Whitehall proposals to reform local government have sparked fears of job losses among solicitors. Yet reshaped councils could generate opportunities, hears Grania Langdon-Down


With local authorities preparing for the latest round of structural reforms, leaders of the 4,000 solicitors and trainees who work in local government are determined the proposals should be seen as an ‘opportunity, not a threat’, dismissing suggestions that there could be large numbers of redundancies as ‘scaremongering’.



The government has billed the local government White Paper, Strong and Prosperous Communities, as a way of giving local people and local communities more influence and power to improve their lives.



There are two possible options for reorganisation which will directly impact on legal teams. County councils that successfully apply to merge with district councils in their area to create a unitary authority will have to consolidate their legal teams. On the other hand, district councils that succeed in becoming unitary authorities in their own right will take over responsibilities and powers from county councils, so increasing their need for specialist lawyers.



The proposals are likely to exacerbate tensions between county and district tiers. Some district councils see the applications by county councils for unitary status as a takeover, with reports that the changes could result in more than 100 redundancies among lawyers. At the same time, county councils historically do not like handing over powers and responsibilities to district councils.



However, according to Nigel Snape, chairman of Solicitors in Local Government (SLG), the indications are that the number of county councils which succeed in applying for unitary status will be very few. ‘Speaking recently, Sir Michael Lyons [who has been advising the government on the future role, function and funding of local government] made it clear that the White Paper was “not a general reorganisation proposal for all, but only for a few who had a strong case”.



‘We are clearly not looking at a repeat of the widespread changes to the structure of local government that we saw in the 1980s or 1990s, and even they did not result in a major loss of local authority solicitor posts, so it is ridiculous to suggest that will happen now. Reports of more than 100 redundancies are unlikely – I think we are talking about a handful.’



He says the volume of legal casework is dictated by the range of functions being undertaken, not by how the authorities are structured. ‘At an individual level, there could be some redundancies among a few senior managers but, overall, the need for good-quality in-house legal staff is unlikely to diminish. Many of us who have lived through previous local government changes know that it is often a time of great opportunity.’



Mr Snape, who is head of legal services at Malvern Hills District Council with a team of three solicitors, says Worcestershire County Council considered going for unitary status but decided against it. However, he says: ‘Take someone in my position. I am not at retirement age, so I wouldn’t be looking to leave local government. While I might not be the head of legal in a new unitary authority, I am quite sure there would be a position for me.’



Dafydd Jones, who represents local government solicitors on the Law Society Council, agrees that lawyers ‘shouldn’t have too much to fear’. A solicitor with Cyngor Gwynedd Council, based in Caernarfon, he experienced similar changes in 1996. Three district councils merged with the county council to form a unitary council and he moved from being a principal legal officer at Arfon to becoming part of a seven-strong legal team specialising in housing.



Speaking personally, he says: ‘We feared the reorganisation at first but it made sense because it was well managed and proportionate. The disadvantage is in career progression, in that we lost three chief officer posts. However, district council solicitors are very much jacks-of-all-trades, whereas in a unitary authority you can specialise, which benefits you individually and the community. You are also part of a bigger legal department, which means you benefit from the exchange of ideas and have more opportunities to go on courses, as well as better research facilities, libraries and IT support.’



Meic Sullivan-Gould is president of the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors, which has about 500 members and represents more senior council lawyers. He says they were ‘disappointed’ that the White Paper was actually not more radical in delegating powers to a more local level.



He predicts that the proposed reforms will have only a ‘marginal’ impact on legal services because the work will still have to be done. Some of the proposals will lead to increased demand for legal support, such as the move to allow authorities to delegate powers to an individual councillor to make decisions in respect of their own ward.



Mr Sullivan-Gould, who is head of legal services at the London Borough of Hackney, says: ‘Those decisions will be susceptible to judicial review and will involve issues of human rights, equality and propriety. Councillors will need a lot of legal support in making decisions to avoid embroiling themselves in huge problems.’



Where the changes may have an affect is among senior managers. ‘It is impossible to say if jobs are at risk. In some areas, there are proposals for more authorities with wider powers, which would mean more heads of legal and career development opportunities. In other places, councils could be brought together which would mean a few people competing for one job. But that is likely to be limited.’



Durham County Council is one of those bidding for the creation of a unitary council. Linda Walker is head of its legal services, with a team of 22 fee-earners, including solicitors, a barrister, and legal executives. There are seven district/borough councils within the area – five have their own in-house legal teams and heads of legal, while the two smallest outsource their legal work. She does not envisage any redundancies among the lawyers, with the work currently being outsourced likely to be brought in-house.



While the change would mean fewer posts as head of legal, she argues: ‘There will still be career progression because there will be more assistant heads and principal solicitors in the new authority. Being part of the new authority will also mean greater variety and depth to the work, so solicitors will be able to increase their specialisation. At present, district councils do not deal with minerals and waste disposal planning matters – which feature significantly in County Durham – as those are county matters. A new unitary authority would give planning lawyers the opportunity to gain experience in all areas of planning.’



One authority wrongly reported to be seeking unitary status is Hampshire County Council, which has 11 district councils and the two unitary authorities of Southampton and Portsmouth in its area, and no plans to reorganise.



Kevin Gardner, head of its legal practice, with a team of 53 fee-earners, says the White Paper should be seen as an ‘opportunity not a threat’. He explains: ‘What I expect in two-tier areas like Hampshire is that both county and district councils will have to look at how they achieve improvements in efficiency and better joined-up working. Hampshire has already made steps towards this, with all of the legal departments signing up to the Hampshire legal partnership, whereby we agree to exchange knowledge and experience, and make sure we work effectively across boundaries.’



George Curran, vice-chairman of the SLG, predicts the most likely outcome of the proposed changes is that some district councils in large towns will seek unitary status. ‘It is most unlikely the government will agree to county councils becoming unitary authorities because the emphasis in the White Paper is about getting closer to the community and working for it at a more local level.’



Now retired after 27 years as a local government practitioner, he works as a locum solicitor, currently for West Wiltshire District Council and Harlow District Council. ‘I think that if district councils seek unitary status, the impact on the legal staff is likely to be neutral. The district council would take over responsibility for areas such as education and social services from the county council and would need to recruit lawyers experienced in those areas. The question then arises as to whether the county council would need to reduce its staffing. However, when I worked in Lancashire during the last reorganisation, we covered 12 district council areas, so when Blackpool and Blackburn became unitary authorities, it hardly affected the county council at all.’



The more general issue, he says, is that there are currently insufficient solicitors to meet the demands of local government, which is forcing authorities either to band together with reciprocal arrangements or to put in place collective contracts with solicitors’ firms.



He is concerned that recruitment might be further damaged ‘if there is a perception in the legal world that authorities are going to have parts cut away and redistributed’.



For Ms Walker, it is important to balance ‘scaremongering’ reports of job losses. ‘The impact may vary in counties where there are big district councils, which have large legal services, but at the end of the day, the work will still be there to be done. It is worth bearing in mind that this will affect only a handful of authorities, so the impact will be minimal overall.’



As Mr Snape maintains: ‘I would say that this is a very good time to come into local government and not a time to take fright.’



Grania Langdon-Down is a freelance journalist