WILTSHIRE council leader Jane Scott believes a decision to appoint an extra top boss whose salary will be shared equally by both her council and the NHS will make a real difference to lives of elderly and vulnerable people in the county.

The new appointment announced this week, which will bring the number of corporate directors up to four, comes at a time of major change at the top level of the council.

Only Carlton Brand will remain in post as a corporate director as it was also announced that Carolyn Godfrey is to retire and will leave in October and Maggie Rae left last year.

Baroness Scott said all four directors would be earning exactly the same amount of money which is likely to be just under £150,000 a year each.

She said: "I have wanted to get the joint working with the NHS Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group in place for some time but thought it would not be right until after the election.

"Carolyn told me earlier this year that she wanted to retire in May but I managed to persuade her to stay on until October. Carlton will remain and will have the pick of the two roles which both have elements of what he is doing at the moment."

The new role of adult social care and health and chief accountable officer will be advertised externally but the other two vacant job will be advertised internally to begin with.

Baroness Scott hopes that if internal candidates are found they could be in place by the middle of August but it is unlikely the adult care job will be filled until the autumn.

She said: "I think this is the right way forward. We need to be working closely with the health service. We will be leading the way by establishing this partnership and I hope we will start to see real differences by this time next year. It will be challenging as it is a new way of working but it is something we have to do to make sure people get the care they deserve."

The other three new titles for directors will be children and education; growth, investment and place - which covers areas such as transport, waste, planning and housing - and communities, resources and transformation.

Barnoess Scott said: "We recognise that the integration of health and social care is the only option if we are to manage the demand for these services in the coming years. The NHS Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group has agreed that to jointly fund the accountable officer post, which is the most senior post in the CCG, and to combine this with the council’s corporate director for adult social care. This new post will provide the best opportunity to lead and deliver the integration of health and social care across the county."