Pam Parkes, president of the PPMA, argues that the leadership mindset and HR are the missing links in local government transformation.
Local government stands at a crossroads. While much attention now focuses on structural change and financial challenges, this risks overlooking the fundamental shift in leadership mindset required to navigate this once in a generation set of reorganisations successfully.
Having witnessed transformation in the sector from a range of vantage points through my career, the one theme which stands out most is how local authorities underestimate what successful change demands. The stark reality is that many leaders – and therefore leadership teams – are poorly equipped to prepare for the magnitude of change ahead.
The problem begins with a critical misdiagnosis. Leaders – and their sponsors – typically view reorganisation through the lens of structures, systems, and finances – the tangible elements of change that can be documented in plans and measured in spreadsheets. While these are necessary components, they aren't sufficient for successful transformation.
What's consistently underestimated is the leadership capability required. Leading through significant change requires fundamentally different skills to managing a stable organisation. It demands vision, resilience, and the ability to inspire others through uncertainty – qualities that aren't automatically present in those whose strengths are in capably managing services.
Too often, councils assume their existing leadership team will drive transformation simply because they hold senior positions. This is a dangerous assumption. The ability to manage day-to-day operations differs markedly from the ability to envision and deliver transformational change. Those responsible for designing the future need to be fully committed to it, not invested in preserving aspects of the past.
This requires difficult decisions about who is – and isn't – equipped to lead through transformation. Building an effective transformation team means selecting leaders for their change capabilities rather than their tenure or technical expertise. This is where HR plays a vital, yet frequently underutilised, role.
Historically, HR has been brought in after key decisions are made, tasked with implementing workforce changes rather than shaping them. This is a significant missed opportunity. HR should be central to transformation planning, working alongside finance from the outset to ensure that organisational design supports both financial sustainability and workforce capability.
Culture presents another blind spot. Every reorganisation creates a performance penalty – the temporary drop in productivity and engagement that occurs during transition. Left unmanaged, this penalty becomes permanent, with disengaged staff, unclear expectations, and unaddressed cultural shifts damaging service delivery long after structural changes are complete.
Leaders must actively shape culture rather than assume it will naturally evolve. This requires deliberate attention to how people experience change, how decisions are made, and how success is defined and recognised. Communication isn't simply about broadcast messages explaining what's happening but creating genuine two-way engagement where feedback shapes direction.
For HR professionals, this presents both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to elevate beyond transactional responsibilities to become true strategic partners in transformation. The opportunity is to demonstrate how people-centred approaches directly impact transformation outcomes.
What does this mean in practice? HR must have a central role in helping leaders understand the human dimensions of change, identify and develop transformation capabilities, design cultures that support high performance, and create engagement strategies that maintain workforce resilience. These aren't soft additions to the ‘real work’ of reorganisation – they're fundamental to whether it succeeds or fails.
For leaders, the imperative is clear: recognise that successful transformation requires a different mindset and skillset than business as usual. This means honestly assessing your own and your team's capability for leading change, creating space for different voices and perspectives, and treating culture as a strategic priority rather than an afterthought.
The reorganisation ahead offers a once-in-a-career opportunity to reshape local government for the better. But this potential will only be realised if leaders embrace the full complexity of transformation, moving beyond structural solutions to address the human dimensions of change.
Those who succeed will be the ones who recognise that leadership mindset and HR capability aren't peripheral to transformation success – they're at its very heart. The question isn't whether local government will change, but whether its leaders are prepared to change themselves.
Pam Parkes is the President of the PPMA, the professional network for HR and OD practitioners in the public sector which is now in its 50th year www.ppma.org.uk.
