Improving HR and OD capability in shared councils

Forty-three district councils in England now share a chief executive with one or more other council, and display various levels of service integration. Such activity is vital to delivering the government’s aims of greater efficiency and improved services in local government.

Experiences to date have been that the existing HR policies and organisation design (OD)/change management approaches have not always best facilitated the integration of, nor supported the alignment of staff behaviours with, the future goals of the councils. Evidence of similar integration in the private sector shows success is highly variable at best, and that the intended business objectives are often not fully delivered by mergers and partnering.

The Local Government Association already provides quality information and advice to authorities but has asked IES to extend this by carrying out a piece of research focusing on the experiences of ten council partnerships.

The project aims to:

• investigate the extent to which current HR and OD practices are fit for purpose and support future business goals and employee needs;
• highlight external practice and learning in similar settings;
• indicate practical measures to take and improvements that can be made;
• summarise the research and learning to be more widely applicable and disseminated across the sector and beyond.

For more information, contact [email protected]