Local Government (LG) Professionals Australia, New South Wales (NSW) – the leading training and advisory association for local council professionals across NSW – says the state government’s plan to merge councils is a prime opportunity to continue to embed best practice across the sector.
Annalisa Haskell, Chief Executive Officer of LG Professionals, NSW said, “The future is bright. NSW is in the driving seat to lead the way with local council reform by creating a process that delivers high quality, professional services and enhances community engagement.”
Ms Haskell stressed the importance of ensuring every merging council is adequately equipped to deal with change and embraces re-engineering their operations in the optimum way.
“Our organisation has always supported reform and once it was clear that mergers could become a reality, we began preparing for the eventuality in a measured and considered way.”
In 2012 LG Professionals, NSW began working in a unique collaborative partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia to prepare councils for change. With input from NSW councils together they created a world-class benchmarking program and set of tools for councils to measure their performance.
To date, more than half of NSW’s local councils have voluntarily participated. Their results identify how they are performing across key operational and management variables. This data will now also assist merging (and non-merging) councils to adopt best practice in their cluster.
To ensure a seamless merger process affected councils will need to quickly identify their combined resources and services and develop a strategic plan for the future council entity.
Ms Haskell said high quality governance of the merger process and professional handling of staff career planning will also be key to successful outcomes.
“People are paramount. LG Professionals NSW is currently strongly advocating for state government to protect all staff entitlements including senior contract staff and we await a positive announcement.
Barry Smith, President, LG Professionals, NSW said, “Ultimately, we want to create a landscape where local councils, regardless of size, function with efficiency and professionalism in their pursuit of providing exemplary community services.”
