Croydon, and wishing her all the best for her next endeavours. We are making arrangements for her cover, and I will be in touch with you to confirm these soon.”
The email was signed “Jason Perry, Executive Mayor of Croydon”, and posted at 10.17am.
Inside Croydon had written to Mayor Perry almost two hours earlier, seeking his comment on the resignation, and asking for a figure for Kerswell’s departure settlement.
Assuming that Kerswell’s “contractual notice period” is a mere three months, Perry’s note therefore suggests that the £204,000 per year CEO (Perry approved her latest pay rise six months ago) will get a lump sum of around £50,000, plus having her pension fund topped up – much more than what many council staff are paid in a year.
It is possible that, as head of service at a large south London local authority, Kerswell may have been on six months’ notice. If that is the case, then her “golden handshake” will be closer to £100,000 – although probably below the £95,000 threshold that would have required approval by a meeting of full council. There has been no such meeting held, nor has the appointments sub-committee been summoned in emergency session to discuss any Kerswell pay-off, as there was in 2020 to approve Jo Negrini’s £437,973. Jason Perry was a member of the committee that approved that payment.
Kerswell has some notoriety in local government circles for cashing in on her departures from senior jobs: in 2011, she scored a Negrini-esque £420,000 pay-out after 16 months at Kent County Council, and in April 2019, it is understood that Newham secured her departure as interim head of service with a more modest pay-off after barely nine months.
Mayor Perry and the council’s dynamic team in the propaganda bunker at Fisher’s Folly were approached for comment, but had failed to respond by time of publication.
Read more: Kerswell takes another pay-off as she quits as council’s CEO
Read more: Now Kerswell’s deputy CEO joins the rush for council exits
Read more: Council’s agency staff bill includes £726 per hour consultant
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Normally you’d expect someone to work out their notice, not leave on the day they announced their resignation. Something is rotten in the borough of Croydon!
After Mayor Perry’s show comes the dung cart. Who is he going to get to run the council now?
It might not be something rotten … it might be a blast of fresh air. We can but hope. She leaves a poisoned chalice for some poor sod. CEO isn’t a statutory post, so maybe they’ll leave it vacant and save the cash? More money for pies for Perry?
If you haven’t noticed Affur the Commissioners are running the Council now and transformative Perry has turned the role of Mayor into just a title on a letter heading on paper with regard to making real decisions. Reckon Kerswell Reid has been biding her time to make sure her pension contributions were completed with all her spare annual leave from working at home to stop hanging around on line being surplus to requirement. It was one hard sell too many to hope she would get a complimentary pay out from the Commissioners.
Unfortunately that’s not how it works at senior levels in my (senior HR) experience; so not a Croydon issue. Unfair and unjust it may be, but top management in most UK organisations tend to go overnight with pay in lieu of notice. My experience is that the cost of leaving them in place over that period is worse for the organisation; albeit it’s hard to think what more damage could be done in this case. But they need to go and quickly. Given everything we’ve seen, it’s easy to think this is another cock-up but I’ve yet to see anything in her departure that does not either look contractual or outside the norms in industry. As a life-long Croydon resident I’m as sceptical as the next, but there’s so many other dodgy things to focus our anger on!
It may not happen often but it does happen.
In my NHS management career I (I in a consultation with other senior management and HR) paid a months salary in lieu to a junior employee who had resigned because we knew the resigning employee wouldn’t act honestly during their notice period and we wanted rid for the greater good.
The decision wasn’t taken lightly but was in the best interest of the organisation.
You say, “It may not happen often but it does happen.” As a former Head of HR, I can say that it probably happens more often than you’re aware of at senior levels and precisely for the reasons you state. It is pretty much impossible to performance manage a senior manager as the role is rarely clearly defined in the job description. It’s therefore better to persuade them to resign and pay in lieu to get them out of the door as quickly as possible and I think that’s what’s happened here. We’ve seen so many dodgy things in Croydon, that I do understand why many refuse to accept this and seem determined to badge it as a pay off but, for once I think that all they are doing is to pay her what her contract says albeit as a lump rather than over three or six months.
“All they are doing…”. It’s a £50,000 reward for failure, in an organisation where many staff are expected to work all year for £30,000 or less.
It is significant that Croydon’s head of HR, as appointed by Kerswell, is “Shagger” Shoesmith, who has direct and recent experience of getting a hefty pay-off to leave his job, after he was caught out abusing his position by authorising annual reviews for a female member of staff who he ws having a relationship with.
Without commenting on her performance, which Inside Croydon and others have more detailed knowledge of, as a former Head of HR I do have experience of CEO departures. It is fairly normal for senior directors to not be required to work their notice. That tends to be 6 months in the private sector at least. She will however be entitled to be paid for that period as set out in her contract. That should be fully taxable and subject to pension deductions as it represents earnings, not an ex gratia payment as has been suggested. The only way she can be denied this is if she is dismissed for Gross Misconduct. That is a very different charge to poor performance and requires a full process possibly preceded by suspension from duty during the investigation and hearing stage. Unlike the USA, employers are not allowed to simply sack someone and that applies equally to a cleaner or a CEO. In this case she appears to have resigned, l hope that her successor gains the confidence of employees and residents that both she and her predecessor failed to enjoy.
We are told that Katherine Kerswell resigned.
In my experience, the resigning employee is expected to work out their contractual notice period, unless the employer agrees to an employee’s request to waive some or all of that requirement.
In those circumstances, the employer is not obliged to pay the employee the notice they have asked not to work, but should just pay them up until their final day at work, plus or minus any holiday they have earned up to that point.
In cases where the employer thinks it best for the business for the employee to leave sooner rather than later, they can give pay in lieu of notice. Such payments are a typical feature of settlement agreements, which Croydon Council used to end the employment relationship with Ms Kerswell’s predecessor, Jo Negrini.
A council spokesperson quoted in Municipal Journal about today’s news said there was no payoff beyond any contractual obligations. It would be interesting to learn what the obligations in said contract are, and how much they will cost us.
She has been working tirelessly at home from what we normally see of Kerswell-Reid so there is hardly much difference if she leaves using up her annual leave in lieu of notice. Saves her the inconvenience of one of those rare commutes.
Yet another huge lump sum payment for being as good as useless.
The people of Croydon do not believe this CEO was a success or that she put us first and made many knee jerk decisions . But my question is “ Was she pushed” ? As the departure has come very quick since the Government appointed commissioners entered the fray of crisis Croydon.
If not pushed, Les, she is being eased out.
Any delay has been all about the “hard negotiations” around her pay-off, and providing some political cover for Mayor Perry in allowing another CEO to walk away with a golden handshake.
Still not on the council’s ‘news’ page. So I guess it’s not.
It’s just not important news for Croydon Council, according to Croydon Council
Still no news on http://www.croydon (Saturday 17 October). Is no news good news?
How soon they forget… La Kerswell doesn’t even warrant a mention in piss-poor Perry’s weekly wallow in self-congratulations.
Is he hoping no one will notice?
Petulant Perry got dumped again, so after waxing lyrical about her, undoubtedly as part of her negotiations, she’s dead to him
Missed like I’d miss a hole in the head
Can we distribute her salary next year among long suffering council tax payers
Counting the days until we are rid of useless Perry
£204,000 is a lot as one person’s salary, but wouldn’t go very far among Croydon’s near-400,000 population.
Let’s ask people for suggestions on what to do with a spare 200 grand “KerswellBalls Fund”
Reinstate the cancelled school crossing patrols, the ones the Council lied about, just to ‘save’ £58k https://insidecroydon.com/2025/09/18/council-lied-about-risk-assessments-for-axed-lollipop-patrols