Capacity, Expertise and Resources
We have a small internal team, supported by external subject matter experts, that has been assembled to support the reorganisation process. This external expertise will cover a number of disciplines and provide knowledge of two-tier local government reorganisation, its financial information, structures and services; will support the development of the detailed full proposal; and support the definition of the design for delivering a model of local government for Devon.
This work will undertake an options appraisal and service design working in collaboration with the other Devon councils and public sector partners where possible. It will also seek to incorporate the work and recommendations of the Member governance group and other partners. It will operate in such a way that the public, businesses, other public sector partners can input into developing options in the coming months.
Capacity Funding
In terms of capacity funding for the work to be completed to develop a full proposal by November, this is yet to be finalised. Our approach would be to provide the leadership needed as part of business as usual for the Council. Capacity funding for additional costs incurred such as for the following in likely to be required:
- Technical Support on financial analysis
- Newton Europe and other expertise to support analysis on the impacts on people-based services
- Public engagement including events, web-based polls etc and
- Any legal and democratic support to develop Elected Member representations, potentially proposed boundary changes, parish-ing where parishes do not exist, and community structures including devolving decision making.
Indicative Implementation Costs
Work is being undertaken to understand the costs and benefits associated with reorganisation in Devon. The potential benefits must be robustly assessed and considered alongside the one- off costs of delivering the changes. The costs of transition to any new structure will be considerable. Costs will include potential impacts of disaggregating services, workforce costs (redundancy and pension allowances), systems alignment, ICT, contract changes, estates and facilities, legal, professional and specialist support, communications, branding and training costs. We will consider payback periods as part of the evidence base as we move forwards and the potential benefits.
National research has been undertaken around the costs and benefits of local government reorganisation, whilst there is a body of evidence from those areas that have undergone reorganisation over recent years including from neighbouring authorities in Somerset, Cornwall and Dorset.
Devon has a population of over 1.2 million people, across 11 local authorities, which includes two existing unitary councils. Therefore, this will be a large and complex reorganisation programme. From previous local government reorganisation, we know costs have been reported informally in national LGR network discussions as ranging from £20m to over £100m. We will confirm our view on the expected cost of implementation in our final submission to government in November.
Collaborative and Cost Sharing Approach
Where there is agreement, costs of the work required will be shared as appropriate across the councils in Devon whilst any funding made available by government will be utilised by this group with the agreement and authorisation of the respective leadership teams of the Devon councils. The Devon S151 and Chief Executive group would be the proposed forum where this is considered.
The work will be developed while not distracting the organisation and allowing it to focus on delivering business as usual. A ‘check, challenge and development’ approach will be applied which allows Members and the senior leadership team to provide shaping, development and influence the design, both during and at the conclusion phase of the options appraisal. These options will then be used for wider engagement and further refinement.
Our intention is to reach a democratically confirmed position before November in collaboration with local partners, and we hope that timely further feedback from MHCLG in response to this interim plan will assist us in doing so.
Continuity of service delivery
To ensure that services continue to be delivered and improved, a small core group of staff will focus on reorganisation, leaving the remaining staff and senior leaders to focus on continuing to deliver and improve services for the people of Devon.