Senior leadership restructure
Posted on Wednesday 30th June 2021
Full Council has considered and supported a review of the council’s senior leadership team.
Its aim is to create a council that is fit for the future, that is best placed to maximise external and internal opportunities at greater pace, can address the challenges and exploit the opportunities of a growing city, and that always places the city of Newport and our people first.
It will support innovation, focuses on solutions, and will allow the council to do more for the city and residents, putting greater emphasis on prevention and early intervention, education, regeneration, communities and climate change.
This is stage one of a wider review that will not only create leadership capacity,but will ensure the appropriate skills at all levels of the organisation.
Newport has one of the largest and fastest growing resident population across all local authority areas in Wales, having increased by 6% since 2011.
However, while our communities have grown, the council’s workforce has decreased considerably. Overall staff numbers have reduced by almost a fifth and the most senior leadership capacity by around 40 per cent.
As a council and city we are now facing challenges no one could have anticipated when the current senior leadership structure was designed. The Covid 19 pandemic and climate emergency have revealed considerable inequalities that must be addressed. The changing role of public services, the scale of our demographic change and technological advances have made it clear that the council must change if we are to deliver local, regional and national priorities and enable our communities to thrive.
It is also recognised that as an organisation we cannot work in isolation – we need to work with partners to deliver the best for the city. Strong leadership capacity and senior level influence is vital to drive such partnerships forward.
Our growing economic strength and positioning as a key UK city is reflected in our involvement in regional and national policy agendas such as the Western Gateway, Cardiff Capital Region, Regional Partnership Board and Public Service Board. Again, this requires appropriate representation at the right level to continue our successful route to regeneration.
The review was supported by the WLGA and proposes sustainable investment that demonstrates appropriate investment to achieve considerable gains for the city in the medium and long term.