Proposals to cut jobs and save the county council £16m a year have been formally backed by county councillors.

Around 400 jobs are now expected to be slashed from the council by the end of the year – with the equivalent of around 242 council full time posts set to be made redundant.

The job losses have been identified as part of the council's 'organisational resourcing programme'.

In addition to the redundancies, the job losses include the removal of 150 'vacant' county council posts.

But there also are plans to create 99 new roles, as as part of a 'redesign' of council services.

On Monday the proposals – and the required employment processes were backed by a meeting of the county council's employment committee.

And now formal consultations with those staff facing redundancy is expected to begin in August.

Presenting the proposals to the committee, executive director of adult care services Chris Badger pointed to the "significant financial pressures" facing the council.

But he also acknowledged the commitment of staff and how unsettling the process would be.

"We do recognise how unsettling organisational change such as this can be for colleagues," he told councillors.

"The council's workforce is our greatest single asset. And we are rightly proud of the workforce we have in Hertfordshire, who work every day tirelessly to deliver excellent services for our communities.

"So while it is imperative that the council is within its financial means, it's also that the change is managed to as well as possible."

In 2024/25 he said the council had increased spending by £98m – but still had to make £46m of 'efficiency savings' and to use £11m of reserves.

And making the case for the changes he pointed to "significant uncertainty" around funding from central government and grants.

"[…] with that in mind clearly the council has to take actions to have a sustainable year on year budget," he said.

"And this programme is one of the measures that are being taken to address that."

In addition Mr Badger said that there were also plans to look at senior manager structures, that were not part of this review.

He also referenced the planned "technology improvements" and different ways of services being delivered.

And he said they had sought to minimise change to front-line services by looking at efficient ways of working, technology and the functions required to deliver quality.

Since September the council has operated 'recruitment prioritisation', which froze recruitment to all but essential roles.

Mr Badger said that this had "significantly reduced" the number of redundancies that are likely to have to be found.

And pointing to the creation of additional roles as well, he suggested the net position was a reduction of 143 posts that may be subject to redundancy – equivalent, he said, to 1.6 per cent of the council's 9000 workforce.

"Whilst any redundancy is, of course, regrettable, the original assumption for the programme was that 300-400 posts might need to be made redundant," he said.

"So I am pleased that that position has reduced.

"It's in everyone's interest that the number of redundancies is minimised – both for individuals that we work with as colleagues, but also in terms of the financial impact for the council of funding those redundancies.

"So that is lower than anticipated, but that doesn't diminish the impact and uncertainty that such a programme like this will have."

At the meeting leader of the council Cllr Richard Roberts said that this had been a "long and thoughtful and considered process".

Deputy leader of the county council Cllr Fiona Thomson said acknowledged that for those facing redundancy it was "incredibly significant".

And she asked about the time-line – suggesting that the longer it went on for the more distressing it may be for staff.

According to the report presented to the meeting, planned organisational changes would consolidate similar functions within the council and make 'structures' and 'delivery' more consistent.

And as well as helping the county council to make "significant savings" and "modernise", it says they would make the organisation "even more efficient, effective and affordable".

Planned changes, it says, include bringing together 'business support' activities – including the automation and integration of systems to improve processes and 'reduce manual effort'.

They also include a new council structure that removes duplication of roles across the organisation with clear accountabilities