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In 2010 Babergh and Mid Suffolk embarked on a programme of integration and potential merger. One of the key drivers was achieving financial savings to meet the budget shortfalls that were forecast for the next three years.
As a result of extensive engagement and consultation and an advisory residents’ poll, it was decided that constitutional merger and the creation of a single council should not proceed but that staff and service integration was essential to achieve savings, and increase resilience and capacity to deliver the outcomes that both councils were aiming to achieve.
It is now even more apparent that the changing public sector and local government landscape requires, in addition to integration, radical approaches and a commitment to transforming the way both councils operate. Access to services will be a key issue. Our aim is to offer integrated services which are accessible to all communities across the two district councils and in the most cost effective manner. We will be working with our local communities to identify those services that are seen as critical at a community level (eg planning and housing) to ensure we meet their needs.
We are totally committed to offering integrated services which are accessible to all communities within the larger geographical area in the most cost-effective way.
We plan to work with our district councillors to develop their role and it is important that we engage all of our communities in this. We need to help communities to help themselves and by the end of the year we hope to have provided every district councillor with the training they need to guide their communities to make this possible.
The councils appointed a joint Chief Executive in May 2011 and a new joint management team will be in place by November 2011, with an integrated staff structure for the rest of the two councils in place by June 2012. The new team will, with elected Members, drive the changes needed to integrate, transform and achieve the joint vision.
Both councils are currently performing well and the current teams in Mid Suffolk and Babergh have provided the managerial leadership to achieve that.
Our restructure process is seeking to identify the best of the skills and competencies on offer from within the team and will look for untapped potential.
Our new team will then be developed to ensure that all those recruited to it are able to fulfil their potential to lead and manage the new integrated organisation.
The integration of management and service delivery means that in future there will be one management team and one operational delivery system serving two Councils (albeit working in partnership) and two different political, constitutional and governance systems.
The new model will provide strategic capacity and help us to focus on outcomes and build strong relationships to achieve our vision. Savings on the new joint senior management structure are estimated at approaching £0.5m initially, rising to nearly £0.7m by 2015/16.
Currently, both councils operate very differently.
As well as different structures in each, there are different cultures and different systems and processes in place.
Although some of these differences will survive integration, greater efficiencies and effectiveness should be achieved if those differences are minimised, operational delivery is standardised and we seek to create a new integrated model that builds on the best of the best practice in both Councils.
The new team will need to provide consistent transformational leadership that empowers others to deliver what is required of them, at the same time as integrating staffing and services and creating a new organisation.
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