Norfolk County Council's Strategic and Corporate Select Committee has unanimously backed a recommendation that planners for the county's local government shake-up actively consider shared services as an alternative to splitting key departments three ways.

The committee heard that services such as Adult Social Care, Children's Services, and Highways currently operate across the whole county under a single management structure. Breaking these into three separate operations for the new unitary authorities would require duplicating senior leadership teams — potentially at significant extra cost.

One committee member questioned how creating three sets of executive directors could deliver savings compared to the existing system, particularly given Norfolk's already-difficult staff retention problems. The council leader, Cllr Kay Mason Billig, acknowledged the concern and said she expected shared countywide services to continue on an interim basis until the new unitary authorities had taken their own decisions.

Officers confirmed that all seven chief executives across Norfolk's councils have been meeting weekly for the past six months to work through transition issues. However, formal decisions on whether to retain shared services cannot be made until shadow authority elections take place in May 2027.

Committee members were told that in other parts of England, shadow authorities have agreed interim shared services arrangements as a pragmatic way to manage the transition — a model some councillors said Norfolk should follow.

The committee voted to recommend to Cabinet that implementation teams consider all options for service continuity, explicitly including the possibility of shared arrangements. A fuller report examining the risks and benefits of shared services is expected at the committee's July 2026 meeting.

Concerns were also raised about a potential democratic deficit after Vesting Day in April 2028, with unparished towns like Norwich and King's Lynn currently relying on district councillors for local representation. Officers said all three business cases would be examined to identify the best approaches to community engagement going forward.