BCP Council spent more than £630,000 making 21 people redundant last year, new figures show.
The number of redundancy settlements in the year to March 2023 was more than half of the previous year, with the authority saying investment in technology has necessitated “changes to [its] workforce”.
Each package had an average cost of £30,000, according to new data from the Department for Levelling Up and Communities
This is down on the 48 jobs axed the year before, at a cost of £2,203,000.
In addition, it spent £2,317,000 less than in the year to 2020 when its bill for redundancies was £2,948,000.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said that unlike the civil service, councils have seen workforces shrink while facing “increasing demand for services”.
Nationally, more than £185m was spent on staff redundancies by councils across England, the lowest annual amount in nine years.
Councillor Mike Cox, the portfolio holder for finance, said: “BCP Council continues to embark upon an ongoing transformation journey that started with Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), where multiple teams were brought together into a large unitary council to deliver services across the conurbation more effectively.
“Alongside this, achieving value for money remains a key consideration in all that the council does, and we are continually investing in technology to improve the efficiency of our services, which can sometimes result in necessary changes to our workforce.”
Cllr Pete Marland, chair of the LGA’s resources board, said: “Despite increasing demand for services, local authorities also face challenges in getting the right people into the right roles, such as in children’s services, adult social care and planning.
“Only long-term, consistent funding from central government will be enough to meet inflationary pressures and the rising costs of the National Living Wage, on top of increasing energy and other costs, if we are to avoid more redundancies and prevent exacerbating an already acute capacity crisis in some areas.”
The figures also show nationally there were 325 senior employees made redundant last year, an increase of 70 on the year ending 2022.
Together they received a total of £28m, at an average of £85,000 each.
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