ICT services restructure review

The project issues
The Council was restructuring its ICT department and wanted to ensure the new structure was capable of delivering the ICT strategy in line with wider Council objectives. Socitm Consulting was asked to review the Council’s new job structure, produce job descriptions and person specifications that reflected the roles and responsibilities associated with implementation of the Council’s ICT strategy and recommend appropriate salary levels.

The Socitm Consulting solution
Working closely with the Head of IT, we compared the proposed new ICT structure with those of similar local authorities and assessed its capacity to deliver the Council’s ICT strategy. We produced job descriptions and person specifications for all roles using a matrix methodology, ensuring that they conformed to the Council’s new structure and local authority standard formats.

The job descriptions and person specifications were internally evaluated, and we used the Socitm Salary Survey and other market data to finalise salary levels to reflect the skills and responsibilities associated with the posts and to minimise recruitment and retention issues for the Council.

The Council has now implemented its ICT structure with a job structure and salary levels that are competitively positioned within the sector and appropriate for delivery of the Council’s ICT strategy.

The benefits to the client
By providing expert knowledge of ICT job descriptions, person specifications and salary levels within local government, Socitm Consulting was able to support the Council in establishing a modernised ICT department, with appropriately skilled people at competitive salary levels, capable of delivering the Council’s ICT strategy and effective customer services.

The client commented: “We were very pleased with the work that Christine Westlake did for us on this. Her approach was intelligent, knowledgeable and friendly. We implemented the new structure last year and it has proved effective and importantly, it was accepted by our staff as job done properly.”

Project identification
Client organisation: Guildford Borough Council
Client contact: Steve Wragge-Morley, Head of ICT Services, 01483 444900, steve.wragge-morley@guildford.gov.uk
Lead consultant: christine.westlake@socitmconsulting.co.uk
Project no: 5719