Solihull Council staff offered resign-for-cash scheme in bid to save £2.7m

Paul Johnson, Solihull Council's chief executive speaking at the meeting
-Credit:Solihull Council


Solihull Council is offering staff the opportunity to resign in return for a pay-off in a bid to save more than £2.5 million. All council employees, except school staff, with three or more years service at the cash-strapped authority are eligible to apply.

The scheme enables employees to leave their jobs with the authority - which employs around 6,000 people - in return for a severance payment. As the Local Democracy Reporting Service has previously reported, the authority is facing a £6.8m deficit to end of this financial year, with officers challenged to find savings.

Paul Johnson, the council’s chief executive, told councillors at a meeting of the authority’s remuneration committee: “Members will be well aware of the financial challenges the council is facing. We have had a financial sustainability board looking at all options to deliver savings to achieve a balanced budget.

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“After looking at various options to reduce the cost of the council’s workforce, obviously one of our most expensive costs, we have this proposal. What we have put as a target is to achieve a saving through this scheme of at least £2.7 million.

“Looking at the profile of our workforce we think there will be employees who are interested so we feel it is appropriate." It was explained the scheme is different to voluntary redundancy - where the council would make certain job cuts but asks for redundancies first.

The Mutual Early Resignation Scheme is based on schemes other councils have used, with no legal obligation on Solihull Council to accept any individual application. The plan is for the authority to invite applications in March with decisions made on individuals in April.

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The payment would be based on 65 per cent of a basic salary - the equivalent of 33.8 weeks pay. Anyone who leaves under the scheme would not be able to return to a role at the authority for two years.

Adrian Cattell, the authority’s head of human resources, said he and the chief executive had met with representatives of unions Unison and the GMB. “They did not raise any concerns, noting it was a voluntary scheme,” he said.

Coun Richard Long asked: “If you have done over 20 years service a redundancy programme might look more appealing than this - is there a risk we lose younger people and affect our age profile?” Mr Cattell replied: “It depends on people’s personal circumstances.

“It may apply to some older people who are thinking about retirement or others who are younger, who might want to look at a career change. Yes, it's a voluntary scheme, but the council reserves the right to say no (to any application).”

Coun Tony Dicicco asked: “Do you expect the takeup will give you the £2.7 million target?” The chief executive replied the target was equivalent to 40 to 50 staff and was "realistic".

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“We don’t want to set a target of 500 to 600 staff, it just wouldn’t be realistic," he said. Mr Johnson added: “We have issued a very clear message to staff that the council will not be having a voluntary redundancy scheme.

“What we don’t want is employees waiting for something else - we have had to be clear this is the scheme.” Solihull Council leader Coun Ian Courts said: “Redundancy is a very different thing.

“It comes from the employer and your position is no longer needed. This is quite different.” Councillors agreed to introduce the scheme at the meeting held at the Civic Suite on January 27.