Local Government Workforce Survey 2010

Councils have already been preparing to make savings in readiness for cuts as a result of the spending review, the latest local government workforce survey has found.

Key findings:

Even before the announcement of the spending review, many councils were taking action to reduce their workforce costs:

• A recruitment freeze had already been implemented by 63 per cent of authorities.
• Half of authorities had already reduced the number of staff posts.
• Forty five per cent had reduced management costs.

There has been an increased used in remuneration panels for chief executives:

• Nearly half of respondents (45 per cent) had remuneration committees, a significant increase on the 32 per cent who had committees in 2009.

Money spent on training and development, for both employees and members, had fallen:

• In 2009/10 the median gross training expenditure (GTE) was £185 per employee, the lowest level since 2003; looking forwards to the financial year 2010/11, over three fifths of authorities (64 per cent) thought that gross training expenditure would decrease.
• GTE per member (at £185) is now at a lower level than in 2003 (at £193 per member).

Councils are continuing to encourage leadership development, including working in partnership with other public sector organisations:

• Eighty per cent of authorities had participated in or had planned leadership development activities within their own organisations.
• Sixty per cent of authorities were already developing their senior leaders' partnership working skills to work effectively with other local public services.

Councils are continuing work promoting diversity, although the percentage of the top five earners who are women, disabled or from BAME backgrounds remains at similar levels to 2009/10:

• Seventy eight per cent of authorities monitored their workforce across equality strands.
• However, a median average of three per cent of the top five per cent of earners had a disability, and two per cent were from a BAME background.

Overall recruitment and retention difficulties continued to lessen, although many councils were still experiencing difficulties for children's social workers:

• Seventy eight per cent (of all councils with recruitment problems) stated they had recruitment difficulties for children's social workers.
• Eighty five per cent (of all councils with retention problems) reported having difficulties with retaining children's social workers.

2010 Survey

The survey was conducted by the LGA Group's Analysis and Research team, on behalf of the LGA. The LGA will draw on these results in supporting and informing the implementation and development of the Local Government Workforce Strategy.

The final response rate achieved in the England and Wales was 58 per cent (218 authorities); the England response rate was 59 per cent (207 authorities).

Main report

Local Government Workforce Survey 2010 England: Main report (PDF, 63 pages, 451KB)

Benchmarking file:

Local Government Workforce Survey 2010 - full results (XLS, 811KB)

This file allows you to view all of the results from England and Wales by whichever type of authority or region you like. The guidance notes on the cover page will explain to you how to use the file but if you do have any queries then please use the contact below.

Authorities that completed the survey are also eligible to an interactive benchmarking file that will allow you to compare your authority's results with those of other authorities. This comparison can be made using a number of different variables including type of authority and region.

If you have not received your authority's interactive benchmarking file by the end of November, please let us know via the contact below and we will re-send it.

Date: November 2010

Contact: research@local.gov.uk