Council jobs transformed in BT link-up

Up
to 1,200 Liverpool City Council employees are to be seconded to a new
joint-venture company in a partnership with BT that could prove a blueprint for
the future of local government.

As
part of the initiative, worth £300m over 10 years, the council’s HR department
is being streamlined and its role transformed.

Liverpool
Direct – ‘Citizen First’ was set up to enable the council to benefit from a
cutting-edge ICT infrastructure, which it could not afford to fund itself.

All
council ICT services and the council’s call centre, the largest in the country,
are run by Liverpool Direct. They will be joined by revenues and benefits as
well as human resources and payroll later in the year.

Staff
from these departments are being seconded to the new joint-venture company, but
remain Liverpool City Council employees, with unchanged terms and benefits.

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The
HR department will be run from a new service centre. Line managers will have
more responsibility for HR issues and the intranet will play a bigger role.

HR
consultant Martin House said HR staffing levels would be halved as part of the
changes.