The number of senior council officers has plummeted by almost a quarter (23.2%) in five years, exclusive research carried out by The MJ has revealed.

Extensive analysis of Freedom of Information Act responses show the average council senior management team was made up of 8.6 full time equivalents in 2010 but this had dropped to 6.6 by the start of 2015.

The largest average decrease was the 29% reported by unitaries, with the typical top team falling from 11.3 to eight, compared to a 21% fall for districts, where the average headcount went from 7.3 to 5.8.

Almost 80 councils reported no change in their senior management headcount – though for some this was because they had already wielded the axe.

The data also suggests some trends, with the number of senior posts with ‘health' in the title shooting up from 97 to 151, mentions of ‘commercial' almost doubling from 11 to 21 and references to ‘commissioning' increasing from 30 to 42.

In the other direction, with prime minister David Cameron wanting every school to leave local authority control, job titles with ‘learning' dropped from 46 to 26 and those with ‘school' fell from 19 to 10.

For word clouds showing the most common words used in job titles in 2010 and 2015 click here.

To read an analysis of our research click here.