![\"Birmingham](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1_Birmingham-City-Council.jpg\")
Newly published accounts show how many staff have been culled to help Birmingham City Council make multi millions of pounds of savings(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)<\/p>\nNewly published accounts show how many staff have been culled to help Birmingham City Council make multi millions of pounds of savingsNewly published accounts show how many staff have been culled to help Birmingham City Council make multi millions of pounds of savings(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)<\/p>\n
Birmingham City Council<\/a> has paid off 419 staff who took redundancy or early retirement in the last year as it battled to cut its wage bill and make multi-millions of savings.<\/p>\n The total bill for exit packages came to \u00a319.6 million as a result.<\/p>\n The details are contained in recently released council accounts which show the council’s<\/a> efforts to make savings in every department as part of its financial recovery and improvement plans.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Massive Labour shocks at Birmingham City Council as veteran councillors axed by party<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The council <\/a>has this week published its overdue accounts for 2022-23 and 2023-24, alongside its accounts for the 12 months up to April 2025.<\/p>\n The accounts come with a strong caveat that they remain ‘draft’ because their accuracy cannot be guaranteed because the council’s financial records remain sullied by the catastrophic failures of the ‘Oracle’ system.<\/a><\/p>\n They were issued by Carol Culley, the new executive director of finance and the responsible S151 officer, a role with legal responsibility for the council’s finances.<\/p>\n A review of the council’s workforce details presented in the reports reveals that in March 2023 a total of 22,291 staff were employed by the council, including thousands of school staff. This amounted to 18,712 ‘full time equivalents’.<\/p>\n The number of ‘non school’ staff totalled 8,863 full time equivalents.<\/p>\n By March this year, the numbers had changed drastically. There are now a total of 17,606 council staff, or 13,564 fte, and of these 8,477 are non-school staff.<\/p>\n That shows a dramatic downturn in the number of employees working in schools that are overseen by the council, while the number of full time equivalent council employees in non-school roles has fallen by around 400 overall. Many schools are now under the control and funding of academies and multi agency trusts.<\/p>\n In her introduction to the newly published sets of accounts, finance chief Culley writes that she is unable to ‘establish with a reasonable level of certainty’ that the financial records are ‘free from material misstatement’.<\/p>\n She writes: “The council implemented a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system in April 2022 – software which supports and integrates different parts of the council\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n “There have been a number of issues with the running of the system since then.<\/p>\n “While fixes have been put in place to ensure that the council\u2019s assets are safeguarded, and to ensure that transactions with residents, suppliers and customers can occur appropriately, it is not possible to establish with a reasonable level of certainty that the ledger is free from material misstatement for this financial year.”<\/p>\n Breaking news straight to your WhatsApp<\/p>\n BirminghamLive readers get the very latest breaking news through our WhatsApp community<\/a>.<\/p>\n All you have to do is click this link<\/a> and select ‘Join Chat’ and you are in.<\/p>\n We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like by selecting ‘exit group’.<\/p>\n CLICK HERE TO JOIN<\/a><\/p>\n She adds: “It would be very costly for the council to gather the data needed to ensure that the ledger is sufficiently free from material misstatement. It is unlikely that this work would represent value for money.”<\/p>\n She also highlights a series of ‘suspected breaches of laws and regulations by the council’ that are subject to ongoing investigation or review. These include:<\/p>\n\n