Workforce and leadership challenges
The forecast increase in senior staffing costs if all new unitaries are of average population in each segment
Creating additional authorities necessitates substantial increases in senior management posts. Each new unitary requires additional Directors of Adult Social Care, Directors of Children's Services, and supporting leadership teams. Critically, the sector could face severe challenges in recruiting sufficient qualified professionals to fill these roles, particularly given existing vacancy rates of 8.3% in adult social care. The analysis suggests that reorganisation could result in £1-3 million additional total senior staffing costs per authority created. This analysis only includes senior leadership and service management roles required for the people services in the scope of this analysis; there would be further additional staffing required in support functions, including business intelligence, IT and digital, HR and finance to support these newly formed services. This programme’s modelling shows that if all new unitary councils had a population of below 300,000, this would result in a requirement for over 1,000 additional management and senior roles, with an estimated annual cost of £95m. If all authorities had a population of between 300,000 and 500,000, nearly 500 additional staff would be required at an annual cost of £41m. In contrast, if all new unitary councils had a population of above 500,000, a net reduction in senior management could be experienced.
£100,000k
£80,000k
£60,000k
£40,000k
£20,000k
£0k
£-20,000k
300k or below 300-500k
500k+
Unitary size
The forecast increase in senior staffing numbers if all new unitaries are of average population in each segment
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
-200
300k or below 300-500k
500k+
Unitary size
10
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