New arrivals complete council’s slimmed down senior team

In the next few weeks, Shropshire Council will complete a review of all its management posts.  This started last autumn and has involved changing the roles and responsibilities of over 400 senior jobs.  Cutting its management costs was the council’s first priority in tackling the major cuts in the funding it receives from Government.

The review was designed to:

• Protect frontline services and jobs
• Streamline the organisation and make decisions more quickly
• Open up the council to new ideas and ways of working
• Make significant savings in management salaries and related overheads

The council’s aim was to reduce the number of senior managers by 30 per cent (deleting three out of every 10 posts), and other managers by 20 per cent (one in every five posts) – and the council is on track to meet these targets, with an overall reduction in the number of managers by 25 per cent.

When the new management arrangements are in place fully, they will save over £5.5 million a year.

The new senior management structure is now in place.  As a result of the review, the number of senior posts has been reduced by 30 (from 95 to 65 posts).  This is a cut of almost a third.

The wider review of other management posts is not quite finished.  But, at this stage, the council can predict that the likely outcome is that there will be about 80 fewer posts (out of the original establishment of 380 middle and junior management posts).  This is a cut of about 20 per cent.

All the posts in the new management structure have a larger range of responsibilities, even though their salaries have been frozen for at least two years.

The council’s chief executive, Kim Ryley, said:

“This detailed review has been a major task, but we have completed it on time and it has done all we wanted it to. As a result, I believe there will be real benefits for local people in providing even better value-for-money, and for those organisations in Shropshire who work closely with the council.

“The review was carefully designed to be fair to those staff it affected, and to make sure that we kept the talent, experience and number of people we need, whilst making big savings in salary costs.”

Following a tough selection process, there were four posts in the new senior management structure which could not be filled internally.  Following a national recruitment campaign, appointments have now been made to these roles:

•  Area Director (Central) – Clive Wright
• Corporate Head of Finance and Commerce – Rachel Musson
• Group Manager, Business Growth & Prosperity – Andy Evans
• Group Manager, Public Protection – Paul McGreary

A brief introduction to these new staff, and an outline of their role, is included at the end of this article.

Shropshire Council’s chief executive, Kim Ryley, said:

“The new managers will join us in the next couple on months. This will bring our new, smaller senior team up to full strength, and will allow us to make all the salary savings from slimming down our management structure.

“We are very pleased at the level of interest that was shown in these important jobs.  This has happened because our new management structure is seen as more attractive than those in other councils, as it gives real opportunities for talented people to show what they can do.  The high calibre of the successful applicants to these key jobs means that the council now has a great team that is second to none.”

Commenting on how these successes are part of the council’s wider approach to cutting costs and protecting public services, the leader, Councillor Keith Barrow, said:

“We vowed to cut the costs of bureaucracy as our first priority, and to protect frontline services.  This is exactly what the council has done.  By this careful restructuring, we can be more effective and do things more cheaply.

“Our managers work incredibly hard and put in long hours to skilfully improve the services we offer to local people.  I’m confident that we now have the slimmer, but stronger, team we need to confidently face the challenges ahead in the next few years.”

Further notes

Of the senior managers affected by these changes:

• 19 have left the council, or will do so later this year.
• Six have been redeployed (or are likely to be redeployed) into other posts at a lower grade and salary.
• Nine have been redeployed into temporary posts, (which have a clear end date), to help make the wider changes and major savings that are needed.  This approach means that the council does not have to engage more expensive external consultants to support putting the savings and improvements in place quickly.

An introduction to the four new senior managers:

Area Director, Central – Clive Wright

Clive will take overall responsibility for all council services in the Shrewsbury area.  He will be working closely with the group managers and managers of our partner organisations.  Clive will also be working together with local councillors, (including town and parish councillors) and communities to identify and meet local needs and priorities. 

Clive comes to Shropshire from his current role as Director of the Walsall Partnership, at Walsall Council.  He has much business and commercial expertise and has made significant impact on service delivery at Walsall by inspiring frontline staff to quickly implement new ways of working.  He has extensive experience of working with both frontline councillors on local issues and with cabinet members, delivering the wider strategic programme.    

Corporate Head of Finance & Commerce – Rachel Musson

Rachel’s background is as a local government accountant.  She will be overseeing the commercial side of the organisation, which will enable the council to turn over resources to achieve the biggest impact for the public.  Rachel will have direct influence on all aspects of financial planning, systems, and processes, as well as leading the development of our new commercial strategy in the changing relationship with external service providers and suppliers.  She will also have the role of statutory Section 151 Officer, setting and maintaining high-quality professional accounting and reporting standards for the whole council.   

She has six years’ experience at a senior management level including periods with both the Manchester and Metropolitan Police Forces.  Her latest role is Assistant Director, Accountancy and SAP Business Support at Birmingham City Council, Europe’s largest local authority.

Group Manager, Business Growth & Prosperity – Andy Evans

Andy will bring together a group of related support functions and activities to create a long-term strategic partnership with the private and social enterprise sectors in Shropshire.  He will be working to help the local economy emerge from the recession as quickly and smoothly as possible and to make a success of the council’s new local enterprise partnership.  He will be using his skills and expertise to raise the profile of Shropshire nationally and internationally, as a county of growth and prosperity.

An important part of his remit will be to work to narrow the gap between the more disadvantaged communities and the most prosperous, while also raising average earnings for local people.

Andy has more than a decade’s experience at management level in the public sector.  He currently works as Head of Planning, Regeneration & Strategic Housing at Newport City Council.

Group Manager, Public Protection & Enforcement – Paul McGreary

Paul will be engaging with communities and partners – including the police and the health sector – to protect and improve the health, safety and environment of people living in, working in or visiting Shropshire.  He will have a broad range of duties, covering both regulatory and enforcement issues.

He comes to Shropshire Council with six years’ experience of senior management in the public sector, most recently at Flintshire County Council, where he is Head of Public Protection.  He is a keen champion of transformation which leads to improved and efficient services, and encourages innovative thinking among staff.