City council plans to add a new senior management role to save money
Ted Peskett, Local Democracy Reporter
A Welsh council said its plan to increase the number of senior management roles will help it save hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Cardiff Council, which is faced with the task of closing a £27.7m budget gap this financial year, said having a new senior manager would result in a net cost increase of £77,000.
However, it added that the move will be offset by the ongoing delivery of other management savings.
The total savings from the local authority’s wider management reorganisation plans are estimated to be about £800,000 if they end up going ahead.
A decision on the proposals, which are subject to a consultation process with affected staff and trade unions, will be made by council cabinet members in September 2025.
‘Fit for the future’
Cardiff Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, Modernisation and Performance, Cllr Chris Weaver, said: “This restructure is about ensuring our leadership is fit for the future.
“It will help us manage change, deliver wider efficiencies, and respond to the complex challenges facing local government.
“These proposals are a necessary part of a broader realignment that supports £800,000 in management savings and strengthens our ability to serve the people of Cardiff.”
The council’s wider restructuring proposals would involve:
- The creation of new directorates focused on frontline services, city development, and strategic transformation;
- The redesignation and realignment of existing roles to improve service integration and leadership focus;
- The establishment of new posts to strengthen capacity in key areas such as planning, transport, and partnerships
‘Efficiency’
There are currently 20 senior managers, including the chief executive, at Cardiff Council.
If the local authority goes ahead with its plans, there will be 21 senior managers.
The proposals relating to senior management roles would involve:
- Deleting three roles: director of planning, transport and environment; assistant director of street scene; and head of performance and partnerships
- Creating four new roles: Director of Frontline Services; Director of Strategy, Partnerships and Transformation; Assistant Director of City Development; and Assistant Director of Planning and Transport
- Redesignating one existing role: Director of Economic Development becomes Director of Development and Growth
Earlier this year, Cardiff Council said the majority of its savings for 2025/26 would be made through efficiency and income savings and that this would account for £12.5m of savings.
Corporate savings and service change proposals will account for £5.8m worth of savings.
As well as increasing council tax and charges for a number of things, like car parking permits, Cardiff Council said it would also look at getting rid of 60 posts.
When it announced its budget plans in February 2025, the council said this would be through non-replacement of vacancies and voluntary redundancy.
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That’s what the public sector needs: more managers!
Under the counter intuitive…
More to the point who is being lined up for these roles I suspect some of the demoted people will be riding off into sunset with a nice pension payoff.
Surely that just proves that the existing 20 senior managers have failed in their roles and should have a pay cut to fund the new manager they believe they need. If you want efficiency it should apply to the top as well as the bottom and if you want to find how to actually save money those lower down often have better ideas.
Those who should be listening just can’t be bothered. Too busy jockeying for position and totting up accrued pension rights if anywhere near their last 5 years of service.
“Giz a management job, I could do his job! Giz your job, I could do your job, giz us it!” –
“The Boys from the Management”, a fantastic new series coming soon on S4C. “Raw and earthy, watch spellbound as the Cardiff managerial class battle for expenses and have “relations” in the archives. “Desperate people, desperate times!” – Bedwas Guardian.
Back in the day they used to have proper job titles that reflected responsibility. Director of Planning, Director of Education, Director of Social Services etc. Now it’s all flukey titles with no real responsibility. What the hell is a Director of Strategic Transformation? You pay a chief executive for that. Onece got stuck on a train with one of these. Director of Climate Change and Future Generations. As the train pulled into Bridgend gave him my umbrella but then had to explain it was raining. Then he pushed passed a pram. Glad to see Cardiff Busses get some investment. Needed… Read more »
It’s not just about creating new posts it’s the number of extra staff that these positions drag into being.
Who the hell used to do this job anyway, they are just making a new director to head something that should have been done by some existing directorship , it not jobs for the boys anymore it’s now more well paid jobs for the “” I know someone who may be interested in that “
When Neil McEvoy was Deputy Leader of Cardiff Council he got rid of many 100k plus roles. This is a lot of jobs for the boys nonsense. Existing managers can do this. In 2027 lets make sure we get a Propel council in power in Cardiff and get rid of Labour’s establishment of “Issue” cranks.
Having dug a 27 million pound hole in the economy the way out of it is to dig it deeper, total incompetent local and national government way of thinking. Someone is going to be vertically demoted, Again.