Does anyone work at a council that’s been through the local government changes?

[chipsbytheseaside]

Lots of councils are changing in the coming years as part of local government reorganisation.

Has anyone been through this and were lots of jobs cut after it happened?

I'm going through this right now and there is speculation that top jobs will be cut but jobs on the ground will be needed just as much as ever. They don't need 3 CEOs but they do need social workers and bin men.

I am also in an organisation going through this.
I'm struggle to imagine how they will cut many jobs in our area because most of us are desperately overworked as it is and it's the same in the districts.
Plus we are really struggling to recruit to vacant posts now because of the future uncertainty

I am really interested to hear from people who have already been through it though.
I would love to have more of an idea what the next few years will look like

Most councils will still be in the consultation phase of this. Like PP says, the higher roles will be those most at risk. If you're in a strategic role, likely to be affected but closer to actual service delivery roles should be safer. We will still have the same levels of needs in our area so can't see how frontline staff can be reduced even further. Maybe there will be more slack in the authority we will merge with.

The whole process is 2/3 years away for us so hoping to be in a stronger position by then if needed.

I didn't think anyone was all the way through it yet? My understanding is that my council volunteered to do it at the earliest possible stage and they are still in consultation stage.

The last time it happened back in the 90s. Yes, there were redundancies although as PP have said more at upper management level than frontline, but also in teams that ran strategic and councillor services. This is moving from a county council to unitaries.

I’m in Worcestershire going through this right now. Also unfortunately Reform led.

I prefer the One Worcestershire approach rather than a split.

I predict job losses in the departments coming from the district councils rather than the county council. I’m a social worker. We are statutory and always understaffed so we will be fine I think. Do we need 4 housing teams (some are already merged with neighbouring districts), many HR departments etc? Possibly not and I can see these being streamlined.

I also see it as good opportunity to get rid of some of the jobs in the county council that are fluffy or pointless- am surprised Reform haven’t already axed these! Maybe cos Nige can’t be arsed after saying he regrets taking on debt ridden Worcestershire (a sentiment most of us agree with).

Yes, we went unitary over 10 years ago. Chief executives and directors spent time working out packages, some of them took pay offs, some went into head of service/director roles in the new authority and we got a new Chief exec. My service area was merged with the same in all the other districts, there was quite a bit of duplication to begin with and you’d go to do something and find someone was already doing it. They did eventually restructure but by then I’d gone to a better job in a newly established service area (which I enjoyed). I would say overall, there was obviously change but it happened slowly and was well managed, most staff were redistributed and very few were made redundant that didn’t want to go. Even then, there was so little fat to cut they couldn’t reduce the staffing by that much and still deliver services, I’d say that’s even more true toda.

My job covers three local authorities and I’m the only one plus my manager and I’m patient facing , so I guess it hadn’t even occurred to me.

Hopefully it won’t be affecting many

We are about to go through it. We only had the latest restructure in December (my 3rd in the 11 years I've worked there). I don't see this as any different.

There is quite a toxic culture within the service I'm in. In addition, the nepotism is very blatant and off the scale at the top of the department. I can only hope that LGR will improve things, but I have my doubts.

I feel really stuck by wanting to keep my pension in the one place and having gained some additional annual leave from length of service.

I am applying for a role in a different part of the organisation. I don't know much about the culture in that area, so I am nervous about that. It is also a secondment, so they may refuse.

Thanks for the replies. Yes I imagine it won’t make a difference to the number of social workers, bin men needed etc. But thinking about the ‘office’ jobs (finance, HR, IT etc)

Google says it happened to North Yorkshire 2023, Somerset April 2023, North Northamptonshire & West Northamptonshire 2021, Buckinghamshire 2020

I’m wondering what it will mean for commissioned services. I work for a charity commissioned by the council to deliver a service. We’ve got a 10 year contract and the commissioners tell us nothing will change but that feels very unlikely.

Yes, in early stages to be put in place by 2028/2029. 3 options which is one big county, or east / west split so will have to have 2 of each service. Think Libraries so there will be East Libray service and West Library service. And there is a other option which I can't remember what it is.
Its is very confusing and early days for me at mo so not concerned yet

The commissioners can't promise you that because it will be for the new authority to decide. A lot of people don't fully get that. It may well remain the same but there's no guarantees

Either way, to end the contract the current or new authority will have to follow the provisions in the contract to terminate it

We’re going through it right now

We seem to be at a very silly stage of it. Top jobs still being recruited a lot, permanently, interims coming and going though.
Operational jobs are being recruited only fixed term, plus lots of people have left with the uncertainty or when contracts weren’t extended. Departments have gone from 4 to 1 or 2 people and things aren’t happening, missed payments and all sorts of issues.
social work is untouched though,

I feel like at the moment senior management's heads are so focussed on the politics and practicalities of LGR that there's a total loss of momentum in terms of the decision making to get the day job done.

I have been through it in one of the office roles you mention. There were no redundancies in my team (our work load increased so actually needed more people). Although people did leave as they disagreed with the reorganisation so much. Alongside this were others who had job name changes and went through job evaluation. This was mainly due to having a 'suped up' job title which wasn't actually what they did day to day or joint posts where they were offered two roles but had to pick one.

Several years on things have mainly settled although there has been significant internal rratructures and changes within senior management. A lot of the initial frustrations appear to be mostly gone but the internal cultures are still very fractured.

Been through it many times. The impact on individuals will depend on the service and role they are in, and more importantly their own resilience in the face of change ie do you view it as an opportunity or do you hate change?
At an operational level teams tend to slot into a new overall structure largely unchanged, but with extra workload to integrate different systems and ways of working.

We're going through it at the moment. Some departments will remain largely unchanged. As others said, senior management and executive roles are at risk.

Also, those non statutory roles in areas such as community development, leisure and parks. There is MUCH duplication and the feeling/fear is redundancies will come in these areas. No fixed term contracts being renewed etc.

Totally agree with this - it seems to have consumed our local council at the expense of anything else! Whole teams being diverted to focus on LGR instead of projects that serve residents.

Going through it now where I work too. It's a horrible time, we've already had roles being made redundant (officer level not management), fixed term contracts ending where the work still exists, but new higher paid manager positions being created. Senior management seems fixated on jostling for personal positions and where they will be once LGR happens. Budget/team decisions not being made 'because in 2 years it'll be LGR and we don't know what that will look like'. Good staff are leaving due to this interim period where we are working with less staff, more pressure (no manager wants to be the worst performing council in our area when we merge) and councillors are also fighting with each other in prep for who gets what role and whose blame everything is. Everything is urgent, nobody wants to be the one to make decisions, it's like rearranging chairs on the Titanic.

We keep being told that officer jobs are safe through LGR, but I don't believe that for a second.

I for one would welcome a support group on MN for council staff going through this period. I'm finding it demoralising and hard.

I second the support group suggestion! I wonder if you work at the same place as me?

Yes it seems to have become the most important thing, it’s exhausting at this point.