Decision details

Following a period of formal consultation with staff and trades unions on the proposal for a City Council Organisation Redesign (called Together Gloucester), to implement the final structure determined, through the consultation process.

Together Gloucester sets out a proposal for organisational re-design and has been developed by a group of council staff (from across a number of service areas and at different levels of seniority) who undertook an extensive review of how the Council does and should operate.

The structure proposed in the consultation was based on new ways of working and was dependent on the implementation of improved practices and efficient processes.  This will support the Council to enhance service delivery and provide greater flexibility to react to demand. The objectives of organisational re-design can be summarised as follows:

·       Deliver at least a £1 million pound budget saving from the Council’s salary budget of approximately £8m

·       Reduction in the compartmentalisation (or “silos”) delivering Council services

·       Deliver priorities in the emerging Council Plan

·       Implementation of generic job roles and descriptions while maximising multi-skilling

·       Cross-organisational style management using project teams to respond flexibly to future demand and priorities

·       Embedding the principles of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) in the way the Council operates, enabling individuals and communities

·       Embrace channel shift opportunities

·       Foster a more commercial approach to service delivery

·       Promote new ways of working; empowered staff, home working, hot-desking, remote/mobile working and opportunities for co-locating

·       Enable the organisation to work out of a smaller building footprint

·       Retain and recruit staff with the right attitudes, skills and competencies

This decision relates to the implementation of the new structure following the formal consultation process. The final formal structure is available to all consultees to the process.

Communications have taken place with staff and the trade unions. These consultations included a consultation pack, one to one meetings, staff briefings, a webpage of consultation information, including frequently asked questions.

Having carefully considered all of the responses from the consultation process and made appropriate amendments to the proposed structure in light of these, the decision is taken to proceed to implement the new structure.

Given the financial pressures on the Council’s budget, it is necessary to make savings from the current staffing budget.  After considering all representations, an appropriately amended structure has been created to achieve the required savings.