Early retirement requests of Northamptonshire's senior council officers could impact unitaries

A number of experienced council officers could be retiring early and not seeing the complicated unitary reorganisation through to the end
A new rule on exit payment sums is behind some senior officers asking to retire early.A new rule on exit payment sums is behind some senior officers asking to retire early.
A new rule on exit payment sums is behind some senior officers asking to retire early.

An exodus of senior officers from Northamptonshire’s councils due early retirement deals could throw another spanner in the works of the unitary set up.

Just days after the announcement of the early retirement of the man leading the biggest reshaping of local government in Nothants in four decades, Paul Helsby, it now seems that a number of other senior officers have asked to go ahead of their planned retirement date.

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It is understood their request to leave their councils before their contracts are ended in April is due to the government’s new cap on exit payments, which will limit the amount public sector workers can take out of their pension pot to £95,000. The exit cap regulations are expected to be signed off by a minister any day now and will come into force 21 days afterwards.

A mass departure of the senior officers from across Northamptonshire’s councils could have a huge effect. All have been heavily involved in the government-ordered plan to close down the current two tier local government set up in Northants and create two new unitaries. Covid has already partly derailed the process and now the two councils will be set up in a ‘safe and legal’ basis, with some services shared between the two for the initial few years.

Leader of the Labour opposition at Northamptonshire County Council, Cllr Bob Scott, said he could understand the officers’ requests to go, but was concerned about the impact.

He said: “I am concerned that the government is bringing the cap in at this time as it creates a predicament for Northamptonshire. We could lose a lot of expertise at a time when we need it for unitary reorganisation.

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“I understand there are quite a lot of officers who have asked to go and it will be up to the chief executive and the administration to decide whether they can.

“I also understand that some officers may have become unhappy at the current time as the unitary reorganisation may have led to a lessening of their powers and responsibilities.”

But leader of South Northamptonshire Council Ian McCord has not been as sympathetic to officers.

He told the Local Government Chronicle this week that it is “wholly wrong to contrive a situation where we bring forward redundancies, just so we can stuff their mouths with cash. That would be a dubious use of taxpayers’ money.”

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Leader of Daventry council Richard Auger said he could only try and persuade an officer to stay and wanted to lead his authority in an orderly way until the close down of his council.

There are currently two shadow unitary councils in place running alongside the eight other councils in Northants. All of these will shut down on March 31 and be replaced by two new super councils. Elections to these new authorities will take place on the first Thursday in May.

There has already been some unsettling of senior staff due to the local goverment reorganisation. Managing director of Wellingborough council Liz Elliott was made interim chief executive of the North Northants Shadow authority, but resigned from the post last month after the top job in the new council was given to newcomer Rob Bridge, who has been the chief executive of Welwyn Hatfield council.

The new senior leadership team of the North unitary will also all be new to the local government in the county, apart from the director of children’s services Cathi Hadley, who has only been in post at Northamptonshire county council for twelve months.

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The West council’s chief executive will be Anna Earnshaw, currently the deputy chief executive at NCC, and she will be joined by a new staff team.

Both Wellingborough and East Northants councils said they not had received any requests from senior officers to go.

It is understood at least one officer at Corby Council wants to leave early.

A spokesman for the authority said: “The council is aware of the reforms to be implemented by Government regarding the £95k cap. Their introduction is awaited.

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“In the interim, the council will continue to operate within existing legislation and council policy with regard to any staffing matters. Discussions with any member of staff would be subject to confidentiality and subject to legal provisions.

The council can confirm that to date no decisions relating to the departure of any staff in connection with the local government reorganisation have been taken.”