Posted on: 17/06/2025

Thought Leadership

Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) challenges councils to lead through complexity, not just restructure. It demands strong leadership, cultural clarity, and space for reflection. By investing in people, behaviours, and shared values from day one, councils can turn disruption into opportunity. With the right support, LGR becomes a catalyst for leadership growth, stronger teams, and a more resilient organisation ready to thrive beyond transition.

By Matthew Hotten Chartered MCIPD, Senior Consultant, West Midlands Employers

Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) is not simply a technical or administrative challenge. It is a deeply human one. It tests leadership under pressure, uncovers the cracks in organisational culture, and puts the spotlight on how well-prepared a council is to adapt, not just structurally, but behaviourally.

What’s often overlooked in these moments is that LGR isn’t a one-time event. It is a period of prolonged transition. And the question that matters most is this: how do we sustain our people, our leaders, our teams, and our culture through that uncertainty?

Leadership isn’t a function, it’s a force multiplier

There’s a prevailing myth in transformation programmes that if you get the structure right, everything else will follow. But structure alone doesn’t change how people behave, how they show up, or how they lead others.

We need to think of leadership as infrastructure. Not a role or title, but a capability that, when strengthened, multiplies the organisation’s ability to navigate disruption. In the context of LGR, that means investing in the mindset, confidence, and psychological readiness of leaders, not just their ability to follow a plan.

Recent lessons from the most recent wave of LGR programmes (Grant Thornton, 2024) confirm that leadership capacity is one of the most critical, and often underestimated, enablers of successful transformation. Without this deliberate investment, councils struggle to maintain pace and coherence through transition and post-vesting.

Creating headspace where it's most needed

Leadership during LGR doesn’t mean knowing everything. It means holding space for others, making sense of complexity, and role modelling calm and clarity. But few leaders can do that without first having room to process their own uncertainty.

This is where structured reflection and trusted support become vital. Whether it’s through 1:1 guidance, facilitated thinking time, or a chance to explore perspectives in confidence, these spaces equip leaders to think well under pressure. They challenge assumptions, strengthen emotional agility, and restore strategic focus. In a moment of transformation, that’s not just helpful. It’s essential.

Culture will decide whether the new organisation succeeds

Reorganisations often result in councils with new names, new structures and new reporting lines. But people don't change culture because the org chart does. They change when they feel seen, understood, and part of shaping the future.

Examples such as Cheshire East’s ASPIRE framework show how defining shared values early can set the tone for the new council, giving staff and leaders alike a clear behavioural anchor amid structural disruption.

That’s why cultural alignment must be a deliberate priority during LGR. If leaders aren’t equipped to nurture a shared sense of purpose, if behaviours and values aren’t discussed and agreed, then you don’t just risk confusion. You risk fragmentation.

Culture work can’t wait until things “settle”. It must begin alongside structural change and be championed by those with the most influence: your leaders.

LGR is a leadership development opportunity, if you choose to see it that way

We often talk about the risks of reorganisation: service disruption, morale loss, staff exits. But what if we reframed it as a leadership development opportunity? Not as a crisis to be managed, but as a chance to grow new capabilities, strategic foresight, systems thinking, adaptive capacity.

Through our partnership with SOLACE, we’ve supported councils to use the Apprenticeship Levy to develop future-ready leaders via the Level 5 Emerging Leaders Apprenticeship. When combined with organisational development initiatives, such as culture workshops and facilitated leadership support, this creates a deliberate investment in the leadership bench strength councils need, not just to survive LGR, but to lead beyond it.

Let’s be clear on what good looks like

When LGR is done with people at the centre:

• Leaders feel resourced, not burdened
• Culture becomes a foundation, not a friction point
• Teams stay engaged and hopeful
• The new organisation feels coherent, not just combined

Both the Grant Thornton report and the PPMA/IDeA guidance remind us that managing people and leadership well through major transitions isn’t just about preserving morale, it is a fundamental driver of outcomes. Councils that invested in cultural clarity, leadership capability, and robust programme governance emerged stronger and more cohesive; those that didn’t often found that ‘safe and legal on day one’ wasn’t enough to deliver real transformation.

West Midland Employer’s LGR leadership and organisational development support is designed to meet the moment. If you'd like to talk more about how we can support your leaders through reorganisation,

For more information:

View WME's Local Government Reorganisation Offer  or Get in touch