AN NHS trust's decision to keep on its embattled ex-chief executive in a new position but on the same pay has been labelled a "scandal".

Katrina Percy yesterday announced she would quit her post as the head of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust after mounting pressure over several years.

But she will instead move to a newly-created role at the trust and will keep earning her £190,000 a year chief executive's salary.

Despite pressure to stand down for months following a number of high-profile mistakes at the trust on her watch, Ms Percy had resisted but yesterday she capitulated, citing "personal media attention."

She said: "I know, and understand, that many will say I should have stepped down sooner given the very public concerns which have been raised in the past months.

"I stayed on as I firmly believed it was my responsibility to oversee the necessary improvements and to continue the ground breaking work we have begun with GPs to transform care for our patients."

In July 2013 a Headington teenager, Connor Sparrowhawk, who had autism and learning difficulties, drowned in the bath at the trust's Slade House unit in Oxford. An investigation later revealed this was just one of 722 deaths of people in the trust's care in four years.

It was ordered in April to make urgent improvements by the Care Quality Commission as risks to patient safety - and a failure to learn from deaths - were still reported by inspectors.

Yesterday Connor's mother said: "This whole sorry episode has shone an important light on peculiar workings at senior NHS levels around regulation, accountability and enforcement. It also demonstrates that candour and transparency remain woefully lacking in 2016."

A new role at the trust will see Ms Percy offer strategic advice to GPs in Hampshire as they re-organise services as part of an NHS pilot programme, Vanguard.

Meanwhile a clinician, Julie Dawes, who joined Southern Health in May as director of nursing, is the new interim chief executive.

Andrew Smith, the MP for Oxford East, said the revelation on Ms Percy's new salary was a "scandal" when the pay of front line staff at the trust was being held down.

He added: "The public will rightly find this completely unacceptable, and I can’t see how the trust can justify it as a good use of public money.

"This is long, long overdue and it’s right that she has resigned but it would have been better if she had left the organisation altogether."

Paul Scarrott, a trustee of the My Life My Choice learning disability charity in Oxford, said despite the surprise resignation many fellow members would still not feel safe in Southern Health's care, adding: "We still don't trust Southern Health at all."

Commenting on the departure, Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Under her watch, patients and families were fatally let down by a rotten culture where the unexplained deaths vulnerable people with learning disabilities, autism and other mental health conditions were not properly investigated.

"But rather than taking responsibility and doing the honourable thing by stepping down, Katrina Percy continued to put her own interests before the public interest.

"Reports that she will move into another well-paid job advising GPs on strategy are deeply concerning."

This June trust chairman Tim Smart endorsed Ms Percy - who last year also earned £52,500 in pension-related benefits - after a review into Southern Health's leadership.

Southern Health spokeswoman Kerstin Mordant said: "Although Katrina is stepping down from her role as CEO, she will still be employed by the NHS (Southern Health) and as such retain her current salary in her new role working with the Fareham and Gosport GP Alliance. There are no other payments involved."

The trust would not expand on the pay levels of the new chief executive.