The project team conducted a comprehensive analysis of roles which provide supporting activity across all 4 departments, and then produced a report which recommended options for the future. The report recommended a first stage to centralise a number of supporting roles into Corporate Services and Transformation (CST), along with their budget, so that a detailed design of the most effective future supporting service can be produced and implemented. The report recognised that we need to ensure services continue across the council while design and implementation occurs, which means that roles centralised into CST will continue to deliver the same activity until design of the future service is completed. The only practical change for affected roles is to their line management and budget management, following transfer, we will engage with departments to examine what support is needed, and explore opportunities to provide it more efficiently by reviewing business processes to streamline and automate them where we can. The report was approved in February and the changes in line management will come into effect on 1 April. The project team are now organising engagement sessions, to share the details of the changes to the council’s structure this will involve, and provide the opportunity for those affected to ask questions.
Over the next few days, we will be arranging meetings with those who line manage colleagues who will be moving to the new structure. This will provide those managers with the information they need to support their teams. After these meetings have taken place, all directly affected colleagues will be invited to join an online session to find out more about what the changes will involve and why, but it is important to reinforce that during this first phase of moving a range of support service colleagues into a centralised structure, the day-to-day activities and the support those colleagues provide to departments will remain the same.
Kind regards
Joe.