Pam Parkes, President of PPMA, argues that local government cannot deliver reform or growth without investing in its workforce. Ahead of the Autumn Budget, she calls for people to be prioritised, developed, and supported as the sector faces ongoing pressures and change.

As we await the Budget, the mood music is familiar: growth and prosperity remain the goal, but the path ahead will involve belt tightening and tough choices.

For local government, this is well-worn territory. The last decade has been defined by efficiency. We have delivered it, year after year, through successive funding reductions. Our communities experience those tough choices, and we all know what it means: less of everything to go around.

As we prepare for what comes next, whether that is local government reorganisation, AI adoption, new service models or deeper public service reform, we need to step back from the noise of funding rounds and shifting policy priorities and face a harder truth which remains absent from the current conversation.

None of our ambitions will be achieved without the right people, skills and capability in place in our sector. And every day where we fail to answer the question of what people and capability we need for the future is a day further away from realising our goals.

So, I have a simple message ahead of the budget: if we are serious about delivery, we need to better prioritise our people, because without them, we can’t realise our potential.

As president of the PPMA, I spend a lot of time talking to CEOs, senior leaders and, people from all parts of local government. What I hear is a story of how investment in people has been stripped back to survival levels. Training budgets have all but disappeared, leadership development is treated as optional and workforce planning reduced to vacancy management.

We keep on delivering for now, thanks to a combination of resilience and commitment to the cause. But that resource starvation which looks efficient is really a quiet act of harm to our workforce as the critical space that enables organisations to adapt – learning, reflection, development and time to think – is close to being squeezed out.

This has both an immediate and long-term cost. When our people cannot come together and share problems, perspectives and grow we are not simply depriving our communities of better services, but we are creating delivery risk now and for the future.

Underinvesting in our people also costs us dear as we find it harder to retain or attract the very people we need to tackle the challenges that get in the way of delivering growth whether that is healthier communities, better climate resilience or more housing.

I have seen myself how, in teams or workforces where talent is tempted away, capability thins and the energy of those who remain is depleted as their time and expertise is stretched to make up for positions which are unfilled or subject to churning contract workers.

If we are serious about delivery, we need to better prioritise our people, because without them, we can’t realise our potential.

This is not sustainable because what we are left with is a future workforce which isn’t being built because every ounce of energy is consumed by immediate demand and short-term priorities.

In spite of the challenges, when I speak to colleagues in the sector I remain moved by their commitment to public service and doing better. We need to do the right thing by these people who want to improve lives, serve and contribute.

That means we have to stop making it harder for them to succeed and be productive. If we want people to lead complex change, we need to give them the development they need to do it well. If dealing with costly and complex problems requires collaboration, we need to provide space to build trust and shared purpose. Innovation requires time and learning from failure, so we need to provide people with the time required to think and design. You cannot make the big leaps in productivity without those things.

Yes, there is a bigger conversation to be had about wider system design which is absent from current debate. We know that fragmented structures create waste, that it blurs accountability and incentives are often misaligned. These structural truths must be addressed. But any reform that ignores workforce reality is reform that will not stand. People must be front and centre of our thinking.

This is a message which applies within our own sector. We can’t stand in Westminster and argue for investment in people while treating workforce development as a discretionary extra. We also can’t claim that people are our greatest asset and then cut the very capability that allows them to do their jobs well.

If we want the behaviour, culture and capability that delivers growth and drives reform we most invest in people and potential from the bottom to the top of our organisations. This must be accompanied by job design and development which forges career pathways so people stay. If we want people to worker smarter, we have to accept that this cannot be done by people on permanent overdrive. We must create space and time to reflect and grow.

There will always be hard choices. But we must stop making choices that damage the very people we rely on to deliver. Without people there is no delivery. The most sustainable public service is one that builds, protects and grows its workforce. That is where effective reform begins.

By the time you read this, the decisions for this budget will be cut and dry. Our opportunity is to ensure that people are at the heart of the change we have to implement in the short term and that for future budgets their role is recognised. This means advocating for the power of our people and not shying away from calling out the decisions which damage our capability to deliver.

Discover all the latest analysis in our Autumn Budget Insights series.