On 4 March 2026, the Local Government Association (LGA) and Local Partnerships hosted a webinar introducing the newly published Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) toolkit. The session provided context for its creation, a guided walkthrough of its structure, and a Q&A session exploring further development priorities.
Watch the webinar
Why the LGR toolkit was developed
The LGA opened the webinar by setting out three core drivers behind the toolkit’s creation:
- Strong sector demand for a single place to find LGR resources. Councils wanted a consolidated space to access guidance, templates, case studies and learning from previous reorganisations without searching multiple websites.
- Capturing and reducing pressure on LGR-experienced councils. Councils that had already delivered LGR were receiving heavy volumes of requests for advice. Centralising their materials helps reduce these requests, minimise duplication and maintain consistency.
- Making information easy to find. Given the scale of documentation available, the toolkit focuses on clear indexing, thematic grouping and precise signposting (for example, specific pages, video timestamps).
Development was supported by a steering group comprising MHCLG, County Councils Network, District Councils Network, Solace, CIPFA, and Socitm, alongside conversations with ADCS, ADASS and other partners. More than 100 resources formed the initial evidence base.
How the toolkit is structured
Local Partnerships walked participants through the toolkit’s functionality, which organises content in two primary ways:
1. Themes
The toolkit maps out resources on 12 theme pages.
Each theme page includes:
- a summary explaining the topics relevance within LGR
- key insights from councils that have completed reorganisation
- top resources with direct links and further reading
- detailed signposting to the most relevant parts of documents and videos.
The current list of themes, as of March 2026, is:
- leadership
- workforce
- finance
- transition planning
- governance
- digital, data and technology
- procurement
- legal services
- asset management and contract transfer
- communications
- transformation
- election and boundaries.
Service-specific themes (social care, housing, culture, etc.) are currently captured under ‘Additional resources’, but further work is planned on these themes.
2. Checklists by LGR phase
The toolkit also maps resources against four phases in an LGR checklist:
- Submission of proposal to Secretary of State decision.
- Secretary of State decision to Structural Changes Order.
- Structural Changes Order to shadow authority elections or elections to continuing authority.
- Shadow authority elections or elections to continuing authority to vesting day.
Each checklist item is paired with relevant resources and signposting.
3. Risk mitigation guidance
A final section consolidates risk examples and mitigating actions developed by MHCLG, LGA and sector partners, covering areas such as governance, finance, workforce, assets and digital.
How will the toolkit evolve over time
The toolkit is intended to be a live, evolving resource which responds to the needs of the sector. If you have any feedback or would like to see guidance and tools on a particular issue, please email us your request to [email protected]. We will use this feedback to prioritise the development of new toolkit sections and resources.
Planned additions include:
- a comprehensive day one ‘safe and legal’ checklist
- further RFI and data collection templates
- new service area themes including housing and social services
- new materials on transitional governance (expected March)
- Cumbria-based disaggregation case study (expected March).
Q&A summary
The following feedback will be considered when prioritising the development of new toolkit sections.
1. Workforce and HR
Attendees requested resources on:
- TUPE
- cultural integration
- workforce planning.
The toolkit already includes the 10 essential workforce considerations for LGR which considers some of these issues.
2. PMO, programme planning and workstreams
A significant number of questions focused on programme management, including:
- PMO setup, size and structure
- programme and milestone plans
- dependency mapping and risk management
- examples of workstreams used by previous LGRs.
The existing PMO toolkit by Local Partnerships is general rather than LGR-specific. An LGA webinar is planned for May which will cover the role of the PMO. This will be advertised on the LGR/Devo hub.
Councils were encouraged to join the LGR Delivery Network for peer examples.
3. Data, RFI templates and data sharing
Themes included:
- templates for mapping the ‘asis’ data landscape
- acceptable datasharing practices at this stage of LGR.
Local Partnerships confirmed:
- New RFI templates (based on Local Partnerships’ work with the Surrey district and boroughs) are being released throughout March and will be linked into the toolkit.
- Data sharing principles and checklist and a Buckinghamshire data sharing request form are already included in the toolkit.
4. Governance, transitional arrangements and disaggregation
Attendees asked about:
- transitional governance during LGR
- navigating simultaneous LGR and devolution
- guidance on disaggregating services (for example, Cumbria).
Responses confirmed:
- transitional governance guidance from both LGA and MHCLG is due in March
- a Cumbria lessons-learned resource about disaggregation is upcoming
- existing content includes material on managing LGR and devolution concurrently by the Institute for Government.
5. Service-specific themes (fire, housing, social services)
Questions were raised about when these themes would appear.
Current status:
- fire services: awaiting MHCLG guidance
- housing / HRA: content being developed with MHCLG’s housing team and LGA housing support
- adults’ social care and children’s social care: some materials already in ‘additional resources’ section, with more planned.
6. Communications
Participants sought examples of:
- communications workstreams
- approaches to local engagement
- lessons from previous LGR comms teams.
The toolkit currently includes:
- LGA’s LGR engagement toolkit and an LGR social media toolkit on the ‘Communications’ theme page
- a webinar from Dorset and Northamptonshire with detailed comms approaches
- further workstream examples will be uploaded once council permissions are secured.
7. Toolkit navigation and technical issues
Attendees flagged:
- The leadership theme temporarily being inaccessible for some delegates. This has been raised with the LGA website team.
- Difficulty navigating back to the homepage from the LGR checklist and the risk aide-memoire. LGA confirmed that users on the checklist and risk pages can return via either the backspace button or the homepage link at the bottom of pages.
Closing remarks
The session ended with an encouragement to:
- submit further feedback about the toolkit to [email protected]
- sign up for the LGR & Devolution bulletin
- join the LGR Delivery Network for a collaborative space for council officers involved in local government reorganisation (LGR) to learn from and support each other.