Kent County Council management restructuring should be put on hold

Folkestone West County Councillor Tim Prater has endorsed a move by the Kent County Council Liberal Democrat Group to ask for a suspension of management restructuring at Kent County Council, saying "there are bigger things that need doing now".

The main opposition group at Kent County Council have decried the Council's proposed top staff reorganisation as not sufficiently radical, not delivering enough savings, and preventing staff from getting on with the job of protecting front-line services and preparing their budget for next year.

That's the view of the Kent County Council (KCC) Liberal Democrat Group, who have today delivered their response to KCCs proposed restructure of the top 29 highest paid officers to Kent County Council's Group Managing Director Katherine Kerswell. They have asked her to stop the reorganisation until next years budget is decided, and consider more streamlined options next year when new Government legislation affecting health and care services will have been published.

Kent Liberal Democrat Group Leader and Leader of the Opposition Trudy Dean explains:

"The restructure is being rushed through at the worst possible time. Staff are having to produce a budget for next year against the deepest cuts most of them will ever have experienced. They all need to be focused on protecting public services.

"KCC failed to get the views of top officers on the structure before it was published. We have some of the most experienced highly paid officers in the country. Why didn't we ask them what they thought?

"Kent are proposing a structure where the Children's Protection Officer is not responsible for child care services, and all the highest risks to vulnerable people are concentrated in one huge department which has to take over new health responsibilities as well. There has been no robust assessment of either the costs or the risks associated with this new structure. That makes it too big a gamble. For minimal savings it's not worth the candle."

Tim Prater added:

"It's clear that Kent County Council faces huge challenges - now. As with other Councils, in the next month, details of what cash is available to Kent for next year will be published in full, and there will be hard choices to be made. Councillors, and the Council's Officer team and all staff, should be concentrating every moment on how to protect key services at this time - not being forced into applying for new jobs in a new structure which will cause diversion, dissent and doubt.

"If we take the eye off the ball now, its possible that poor decisions will be made at exactly the time we can least afford them. There are bigger things that need to be done now. We should focus on delivering the best possible services with the reduced funding that will be available - not spending the next few key months on a reorganisation of desks."

You can read the full response by the Liberal Democrat Group to Katherine Kerswell at http://tinyurl.com/23t97t6