I read that local authorities are warning the government that its own rules mean some councils will struggle to pay for the redundancies that spending cuts are forcing them to make.
England’s town halls face about 100,000 job losses following the government’s announcement in last month’s comprehensive spending review that its revenue funding to English councils will be cut by 26 per cent in real terms over the next four years.
The Local Government Association, estimates that the CSR means an overall cut to councils’ spending of 28 per cent over four years, but with 11 per cent on average in year one.
Councils have been further alarmed by the government’s decision to set a limit of £200m on its capitalisation fund for 2011-12. This limit on total council borrowing could severely restrict the scope of councils to use debt to pay for redundancies.
This illustrates one of the key issues facing local government namely redundancies costs money to implement.
Now, taking this further forward the question is how do you save redundancy costs?
1 You seek to engage in a genuine consultattion to see if the redundancies can be avoided.
2 You seek to engage in performance management as a means to deal with staff. If staff have to go, maybe tighter managemengt is a way to achieve the goal.
3 You have effective conflict resolution procedures in place to minimise the prospect of legal claims.
4 You have senior staff well trained in staff management as they will be the ones in the firing line.
Justin Patten
Mediator