Cumbria County Council has unveiled proposals for a new corporate structure which will save taxpayers' money, be more focused on improving performance, and be more tightly linked to individual communities and frontline services.
If approved by the Cabinet and County Council, the proposals will mean decreasing the number of corporate directors from eight to six, saving £202,000 a year once one-off costs of change have been covered.
The proposal will be presented to a Cabinet meeting on January 8th. It puts Cumbria County Council in line with other similarly-sized councils and recommends putting the following six corporate director posts into place: Corporate Director - Children's Services Corporate Director - Adults' Services Corporate Director - Resources Corporate Director - Safer & Stronger Communities Corporate Director - Organisational Development Corporate Director - Environment and Regeneration.
The restructuring is being proposed in light of the key challenge for all councils to respond more effectively to the local needs of citizens and distinctive communities. The new corporate director positions empower the postholder to work more directly with other public sector organisations in achieving the best aims for the whole of Cumbria. A whole new approach to commissioning services will be required in the Cumbria of the future.
The new posts will also be more directly accountable for achieving performance targets - around a third of corporate directors' time will be spent on overall corporate management and running the authority rather than their individual directorates. This will mark a step change in the speed of improvement at the county council so that strategy and process translates into direct action and practical outcomes for the people of Cumbria.
Cumbria County Council's Chief Executive Peter Stybelski said: "If the Cabinet and County Council agree, this new structure would make us more nimble, more flexible and more focused. It would allow us to unlock innovation and creativity from all our employees and would be followed by a comprehensive review of the next tier of senior managers - our heads of service.
"It has been four years since our last restructuring and these arrangements will help us to raise the bar and deliver the new agenda for the county."
Under the proposed reorganisation, the responsibility of deputy chief executive would be shared among the six corporate directors - as is already the case for emergency planning purposes.
Performance-related pay for corporate directors would also be abolished under a new pay structure for the new posts. These have been benchmarked against public sector market rates and will be included in the range of £115,000-£125,000.
There will be one-off transitional costs of £320,000-£627,000 associated with the reorganisation, meaning the financial payback is between 18 months and three years.
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75 per cent of county and unitary councils have seven or less senior posts including the Chief Executive.
Follow this link to view the cabinet paper to be considered by Cabinet on 8 January