A new £55,000 post for a Corporate Social Inclusion Manager at Oxfordshire County Council has been rubbished as an exercise to "tick a Government inspector's box" by Keith Mitchell.

The county council leader has admitted he does not actually know what the point of the post is and says the money could be better spent wiping out a huge predicted deficit in the council's overspending youth service -- part of the authority's community learning directorate.

He added that the money on offer could be better spent employing extra youth workers.

The aim of Oxfordshire's youth service, which was rated 'very good' by Ofsted inspectors last year, is to get youngsters involved in various projects and groups.

It also includes a counselling and mentoring service for troubled youngsters.

However, it is forecast to overspend by more than £100,000 by the end of next March and a recent report to councillors said "further staffing reductions are planned in the medium term in order to enable the serviced to balance its budget in 2005/06 and 2006/07".

An advertisement for the position in the national press read: "This is an outstanding opportunity for a highly motivated and articulate individual. You will be working at a corporate level across the whole spectrum of the council's activities, making a major contribution to policy implementation, performance monitoring and service improvement.

"You will be able to maintain an effective balance between support, challenge and influence and be persuasive with senior managers, whilst maintaining their confidence.

"With well-developed interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate effectively, you will be adaptable and able to work independently and as part of a team."

The closing date for applications is October 14, with interviews being held the following month.

All local authorities are obliged to perform certain functions and attain performance targets set by the Government.

The county council is currently ranked a 'good' authority having previously been a 'fair' council.

Mr Mitchell has vowed to look into whether this particular post is a necessary function.

He said: "I fear this might be a job to satisfy a Government inspector and, given that we have issues in the youth service, we could have wiped out half the deficit with this money.

"Social inclusion is very important, but we could do it just as effectively with youth workers -- so I'm yet to be convinced about this position."