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.