Below are some of the questions that have already been asked. In some cases, the answers will become clearer once the leadership board comes into effect, from 1 March 2025.
We will continue to update FAQs as more detail is worked through, over the coming weeks and months.
See the leadership board structure here.
What are the different roles in the leadership board and how will they work together?
Led by the Chief Executive, Executive Directors will be responsible for long-term strategic planning for the council. They’ll lead on reviewing and updating progress towards objectives, lead oversight boards and service planning, drawing on lessons learnt. They will also lead on engaging with members and political leadership in our forward planning.
New leadership roles, reporting to the Executive Directors, will focus on medium-term strategic planning. They’ll work closely together as a group, with time and space to collaborate on cross-organisational issues reducing silo working – creating a one organisation approach.
The Director of Children’s Services will manage a senior leader for children and young people, providing a focused resource in line with statutory requirements and our priority to put children at the heart of everything we do.
What happens to the ‘Place’, ‘People’, ‘Resources’ and ‘Health, Wellbeing and Prevention’ directorates – are they part of the new structure?
No, there will no longer be separate directorates, and no executive director responsible for each. The leadership board will take shared responsibility for the council’s longer-term strategic direction. This will help to break down silos and bring teams closer together to tackle issues, deliver outcomes and agreed priorities as efficiently and effectively as possible
What will be different for the rest of the council on the 1 March?
The new ways of working are another step towards implementing our new operating model, which will develop further with engagement with everybody. For most people, there will be no change to their immediate line manager. For senior managers and heads of service who currently report into an assistant director, there will be interim arrangements where needed while our new ways of working are developed, alongside restructures across the wider organisation.
What is the line management arrangement for teams affected by the restructure?
The leadership board will confirm new reporting arrangements for individuals, teams and services over the coming weeks.
How will the new senior management structure affect the resizing and rightsizing plans across the rest of the council?
The new senior management structure will help make savings towards our immediate budget challenge whilst supporting our transformation aims to become a more agile organisation, able to respond to the changing local needs and national priorities in the future.
The senior leadership team will be reducing by 35%, from 19 roles to 12.5 since April 2024.
What impact will this have on rightsizing already underway for individual teams?
The wider council restructuring plans will continue alongside the senior management restucture, as part of the priority group schedule that has already been shared.
This takes account of cross-cutting, organisational restructures in line with our new operating model.
Senior managers will continue to work with services to ensure that these reflect the new way the council will work
Will the new model result in similar activities across the council being centralised where possible?
Yes, centralising of services in the council is an option that might be considered by the new leadership board as part of wider organisational development decisions. The transformation programme we are undertaking is fluid and will evolve to meet the ongoing and ever-changing needs of the organisation.
When will I find out where my service sits within the new structure?
The senior management restructure is the first phase of cross cutting restructures that will take place across the organisation.
Now that Leadership Board are in their roles, they will be involved in planning for the next phase of designing the council we need to be. From 1st April, we hope to be able to confirm where individual services will sit in the new structure.
As there are no longer to be directorates, does this have implications for the Council's People and Place Overview and Scrutiny Committees which are directorate facing?
The overview and scrutiny committees are focused on Council’s priorities as well as the directorates, the themes cut across the current directorates. As with all things that the Council does, the delivery of the priorities is the underpinning focus, and this will be ongoing. Any developments to the overview and scrutiny committee will fit with the more thematic approach that has been set out with the new way of working, and the wishes of the Council following the local elections in May. Executive Directors will continue to provide leadership support into the committee structure.
Is there a key for the colour coding on the new structure?
The colour coding on the structure chart relates to the new operating model diagram. Services and teams represented in dark red sit within the strategic core of the model, and these include the leadership board and legal and democratic services, whilst those in lighter red are commissioning services. Orange relates to the communities and customer service part of our operating model, whilst the grey elements are part of internal and external service delivery.
These elements will overlap and work together as part of our new operating model, 
to enable a new way of organising ourselves and a more efficient way of interacting with our customers.
With no directorates, does this mean the executive directors will lead on areas that are outside of their specific area of responsibility linked to their statutory role?
Yes, the role of executive directors in the leadership board is designed to be more flexible, resilient and cross-functional. The Executive Team is smaller but will continue to have overall responsibility for decision making in the organisation. This means they will, as previously, have executive lead on areas outside their specific statutory responsibilities and the new arrangements will provide greater resilience and better oversight of the Council's priorities, supporting a more integrated approach to service delivery. This aligns to our value of having agile leadership.
How will the upcoming local elections affect the restructuring of the council?
May’s local elections will elect councillors for every electoral division on the council. It will also determine a new administration, cabinet group and political leadership of the Council.
We are a democratic, member-led organisation, which means that policy decisions are taken by elected members. The officer structure of the council is the responsibility of the head of paid service, the chief executive.
The senior management restructure has been designed to make the whole organisation agile enough to adapt to any future changes that could come from elections, either local or national, allowing a consistent investment of time and focus to work with members on essential strategic planning for the future.
As an example, the executive team is smaller and will, as previously, have executive lead on areas outside their specific statutory responsibilities. The new arrangements will provide greater resilience and better oversight of the Council's priorities, supporting a more integrated approach to service delivery that can be flexed to align to political priorities in way not possible under the previous structure.
If you have more questions, please add them to this form . Even though it may not be possible to answer every question until the next steps are underway, this will help to inform future updates.