Issue - meetings
Discussion paper- managing change
Meeting: 28/01/2026 - Joint Staff Consultative Committee (Item 23)
23 DISCUSSION PAPER - MANAGING CHANGE 
PDF 181 KB
To receive a discussion paper on Managing Change.
Decision:
RESOLVED: That the Committee commented on and noted the Discussion Paper on Managing Change.
Minutes:
Audio recording – 24 minutes 23 seconds
The Human Resources Services Manager presented the Discussion Paper entitled ‘Managing Change’ and advised that:
· The impact that change would have on employees through Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) was recognised and appreciated, and four key areas were focused on to support this.
· Clear, timely and transparent communication was essential to keep staff informed and engaged.
· The 2025 Staff Event included an update on LGR progress followed by a question-and-answer session.
· Ongoing LGR updates were also provided through staff briefings, FAQ sets and other channels, and further staff surveys were planned on this and other matters.
· Wellbeing formed a key part of managing change and a session to develop resilience had been provided at the 2025 Staff Event to reinforce commitment to this.
· Personal development mornings were opportunities for staff to focus on growth and learning through skills-based webinars and e-learning.
· Targeted workshops would continue to be delivered on resilience, change readiness and wellbeing with planned sessions on managing uncertainty and other topics.
· Some of the proposed LGR Reserve in the 2026/27 Budget would be for training and development to improve the chances of staff getting their desired roles at the end of LGR.
· Managers would play a key role in managing change by ensuring individual impacts were addressed early on and translating the impacts of LGR to employees.
· The Senior Management Group had attended training to embed change management principles at leadership level which covered the different impacts change could have.
· Skills development for managers would continue to ensure that they were aligned with key messages and ensuring discussions with staff about future development.
· Staff turnover and recruitment would be monitored as uncertainty and workloads would be likely to increase through LGR due to the largescale change.
Councillor Claire Strong suggested the creation of an anonymous questions box where employees could submit questions to management and the Chair agreed that having a box like this that could be sent to multiple Council facilities would be useful.
In response to a question from Councillor Bryony May, the Human Resources Services Manager advised that the Senior Leadership Team had been communicating LGR as an opportunity. However, it was acknowledged that everyone would feel differently about the topic, and that a delicate balance of communication was required for this.
The Chair thanked the Human Resources Services Manager for their presentation of the Discussion Paper.
RESOLVED: That the Committee commented on and noted the Discussion Paper on Managing Change.