Somerset Council & Partners

Overview

On 1 April 2023, Somerset County Council and the four district councils (Mendip, Sedgemoor, Somerset West and Taunton, and South Somerset) merged to form a new unitary authority, Somerset Council.  Laura was appointed to develop a Workplace Strategy for the new Council’s 4,000 office-based staff and members, and public sector partners.

Somerset Council had inherited a legacy office estate comprising nine buildings and 35,000 square metres of mixed-quality floorspace. In addition, NHS and blue-light partners also occupied office space across a number of sites.  Funding from the One Public Estate (OPE) programme enabled Somerset Council to commission Laura’s independent expertise to explore opportunities to enhance collaboration.

Laura’s remit was to develop a forward-looking Workplace Strategy. In doing so, she explored the following critical questions with stakeholders:

• What are the drivers for change?
• What space is needed?
• Which core locations require a physical front door?
• Does the existing estate have untapped potential?
• What are the next steps to unlock the identified benefits?

The investigations revealed that some questions could not yet be fully answered, as new corporate priorities were being set meaning the impact on services, finances, headcount and property need were still to be determined.

Consequently, Laura recommended a series of practical next steps to guide Somerset Council and partners toward a value-for-money options testing exercise, ultimately determining a preferred Workplace Strategy.