Local government does not have a recruitment crisis. It has a credibility challenge and – post local government reform (LGR) – a once in a generation opportunity to fix it.
For more than a decade, councils have responded to workforce pressures by refining processes, refreshing employer brands and searching for new attraction levers. Yet vacancies remain high, reliance on interim markets endures and retention in key professions is fragile. The issue is not effort. It is that we have been designing work for yesterday's organisations while the workforce has already moved on.
At the same time, LGR has fundamentally changed the landscape. Larger organisations now exist with broader portfolios, greater scale and more influence. In theory, this should make councils some of the most attractive employers in their regions: offering varied careers, visible impact and leadership roles with genuine complexity. In practice, many have yet to translate structural change into a compelling workforce proposition.
Too often, reform has focused on structures, job titles and governance, while the experience of work itself remains untouched. Roles are enlarged without being redesigned. Spans increase without clarity. Senior leaders talk about transformation, while middle managers attempt to deliver it in systems never designed for pace or empowerment. Candidates sense this disconnect quickly – and they respond by opting out.
This is not about generational expectations or a lack of commitment to public service. Today's labour market is shaped by confidence and choice. Skilled professionals expect autonomy, trust and visible progression to be built in, not promised once ‘things settle down'. Where councils rely on stability, goodwill and purpose alone, they are increasingly competing on an outdated offer.
Post-LGR organisations, however, have an unrivalled chance to change this narrative. Scale brings opportunity – not just to standardise, but to create good work deliberately. Larger teams allow deeper specialism, clearer career pathways and sideways as well as upward movement. Broader footprints create roles with real strategic reach and tangible outcomes. But this potential will only be realised if leaders intentionally design careers, not just fill posts. And furthermore, invest sufficiently in our future workforce and succession planning to ensure that as larger organisations we can be self-sufficient and meet our own talent challenge.
Retention remains the litmus test. People rarely leave local government because they stop caring; they leave because the gap between what they are asked to deliver and how supported they feel becomes too wide. Yet intervention often comes too late. Exit interviews tell us what went wrong yesterday, not what could still be put right today. Organisations that succeed are those that spot frustration early, reshape roles, back managers and treat development as an investment – not a luxury.
There is also a leadership challenge to confront. Promoting technical excellence without the space or skills to lead through complexity creates burnout on both sides of the hierarchy. Post-LGR councils cannot afford leadership by survival. They need leaders who are equipped, trusted and held accountable for creating environments where people can do their best work. The scale and personal responsibility in these larger councils commands more of our senior leaders, we need to design leadership roles and routes into leadership more then we have before.
Local government remains one of the few places where careers can combine scale, purpose and impact. LGR has increased that potential, not diminished it. But belief in the offer cannot be assumed. Senior leaders now face a choice: view reform as an administrative exercise – or seize it as the moment to redesign work, careers and leadership for the long term.
The councils that thrive will be those brave enough to stop asking how they attract people, and start proving, every day, why people should stay.
Three years post-LGR, workforce design, planning and future talent are critical priorities for us at North Yorkshire Council. Our resourcing and talent development professionals are challenging traditional thinking. We have moved beyond the creation of initial integrated structures into talent mobility, excited by what our scale now enables us to achieve.
And we are firmly in charge of our own destiny, to secure the workforce we need for the future is in our own hands, nobody else's.
Sarah France-Gorton is Head of Resourcing Solutions at North Yorkshire Council
