Council to offer voluntary redundancy to all non-teaching staff

A council is to offer all non-teaching staff the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy as part of plans to significantly reduce the size of its workforce.

Shropshire Council said Government funding cuts meant it would have to find £80m in savings over the next three financial years.

The authority has already achieved a similar amount of savings between 2010/11 and the end of the current financial year.

The plans will also see the council introduce a zero-budgeting approach for all departments – “meaning managers need to produce a business case outlining the budget they need to provide a service rather than being given a set amount of money each year”.

Shropshire added that fewer staff would be needed because services would be commissioned through other organisations rather than being provided directly by the council.

It said that each application made under the voluntary redundancy scheme would be considered individually, “ensuring that statutory services can continue to be delivered effectively, and any payments will be based on the existing redundancy policy”.

Cllr Keith Barrow, Shropshire’s Leader, said: “The fact is that councils are now a very different place to work than they were five or ten years ago, and as we continue to commission more services we will need fewer and fewer staff on the payroll. 

“We are absolutely committed to keeping compulsory redundancies to a minimum, and by offering everyone the chance to apply for voluntary redundancy we hope to significantly reduce our workforce without the need for compulsory redundancies.”

In a joint statement, the GMB and Unite unions said: “A voluntary redundancy scheme has been discussed with the trade unions, and while we don’t object to the roll-out of such a scheme we would need to be clear how the scheme will be funded and that the authority will still be able to deliver statutory services effectively.”