Senior Banes council managers to be cut

The number of senior management posts in Bath and North East Somerset is to be cut, councillors have decided.

The authority is trying to save £38m over four years following the government's Spending Review.

A spokesman said reducing managerial posts would save £2m a year. The running of adult social care services will also be outsourced.

Funding of up to £50,000 was agreed for youth services at the meeting on Tuesday night.

A council spokesman said there were currently six strategic directors at the authority, and it was planned to reduce the number to three.

'Long way to go'

He said a reduction in divisional directors, the tier below, was also planned.

"It's an awfully long way to go before formal employment consultation," he said

"These managers are important for managing the transition from the council we are now to the council we will be in future."

The Health and Wellbeing Partnership, made up of the council and the NHS, published a report recommending plans to transfer community health and social care services to a social enterprise organisation.

The report was in response to a government White Paper requiring primary care trusts to transfer community health services to another provider.