Westminster poised for new structure
Author: Local Government Chronicle - Sep 24, 2009
Westminster City Council will next week begin operating under its new “strategic commissioning” framework as part of a restructuring programme designed to save £30 million over the next three years.
The authority said it believed its replacement of traditional departments with delivery units and support units would be a blueprint that other authorities would follow.
The move, which has just been given formal approval by the city council’s cabinet, will see the loss of 265 jobs.
Leader Colin Barrow (Con) said the new operating structure was a way to maintain public confidence in services at the same time as adjusting to tough economic realities.
“The council does not operate in isolation from the outside world and has reduced income from falling interest rates and government grants that are insufficient to support the services that need to be delivered,” he said.
“Our old ways of working were simply not sustainable or affordable and it is only through fundamental change that we can keep ahead of the game.
“Over the past year, we’ve had to take some tough and at times unpopular decisions in deleting posts and carrying out a number of redundancies.
“However, we firmly believe this new structure with its emphasis on commissioning services forms the blueprint that other local authorities should now follow if they wish to meet the challenges of the new financial world we operate in and the public’s rising expectations of local government.”
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