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?

It's possible! We are nowhere close to the seaside if that helps!

Also like the idea of a MN support group!

And I would really love to hear from more people who have been through it.

I'm fine with, even like, change. It's not that I am change averse at all. But it's hard seeing so much focus shift away from the "day job" even at this early stage

@Blockednoses this is anecdotal but I work with someone who used to work for Somerset and they keep in touch with colleagues. Apparently although they are on the other side of the LGR process now, there are still major problems with internal structure, internal politics and toxic culture. I'm not close enough to it to confirm if that's true.

I'm not afraid of change either (and the so called refusal to change is often and unfairly thrown at public sector staff. I feel) but a lot of what I'm seeing is positive change. And that's a worry.

Yes we are all being told to embrace change and support for change etc. But the fact is this won’t be exciting and great for everyone will it, it’s going to cause upset for some people.

i just can’t see how there won’t be redundancies in the office jobs that have people in all the other organisations too . There will be so much duplication and isn’t the point to save money. I have noticed younger people are starting to leave for elsewhere, whereas some older people near retirement age say they’re hanging on for redundancy payments.

and Cumbria in 2023 - the County Council and the six district councils merged to become two unitary authorities (Westmorland and Furness Council and Cumberland Council)

Some things work better, some don't. Most people in the senior jobs kept senior jobs in one of the two new authorities but under different titles. Nearly all the functions that previously existed still exist under the new authority names with the staff all TUPEd over. All the work previously being done still needed to be done by the people who had been doing it before.

Most of the difficulties have been around the practicalities of merging and splitting IT systems and bank accounts etc and having to make things like the rules around bin collections apply consistently across what were previously several different district councils.

There is also a lot of concern that the way we were split in two reflected political whims rather than historic or geographical boundaries.

There were redundancies but voluntary redundancies were offered first.

We are 3 years on and it seems like a distant memory.

Personally I feel then positives have outweighed the negatives and it's now a lot clearer for people living in the new authorities about who is responsible for everything.

Not kept up to date with devolution - not inspired to attend meetings as
the average call centre dummie.

losing job in a years time - who wants to stick around
for micro-management

No excuse ever for this type of poor management.

Hi, I’m in a council where the announcement has just been made. It’s nerve racking as I work for a service that covers the current council that is going to be broken up to three.

I just feel exhausted at the changes that will be on the way, and worried about my job. At work I will present as possitive and put myself out there as I’m aware it’s also a possibility for job improvement. BUT I really just can’t be arsed with it!

Sp solidarity to all of you going through the same.

Will be interesting to read others experiences as the time goes on.

When is yours due to be implemented? I think we all have a bumpy ride ahead of us.

I'm fairly sure my job is safe as the work won't go away
But I am just drained at despondent at the amount of energy and resource the reorganization is going to pull away from the "day job" at every level of the organisation. What an absolute waste of resources

@chipsbytheseaside 2028

@Blockednoses i agree entirely, my team is swamped with our job, I’m swamped as their manager. It’s laughable to think I now need to add additional work for this ridiculousness. But it’s what it is.

@BlueOceanFish Is it Suffolk? I live in Suffolk but work in a neighbouring tiered LA. I was gobsmacked when I read the decision about Suffolk yesterday. It goes against all the governments own guidance - the new LAs won't meet the 500,000 population objective, and the 3 new councils are split across current district boundaries which also wasn't supposed to happen.

The LA I work for has got several rival proposals, and we've been confidently predicting that the option which splits the county into 3 unitaries with some districts being split in half will never get the go ahead. Now I'm not so sure

@AnnaQuayRules Norfolk so close

I work for Suffolk and can't believe the decision - I was fairly confident that the government would go for the One Suffolk proposal as that did make sense. Unitaries with only 250k residents/tax payers are going to be financially on their knees in a year or two. Essex is also being split into 5 unitaries rather than 3.

I wonder how much of this decision is to try and limit Reform?

Your leader wasn't wrong when she called Steve Reed a bastard, was she?😁

@r1e2 thats what I can’t understand how on earth are services like adult and children services going to function with this funding?

I work for one of the LAs that didn't receive a decision yesterday and I work in a back office role (finance).

I attending a networking event a few months ago run by CIPFA. Their position to all LAs and Central Govt is to be very cautious about making any staff cuts or redundancies at all in the first few years following the changes. They said experience had showed the more successful transfers over the last few years were because the LAs had retained sufficient staff to get through the process and that trying to make savings on staffing budgets too early in the process tended to backfire.

@FruitBadger that’s reassuring. I’ve also read generally voluntary redundancies are over subscribed. I bloody well would go for it if I could afford it! 20+ years of public services takes it tole!

Interested to see this thread. I also work for one of the authorities that announced yesterday and I'm surprised by the decision, wondering if there will be any further u turns and can't understand how this will work for social care services!

It's ridiculous. I can't believe how they've split Suffolk up - it makes no sense.

I work in Social Care in an LA which is due to get the decision in July. We are all working on the assumption that Districts won't get split into different authorities but that looks like it's not the case.

I can't understand why they bothered consulting with existing councils with a list of "parameters" that they then completely ignored when it came to the actual plans they have announced.

Oh this doesn't bode well! Our LA is still within consultation phase so long way off this - just hoping we don't split into small authorities as that would be really counterproductive for cost efficient services.

I work for a County Council affected by last week's announcement and it definitely took everyone by surprise. Having worked in local government for 20+ years I'm really struggling to see where any financial savings are going to come from having to split countywide services into 3.
Going to be an unsettling couple of years. I'm in a small team who serve the whole county so know we won't be together in the new structure.

I’m back office (finance) in a company that already supplies services to 3 LA’s. The preferred LGR plan is to add another LA to that but we are still in consultation. Dreading it as I’ve only been there just under 5 years and have not long taken out a mortgage with my husband who works in R&B

The announcement for mine has been delayed, but one of the district councillors then started on about an 'agreement' that hasn't actually been made, so that was entertaining! Nobody high up is actually telling anyone in the normal jobs anything at all really, despite obviously knowing what's happening. They like to keep talking about transformation and form and function round here!!!