Staffing in Hertfordshire County Council's public health team has been reduced by more than 20%, cutting annual budget costs by more than £1m.

Last year (2024/25), there were the equivalent of 114 whole-time roles within the county's public health team, with an annual salary budget of £7.3m

However, according to data presented at the latest meeting of the public health and community safety cabinet panel, that has now been reduced to 88.29 whole-time equivalent (WTE) members of staff.

And the 26 WTE reduction has reduced salary costs by almost £1.2m, to £6.12m.

The change in structure follows a "strategic review" undertaken by the public health team, led by the director of public health, Sarah Perman.

And it was highlighted to councillors as part of a review of the public health grant on Tuesday (July 8).

Ms Perman told councillors that in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of roles in the team had increased, with the headcount more than doubling.

She said that there had been a need to reset the size of the staffing establishment and to make sure the types of roles were in line with the public health business plan.

She said they had determined that they could take out the equivalent of 26 posts without impacting programmes or services.

Those reductions, she said, had been made by removing historic vacant posts – some of which had been unfilled for more than two years – redeployment and redundancy.

"Last year we did have to go through a programme to look at affordability of the salaries budget," she told councillors.

"The number of posts in public health increased very significantly over the pandemic, as you would expect.

"So we more than doubled our headcount from January 2020 to March 2024.

"That was because of the additional activity that we took on as a team to work with partners to protect the local population during the pandemic."

She continued: "Post pandemic, we urgently needed to reset the size of our staffing establishment and to make sure that the type of roles, the number of roles were in line with our new public health business plan, that we launched last year.

"So through a combination of removing some historic posts, that had been vacant for some time, and also removing a small number of posts which had staff in them – we did have to make a small number of people redundant – we were also able to redeploy some people into other roles in the rest of the council."

The new organisational structure is said to ensure there is the right culture, skills and knowledge to support the delivery of the department's priorities.

In response to concerns raised, Ms Perman said they were mindful of particular areas or teams where there were pressure points.

But she said the team was "working hard under pressure – but so far it is manageable".

According to the report presented to the cabinet panel, Hertfordshire's public health grant for 2025/26 is around £58m, which is said to be 5.47% higher than last year.

In addition, councillors heard that the council had been awarded additional ring-fenced grants for activities that included drug and alcohol services and smoking cessation services.

Ms Perman said that in recent years the value of the public health grant in real terms had declined "quite significantly" – "by around 25% from 2016 and 2024".

She told councillors they did not expect this year's increase to be repeated in subsequent years, suggesting they were modelling a 1% increase for future years.