Councils’ promotion body in policy cull

The Local Government Association could lose up to 40 per cent of its policy staff, it has been claimed, as part of a move to bring in “big hitters” to replace existing employees.

The association has started to make redundancies in its policy department, Community Care has been told, as part of a strategy announced earlier this year to “do less, but better” and free up £1m to hire “highly respected authorities in their field” to write specific work.

The LGA said in January that the review aimed to generate more focused policy that would set the agenda rather than respond to everything.

A spokesperson said this week the LGA would not comment on any redundancies because the review was still being undertaken.

But a source suggested the association would no longer be able to cover particular policy areas, such as substance misuse and adult learning in the community.