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?

Gloucestershire was announced today too. One giant authority for the whole county. Most of the people I've spoken to are really surprised by the decision as it's not in line with decisions made elsewhere.

Morale is rock bottom as it is, so I'm hoping now we know, we can start planning what it means for staff. Inevitably it means more work for less people I think. Tough times ahead.

I forgot about this thread. I think Suffolk and Norfolk have both requested a judicial review on the decision from the new reform councillors, don't know if that has progressed at all?

I’m in another LA with decision announced today.

No-one in my department is particularly interested. I’m senior but not senior enough that I’d be made redundant. I would definitely volunteer if that was an option. I’m more worried for my unskilled (admin) team members as I think they might ultimately be at risk.

Staffs confirmed today - with a North/South divide, which makes a lot of sense. Residents in the North are not happy though, as they will have to amalgamate with Stoke, which is currently a unitary authority with a lot of financial difficulties!

Is there a risk of the areas being too large to manage and set to fail financially? Could be wrong as not too sure on how this works but thinking of Birmingham as an example.

Most are smaller than County Councils so not really.

I'd say it's entirely possible. But impossible to tell at this stage for the new unitaries.

Birmingham has been Birmingham for decades. Bucks has been unitary for several years. It streamlines central services. You don’t need 4 directors of planning or directors of finance , or 4 HR directors. Some roles are streamlined - as they should be. Public facing roles are less impacted - eg social workers - but the district councils never had them anyway. The changes are to services which are duplicated or people exist in multiple numbers at a high level. They can also find they don’t have the right people for the new jobs so can recruit into them.

Going through it at the moment in Surrey. The B&Ds are particularly top heavy with layers of management.

Won't be enough of these roles. It's very stressful for those of us at the coalface as we're bombarded with unrealistic demands to deliver the undeliverable without regard to how realistic their expectations may be. (Community Asset Transfer).

Or the other way. Obsessed with details to detriment of delivery.

All to protect the higher ups

It's rough out there.

Just seen the news https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2zkj09dy4o

So, rough times and about to get rougher now that LGR has been delayed/withdrawn?

It's carnage at my work this afternoon. People like uncertainty even less than they like change.

Agreed. And so much wasted time and energy.

And money. My authority has various roles created specifically for the LGR process. And since there's so much that needs doing before April 28, like selling buildings, decisions had already been made with LGR in mind. It's chaos.

What a waste of time this has all been. I think we do need a streamlining of local government but the decisions of the government looked like gerrymandering ( where I live anyway). They put forward criteria then made a decision that was against their initial criteria, leaving them open to judicial review! And now Angela Rayner, the person originally responsible for all this has pulled the whole thing.

Agreed. And lots of the specially created roles were highly paid /consultancy posts.

Have any LAs taken legal action against the government where the preferred government option was not the the local preferred option? Just wondering if there’s something behind the scenes that has prompted this decision.

Glad I haven’t recently taken up an LGR specific post in an LA 😬

Yes I think several had begun the JR process

I previously worked for a CC, in the north of England, who went through full LGR, including formation of a unitary authority and a CA. In my experience, not a great deal of officer level jobs were lost, although quite a few people retired. Quite a lot of very senior managers moved on though, or were made redundant.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-reorganisation-programme-review-and-decisions-withdrawal-letter-to-council-leaders/local-government-reorganisation-programme-review-and-decisions-withdrawal-letter-to-council-leaders

Gutted that our LGR is 'paused' likely to be pulled permanently! I work for a poorer authority due to move with a wealthier LA and this would have really helped with struggling under-resourced services. The LA had already started to recruit managers to support the process and started planning so this is a costly mistake by Labour - at our expense!

There is huge merit in having a “one stop shop” for a given area. The public is frequently confused about council tax collection and responsibility for pot holes. It’s even more confusing now education expenditure barely features in some LAs due to the way education is now managed.

I don’t think my LA sold off loads of buildings before the consolidation took place because buildings are quite a long term strategy. It certainly takes time to mesh things like planning services together as there’s so many varying policies. Overall though, this work needs to be done and services are more streamlined and not repeated in smaller areas. We have one Chief Executive instead of 5. That’s a win in any book!

I do not work in a LA but oversee an aspect of service. I am concerned about the loss of professional expertise, local knowledge / relationships (which can be so important) which I have seen previously in some of the LAs mentioned upthread. Ultimately, this will negatively impact on the quality of public services in some areas.

I guess you haven't seen that it has been paused /cancelled in most areas?

I agree with your concern though

I have, but we have already spent a lot of time and effort assessing all the various proposals. Time which is lost from other priorities.

I agree with that. But its just the wrong time. Everywhere is stretched to the bone. In our team (and all the ones we would merge with) there couldn't be any redundancies because most are limping along with lots of vacancies