Leading through Reorganisation, Mergers and Shared Services

Why do organisations reorganise, and does it work? This module sets out five drivers of structural change, the National Audit Office's 2010 evidence on reorganising central government, and the gap between changing a chart and changing an organisation. It compares five forms of structural change and introduces the Avanti view, drawing on Huish and Milliner, of holding purpose, meaning, people and politics together throughout.

This module sets out English local government reorganisation as it stood in September 2026: the types of authority, the path from the English Devolution White Paper of December 2024 to the July decisions and the pause of 7 September, and where areas such as Surrey stood afterwards. It explores leading when uncertainty is the working condition, and contrasts Wales's different path through twenty-two unitaries and Corporate Joint Committees.

A new council is built twice, once on paper and once in people. Drawing on Huish and Milliner's From District into Unitary, this module covers four drivers of local reorganisation, Avanti's five phases of transition from announcement to post-vesting embedding, the exhausting reality of dual delivery and the scale of a new unitary. It explores how work becomes more strategic and less operational, using the Kerrier District Council case.

Sharing services is sharing power. This module places shared services on Huish and Milliner's seven degrees of working with others, sets out six models from Local Government Association material, and weighs the evidence on savings from the Gershon Review and the LGA's Services Shared: Costs Spared? It compares governance options, explains why trust is the real shared service, and draws lessons from the Tri-borough on building arrangements that survive elections.

This module looks at mergers in housing, charities and health in Wales and England, and why the reason for merging should be settled before the method. It challenges the popular seventy per cent failure story using Hughes, introduces Haspeslagh and Jemison's model of how closely to integrate, compares housing and charity oversight, weighs scale against local accountability, and draws on the 2026 Hertfordshire Mind merger.

Structures change quickly; people, cultures and identities change slowly. This module explores Mirvis and Marks's merger syndrome, William Bridges' distinction between change and transition with its endings, neutral zone and new beginnings, and Edgar Schein's three levels of culture and three ways cultures combine. It closes with TUPE in brief and practical principles for keeping people whole through a staff transfer.

In public services, leadership at the top is shared between political and managerial top teams, and reorganisation tests that relationship as never before. Drawing on the IDeA's Inside Top Teams, three-ball juggling and Heifetz's adaptive challenges, and on Dr Jonathan Huish's research in Rhondda Cynon Taf, this module covers appointing the top team early, the shadow authority, and the Top Team Development Approach with its ten behaviours in four clusters.

Vesting day is the start, not the finish. This module sets out Huish and Milliner's six lessons from councils that have moved from district into unitary, Balogun and Johnson's research on how middle managers make sense of restructuring, and why staff need the why first. It covers what makes a benefit real, why benefits disappoint, transition savings against lasting benefits, early unitary experience and a learning loop after vesting.

This capstone reads three real cases through the lenses of the whole programme: the Tri-borough shared service, the failure and replacement of Northamptonshire County Council, and the new unitaries of Cornwall, Dorset and Somerset drawn from Huish and Milliner. It draws out five threads running through every case, purpose, politics, people, culture and time, and brings the programme together as one loop: lead the people, and structure follows.