We are pleased to confirm that both Unison and GMB unions have accepted the Final 2026/27 pay offer accepted by Unions.

Earlier this month, our Chief Executive Mari Roberts-Wood shared a video on the Knowledge about the importance of creating a workplace where every one of us feels safe, respected, and valued. Her video highlights the support available to staff, including the Dignity at Work policy, our mandatory Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training, and our staff networks.

Please reinforce our expectations within your teams, via team meetings, and at 1-2-1s.

On 1 April 2027, RBBC will formally come to an end and become part of the new East Surrey Council. As we approach this milestone, we’re inviting all staff to share their ideas on how we should celebrate and recognise the end of RBBC. 

The Council’s Employee Assistance Programme includes a dedicated manager advice line. While HR can support you with managing situations and applying RBBC policies, there may be times when you prefer to speak with someone external. This could be for emotional support, to look after your wellbeing as a manager, or to gain practical tips for handling challenging or stressful situations.

Power Down, Green Up is a simple, practical initiative encourages that all colleagues to play their part in reducing our energy use. The campaign focuses on small, everyday actions that together create a big collective impact.

Our Sustainability Team is working across the organisation to provide clear guidance, practical tools, and helpful resources to support everyone in building more energy‑efficient habits. Find out what small daily actions you and your teams can start taking immediately to help reduce RBBC's energy use. 

As we head towards the 30 April 2026 deadline for all colleagues to complete 2025 - 2026 mandatory training, we ask managers to check they can correctly view their teams in Learning Pool before 28 February.

Service Desk has introduced new steps for password resets. This now includes an additional check via your manager, team leader, or supervisor, who will confirm your identity using your ID badge number.

This is to ensure we are absolutely certain that the person requesting the reset is who they say they are. Staff should always carry their ID badges while at work, including when working at sites such as Community Centres.

ICT are making great progress replacing old Windows 10 laptops to the latest Windows 11 devices.  The rollout, which started on 6 January, is now due to finish at the end of February. Please encourage those in your teams who have not yet booked an appointment with ICT to replace their laptop to book into one of two daily handover sessions - either 9am or 1pm.

From Thursday 19 February, when you create meetings in Outlook, the default meeting times will end a few minutes earlier at 25 or 50 minutes past the hour. We’ll start the change from Thursday 19 February, and you should see it in Outlook within a day or two. You may need to log out and back in again for it to take effect. Once it’s enabled, Outlook will automatically build in micro‑breaks between meetings, supporting healthier working and giving everyone a little more space in their day.

Future Surrey

A new brand for communicating jointly about LGR has been launched – Future Surrey. This has been developed jointly by the 12 councils. Updates will be provided to residents and other service uses via the website (Future Surrey – Surrey LGR Hub), post, social media, existing council newsletters and other channels. Regular joint staff communications are now also up and running.

Surrey wide staff newsletter
The cross Surrey LGR programme team has developed a newsletter that will be sent to all staff to ensure all colleagues across the 12 councils receive the same information. The first edition provided a little more insight around the structure of the programme and the implementation team. The next newsletter is due out shortly. Printable versions of these newsletters will be available on our LGR hub on the Knowledge, and will be emailed to managers of offline teams.

Joint Committees and Implementation Team

The two joint committees (one for East Surrey, one for West) met in mid January. They will now meet monthly until they are replaced by the Shadow Authorities in May 2026. Papers for the committees, and their work programme, are available at Committee details - East Surrey Voluntary Joint Committee | Reigate and Banstead Borough Council.

Implementation Team

The officer Implementation Team has now been formally established...

• Hybrid working
  
  
• Employment contracts