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:

• Everyone should feel safe, respected, and proud to belong at Reigate & Banstead.
• Discriminatory comments or behaviour — intentional or unintentional — are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
• We all share responsibility for treating one another with fairness, dignity, and respect.
• Colleagues are expected to promote a culture of trust, inclusion, and psychological safety, valuing the unique perspectives that strengthen our organisation.

Our updated Equality, Diversity and Inclusion pages on the Knowledge set out this commitment. If any member of your team sees, hears, or experiences behaviour that falls short of these expectations, please ensure they know how to raise concerns — whether through their manager, HR, or directly to Mari. Every concern will be taken seriously.

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 ideas on how we should celebrate and recognise the end of RBBC, and join a staff working group if they would like to get more involved. 

Ideas can be submitted via our online ideas form, on post‑it notes on our ideas boards which we’ll display at the Town Hall, Depot, and our Community Centres. We ask that managers also include discussions in upcoming team meetings to generate ideas. 

Staff who would like to get more involved in developing ideas and planning activities can join a staff working group. Those interested should email Katherine.monk@reigate-banstead.gov.uk.

The Council’s Employee Assistance Programme includes a dedicated managerial 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.

The advice line is available 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday. To access it call 0800 085 3805 or email assist@cicwellbeing.com. 

More information. 

Power Down, Green Up is a simple, practical initiative encourages 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 are working across the organisation to provide clear guidance, practical tools, and helpful resources to support everyone in building more energy‑efficient habits. They are running a Power Down, Green Up drop-in between 12pm and 1.30pm on Wednesday 25 February, MB0, Town Hall. Take part in their 'Watt’s Up?!' quiz, pick up some practical energy‑saving tips for your team, and be in with a chance to win prizes!

Learning Pool will soon begin sending automated reminder emails for any outstanding mandatory learning, so this early check will help to avoid unnecessary reminder emails, ensure progress reporting is accurate, and help you monitor completion across your team effectively

Please log in to Learning Pool and check your TEAM tab and check:

• is your team listed correctly?
• are there any missing team members?
• are any staff listed who no longer reports to you?
• can you see each person’s REQUIRED “Outstanding mandatory modules for 2025–2026?

If you identify an incorrect team member or missing colleague, please contact Martin Furminger via Teams or email

OD/HR Support Sessions

OD/HR will soon be running Open Teams sessions where managers can ask questions about interpreting their TEAM data and receive guidance on reviewing their team’s required learning. These sessions are optional but recommended. Please errors in your TEAM tab should be reported immediately, not saved for these sessions.

How to videos:

• How managers can find their team's required learning on Learning Pool
• How to find your outstanding learning on Learning Pool
• How to log onto Learning Pool

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. For more information about re-setting your password, visit ICT User Guide. 

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 - as soon as possible. 

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. 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

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. The team is structured around a series of themes and workstreams. Following theme sponsor names being confirmed earlier in the year, workstream responsibilities have now been agreed.

We will get more information about what the workstreams will be doing and input needed from Reigate & Banstead in the coming days and weeks, and will share this with all staff as we find out more.

All the latest LGR updates are available on our LGR Hub on the Knowledge. If you or your team have any questions about LGR please email yourLGRquestions@reigate-banstead.gov.uk. The next LGR Q&A  with Mari and the Leader is on Monday 9 March with sessions at the Depot also planned. 

• Hybrid working
• Employment contracts

Hybrid working 

For most teams and roles at RBBC, hybrid working and flexibility in working arrangements can be agreed with Heads of Service and line managers whilst accommodating team and operational needs. Hybrid working and flexibility is highly valued by our employees, and the uncertainty of what working arrangements may be expected by the new East Surrey Council causes concern for a number of staff.

As a reminder, contractually, the work location for our staff is their office base – e.g. Town Hall, Depot, Community Centre etc. Hybrid flexibility is supported where appropriate to the role and with manager agreement, and this includes the option to work from home. However, this is an agreement that needs to suit business needs and flexibility, rather than a contractual right. 

We want to avoid moving away from the discretionary and flexible expectations of hybrid working, so don't expect to be formalising any discretionary arrangements. Where there has been any agreement as part of a formal flexible working request, the appropriate arrangements will already be documented as part of the outcome of that process. If we get new flexible working requests, these will need to be considered on their merits, and may need to take into account in-person collaboration that might be required leading up to Vesting Day and transition processes.

Your support in managing these expectations with your teams is appreciated.

Employment contracts

As part of the LGR transition, we will need to provide details about all our employees and their employment to the new unitary employer. To ensure all the information held in relation to our staff’s employment is accurate, we have been providing staff with a summary of their personal terms of employment to check so that any queries can be reviewed, and ensuring we have key documentation on file that will need to form part of personnel records. 

HR have been liaising with managers before sharing any information with individuals in their teams so you know when your team can expect to receive their contract summaries to review. They are on track to complete these checks before 31 March 2026.

Any questions or queries can be raised with HR at that time to ensure that the correct information is recorded for individuals. If yours is one of the remaining teams who haven’t yet received their employment summaries, let them know this will being taking place imminently. If you have any team members on long-term absence (e.g sick/maternity) and you haven’t confirmed this or alternative contact information while they are off, please follow this up with HR.