Ray Jones steps down from Wiltshire’s adult services

Wiltshire’s director of adult and community services Ray Jones has stepped down from the post after huge savings were forced on the council by the NHS funding crisis.

Jones and Wiltshire County Council agreed by mutual consent that he was not the best person to make what are expected to be significant cuts to social care budgets as part of the council’s overall £7 million deficit.

Jones said the savings had been forced on the council primarily by cash-strapped primary care trusts passing on costs.

He told Community Care he did not believe he was the right person to make the savings having spent the last 14 years as director building up social care services in the county. Jones will take early retirement and an interim director appointed.