English local authorities are facing major struggles with recruitment and retention, with around 10% of roles unfilled and about 15-20% of recruitment failing (rising to 26% for senior planner posts). This project will explore the potential for 'local planning agencies' to address this, involving the creation of larger planning teams based on suitable geographies such as counties or combined authorities.
Possible advantages would include:
- Provide promotion opportunities without the need to move employers
- Hopefully reduce vacancies and churn (see Annex from our research)
- Support talent development and succession planning within the public sector, potential at the very least to share learning and open up mentoring and moves across teams to develop a stronger middle management tier (if properly supported by senior managers)
- More easily facilitate the creation of chief planner posts with influence
- Ensure that sufficient economies of scale exist to support specialist staff
We will be exploring this issue further and consulting with members in the coming months. If you have any views on this please contact [email protected]
