Dudley Council to cut top jobs by half to save £1.5m

The number of top jobs at Dudley Council will be cut from 61 to 36 as part of a senior management restructure which the struggling local authority hopes will save as much £1.5m in the next 12 months.

A report, backed by the Conservative-run local authority’s cabinet, said the number of roles will be slashed by almost half to cut a £7m wage bill shared by senior staff.

The ‘first phase’ of the restructure includes statutory officers such as the council’s chief executive, chief financial officer, monitoring officer, director for adult social care, director for children and young people and director for public health.

The council said it would be advertising “as soon as possible” for a permanent chief executive, chief financial officer and monitoring officer – all roles that have to be filled by law.

The new structure includes a £195,000 chief executive, four ‘group’ directors earning between £135,000 and £155,000 as well as five director roles with salaries between £118,000 and £130,000.

The roles include ‘group’ directors for the council’s ‘core’ business – which includes finance and commissioning – as well as ‘social care and wellbeing’ that covers adults and children’s services and public health.

The director roles also include ‘communities and growth’ for planning, infrastucture, waste and recycling and culture, and ‘housing and assets’ which covers social housing and homelessness.

Five other directors would be paid between £104,666 and £115,000.

The remaining management roles would sit in the council’s ‘third tier’ with salaries set between £90,111 and £101,244.

The ‘third tier’ includes 21 roles that are still to be confirmed by Dudley Council with the authority going out to consultation on the ‘second phase’ of its restructure next month.

At the start of the year, Dudley Council revealed plans to save £42m in the next five years – which included council tax rises, cutting staff and selling off land and buildings.

The cabinet report outlining the council’s restructure admitted the council had faced “significant issues around governance, member and officer working, poor culture, silo working, under delivery of savings and performance concerns.”

“There was a reliance on windfalls and grants and diminishing reserves to help close the gap between income and expenditure, without robust plans in place to address the root causes of the shortfall,” the report added.

Dudley Council said the restructure would “put in place a clearly defined layor of senior management” where ‘accountability and responsibilities were clear.’