Herts County Council to avoid compulsory redundancies ‘wherever possible’ as it contemplates cutting 400 jobs

Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) will avoid compulsory redundancies “wherever possible” as part of its ‘organisational resourcing’ review, councillors have been told.

A team of consultants has been brought in to look at staffing, processes and use of technology at the authority. That work – designed to cut HCC costs by up to £16m a year – is expected to lead to a reduction in headcount of 400.

At a meeting of the county council’s employment committee on Monday (Feb 26), councillors were told that compulsory redundancies would be avoided “wherever possible”.

Updating them on the ongoing review, deputy chief executive Scott Crudgington – who will become interim chief executive from April 1 when his boss, Owen Mapley, moves on – pointed to the council’s financial challenges and growing workforce.

He said “financial headwinds” for local government continued to be “extremely difficult”, with the council looking to use £11m from reserves in 2024-25 and make savings of £46m.

The current number of employees – which has grown to 8,800 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic – was unsustainable in the long term, said Mr Crudgington.

He suggested that delivering £8m of savings in 2024-25, rising to £16m in subsequent years, would require a reduction of approximately 400 full-time equivalent (FTE) roles.

But turnover of existing staff and succession planning within the organisation would offer the sort of flexibility needed to minimise the level of compulsory redundancies.

He warned against interpreting the need to reduce staff numbers as “simply 400 redundancies”.

“If anything, one of the things that we need to do as an organisation is to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible,” said Mr Crudgington. “We need to use the opportunities the vacancy freeze has brought about that gives us some flexibility.”

As well as cutting costs, it was reported to councillors that the review was about embracing innovation, removing frustrating processes and improving colleague experience.

In response to a question from Labour group leader Cllr Nigel Bell, Mr Crudgington said the review intended to streamline processes, not to impact front-line services.

The leader of the county council Cllr Richard Roberts said: “I want to say a massive thank you to our staff, who are operating over 500 services. And a lot of those services – demand-led – are running quite hot. In other words, demand is high.

“And while today we are talking about reducing the numbers of staff, in other areas we have recruitment deficits – we have vacancies of some 800.

“And I think part of this reorganisation will be balancing that recruitment need, that scarcity, alongside making sure our organisation is entirely fit for purpose.”

Overall, £16m has been allocated to the review. Of this, £3m was awarded in a contract to consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Earlier this month the county council set a £1.1bn budget for services in 2024-25 – which is £98m more than in the current 2023-24. To do so, it has had to use £11m of reserves, increase council tax by 4.99% and identify £46m of savings.