The Axe Falls As Highland Council Management Restructures To Save £310,000
20th April 2024
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Leader of the Council, Cllr Raymond Bremner said: "Members have agreed the new senior management structure which will not only deliver required budget savings but also make Highland Council’s management structure more equivalent to other local authorities. The new structure will help the council to deliver the priorities in its Programme, Budget Strategy and Delivery Plan while achieving better outcomes for local communities."
The new senior structure will initially deliver savings of £310,000, as part of the budget savings agreed by Council in the budget setting in February. It is anticipated that savings will eventually equate to around 20% of senior management team costs.
The new structure will consist of three service clusters, each managed by a new post of Assistant Chief Executive (ACE) who will report directly to the Chief Executive, Derek Brown.
The new service clusters will be:
• People - combining Health & Social Care and Education & Learning
• Place - combining Community & Place, Housing & Property and Infrastructure, Environment & Economy
• Corporate - combining the existing Depute Chief Executive Service, Performance & Governance, and Resources & Finance
Combining the current 8 Services into 3 service clusters will:
• support collaborative working across the organisation;
• help to strengthen strategy and links to operational delivery;
• align with the Highland Outcome Improvement Plan (HOIP); and
• support delivery of the Our Future Highland Programme.
Recruitment to the three Assistant Chief Executive posts has commenced and it is expected that appointments will be made by the end of April, with successful candidates taking up post from the start of May.
The Depute Chief Executive post and 7 Executive Chief Officer (ECO) posts (some of which are either filled on a temporary basis or vacant) will be deleted and the 3 new ACE posts ringfenced to ECOs who are permanent staff. The current 16 Head of Service posts (some of which are filled on a temporary basis) will then be deleted and replaced with 14 Chief Officer (CO) posts, into which existing ECOs can be matched and current heads of service can be recruited through a ring-fencing process. This second phase of the restructure is due to commence in August/September and conclude by December.
Related Businesses
Related Articles
Nominations are invited from people seeking election to the Community Councils that have fallen into abeyance since the last round of interim elections and to reform those that have submitted a petition to be reformed. This is your chance to help represent the views of your community to The Highland Council and other public agencies.
The information provided is a summary of reports from operational staff and is intended to give a general indication of typical conditions in each area at a point in time. It is not intended to imply that any individual route is entirely snow and ice free and drivers must be aware that conditions can change rapidly and make their own assessment of conditions for travelling.
At a meeting of the Caithness Committee on 20 January 2025, Members were given a progress update on projects receiving support from the Caithness Place Based Initiative Fund before homologating the re-purposing of £1,556 to the Wick Town Centre Regeneration Project. The £1,556 comes from an underspend in the completed Bus Shelter replacement project.
Members of the Caithness Committee (Monday 20 January 2025) agreed a list of prioritised programme of works for structural overlay/inlay works and surface dressing schemes which will be funded out of the Capital Budget allocation for 2025/26. In March 2024, Members agreed the Roads Capital Budget Allocation for 2025/26 as part of a 3-year investment into Roads.
At a meeting of the Highland Council's Caithness Committee (Monday 20 January 2024) Members have approved £292,162 of funding to make improvements to five play parks. Members agreed at Communities and Place Committee in November 2021 to allocate the funds received from the Scottish Government's Play Park Renewal Fund be apportioned to Area Committees based on a blend of play park conditions.
This week the Council officially launches its new and improved InvestHighland website to promote the wealth of inward investment opportunities and attract the best talent to the area. Invest Highland is supported by The Highland Council and is dedicated to promoting and developing our region as an attractive and sustainable destination for business, international investors, talent and visitors.
The information provided is a summary of reports from operational staff and is intended to give a general indication of typical conditions in each area at a point in time. It is not intended to imply that any individual route is entirely snow and ice free and drivers must be aware that conditions can change rapidly and make their own assessment of conditions for travelling.
The information provided is a summary of reports from operational staff and is intended to give a general indication of typical conditions in each area at a point in time. It is not intended to imply that any individual route is entirely snow and ice free and drivers must be aware that conditions can change rapidly and make their own assessment of conditions for travelling.
The information provided is a summary of reports from operational staff and is intended to give a general indication of typical conditions in each area at a point in time. It is not intended to imply that any individual route is entirely snow and ice free and drivers must be aware that conditions can change rapidly and make their own assessment of conditions for travelling.
The information provided is a summary of reports from operational staff and is intended to give a general indication of typical conditions in each area at a point in time. It is not intended to imply that any individual route is entirely snow and ice free and drivers must be aware that conditions can change rapidly and make their own assessment of conditions for travelling.