Chief Executive Kenneth Lawrie

A recent review of how our services are organised will see them better able to support local communities and businesses in the ongoing recovery from COVID-19 as well as moving forward over the next few years as an organisation.

That was the view of a report approved by a meeting of Falkirk Council recently that will see a number of structural changes take place over the next 20 months within services.

The main points included:

• The creation of a replacement for Development Services which will now be known as ‘Place Services’ – it will feature new Divisions: Growth, Infrastructure and Climate; Environment and Operations and; Invest Falkirk. This will include support for around £1bn of project work undertaken by the new Place Service.
• The ongoing work to re-integrate Falkirk Community Trust services into Falkirk Council which is subject to consultation.
• The movement of some teams into different services making them more able to deliver effectively through better joint working.

In the report, Chief Executive Kenneth Lawrie said: “For the majority of our employees, whilst there may be a change to reporting arrangements, they will see very little impact to their day to day responsibilities. The aim however, is that we do have a more open and transparent culture and a structure that helps us to deliver on the big challenges we face as a Council and our priorities of Communities, Enterprise and Innovation. There will also be a need for more collaborative and cross Council working.”

Consultation has now taken place and Trade Unions and other parties made their views on the implementation process however the proposed new structure in the report will remain the same. The consultation with Falkirk Community Trust is ongoing and a final decision on how these services are re-integrated will be taken at the meeting of the Council in June.

You can read the full report online.