Councils are to get a targeted support package worth up to £10 million to help maintain leadership capacity across adult social care, public health and children’s services as England’s local government reorganisation programme gathers pace, the government has announced.
The funding will see areas undergoing reorganisation receive up to £150,000 each and is designed to ‘help manage the practical demands of reorganisation while maintaining focus on critical frontline services’ during the transition to new unitary authorities, the government said as part of a final flurry of announcements made before Andy Burnham took over from Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister.
Ministers said the move will support increased demand for statutory leaders in adult social care, as well as children’s services and public health, as two-tier local government structures shift to larger unitary councils, despite the fact that overall number of chief executive and senior corporate leadership roles are expected to fall.
The funding is designed to be used to strengthen leadership pipelines, support recruitment into critical posts and improve retention of experienced directors and senior managers overseeing care and health services, and build on existing programmes led by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), the Association of Directors of Public Health and the Local Government Association (LGA), the guidance said.
The government said it will also invest up to £1.5 million in new adult social care leadership development and mentoring initiatives focused on adult social care and public health, where ministers said workforce and recruitment challenges could be exacerbated by local government reorganisation.
Plans include a fast-track development programme for current and aspiring directors of adult social services, launching in 2027, and an expanded mentoring offer for new, less experienced and prospective directors. The government said strong leadership would be vital to maintaining service quality and overseeing major commissioning, integration and transformation programmes during the transition to unitary authorities.
Integrated social care, housing and community services
Ministers argue that the new unitary authorities will create opportunities to better integrate adult social care, housing, public health and community services, and highlight potential benefits such as closer alignment between housing and care strategies, more effective hospital discharge pathways and stronger preventative services delivered at place level.
However, the funding has been earmarked in recognition of the ‘pressure’ a crowded reform agenda will put on local authorities’ senior leaders, including changes to Care Quality Commission assessments of adult social care and neighbourhood health reforms, while also managing reorganisation, the guidance said.
Councils are being left to allocate the funding as best suits their local priorities, but the guidance suggests they use it to support ‘just one or two of these services, where leadership capacity is under the greatest pressure locally’ to support ‘careful data migration, service disaggregation, system interoperability and information governance’.
The announcement sits alongside a wider government support offer for council reorganisation, which includes up to £900,000 for each new authority created.
