'Tired' staff at heart of council's plan for 2026

The Christmas period has been a welcome break for many of the staff at Shropshire Council.

It was a time to relax and be merry, away from a struggling organisation that will look back at 2025 as a year of unprecedented change.

Employees had little say in decisions that reshaped the environment around them, including the relocation of their headquarters, a change in political leadership, the departure of their chief executive and further redundancies.

The turbulence of 2025 was the result of a single overwhelming objective for the authority: to financially survive.

At the end of the summer, the council declared a financial emergency after it became apparent that its income would not be enough to meet expenditure this financial year.

It was a tipping point that moved the authority into uncharted territory – reliant on a government loan to bring it back from the brink of effective bankruptcy.

Staff were now working for an organisation that could no longer be certain of its future - unsure of the impact that a failing council could have on their own careers and salaries.

On top of that, they were continuing to be asked to do more with fewer resources.

A recent report found that staff sickness due to anxiety, stress or depression had increased by 13% in 2024-25 compared to the previous year.

Mental health was now the cause of more than one-in-four absences and the number one reason for an employees to be off work.

With anxiety high and morale low, council leaders knew that something had to change.

In October, following the unexpected stepping down of chief executive Andy Begley, a reassuring email was sent to staff during a time of heightened insecurity.

It was written by the new interim boss, Tanya Miles, who said that no mass redundancies were being planned to find future savings.

She also wrote to acknowledge her staff's dedication and hard work and the toll it had taken on their wellbeing.

"I know you're tired," she said.

"We need you. You're all an essential part of our improvement journey."

Two months later, Liberal Democrat leader Heather Kidd presented a report to her leadership team outlining the authority's new masterplan for "developing a high-performing, inclusive, and sustainable workforce".

The idea came from a review by local government professionals who recommended that the "fractured" organisation needed to reset its relationship with its employees.

The People Plan is structured around several key aims, including improving culture, leadership, recruitment, staff retention and efficiency.

The authority is hoping that a reinvigorated workforce will contribute to its wider plan to modernise and create an authority that is more efficient and resilient.

"If we get this right, it'll be something special," she Kidd.

"We are committed to a culture built on kindness, respect and a genuine desire to help each other to succeed.

"We will never be able to deliver the savings we need to deliver without investing in our people.

"By enabling our people, we enable Shropshire," she added.

Around 300 employees left Shropshire Council with exit packages in the last two financial years - an exodus of familiar faces and expertise.

Their departures were a political decision made by the previous Conservative administration, which hoped to cut the workforce by about 10% to save £27m.

That decision was defended last month by the group's new leader, Dan Thomas, who said the "very, very difficult decisions" his party made had saved the new Liberal Democrat administration from having to make large-scale redundancies.

In other words: the Conservatives had done the dirty work.

Mass job losses have left some departments at the authority cut to the bone and struggling to provide a basic level of service - a problem discussed by council leaders in December.

The hope is that things will improve in 2026.

Difficult times still lie ahead for both staff and the residents of Shropshire, with further savings to be found, and requests for financial support from the government expected for at least the next three years.

With a new year beckoning, and a new plan to encourage, grow and revitalise the workforce, staff can return from the festive break with a little more security than at the start of last January.

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