by political editor Paul Francis

Former Kent County Council managing director Katherine Kerswell has landed a new £142,000 job in the civil service.

Ms Kerswell left KCC with a £420,000 pay-off - one of the largest sums ever paid to a departing council chief - last year.

She had been in post for 18 months and, although KCC said her departure was the result of a re-organisation that scrapped her post, there had been reports of a falling out with the Conservative administration.

Details of the payout emerged in June and were described as "disturbing and unacceptable" by government minister Grant Shapps.

Ms Kerswell's new job will be the director general for civil service reform in the Cabinet Office, where she will work alongside the head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake.

As KCC's managing director, Ms Kerswell (pictured above) oversaw a major shake-up in the way the council was run.

Her "Change to Keep Succeeding" programme was not universally popular and led to a string of departures of senior council directors.

Of her new job, she said: "I am thrilled to join the civil service and contribute to such an important area of work as civil service reform.

"I am particularly keen to build upon what I have learnt in local government about how to make change take root and really happen with urgency and pace."