MORE than 400 more jobs could be lost at #Essex County Council as the authority tries to kickstart “New Ways of Working”.

County Hall revealed last week it was looking at scrapping 429 posts as part of an ongoing drive to cut costs by £300million a year.

Finance bosses say they are halfway to their target and have so far lost around 1,000 posts, mainly from back office management rather than frontline staff.

Now, the authority has launched a New Ways of Working programme aimed at modernising services while saving £20million a year.

Central to the project is improving customer service after a review found residents struggled to get the right help and information through both ringing the council and using the website.

David Finch, the councillor responsible for the “transformation” programme, said: “Essex County Council is no different to any other organisation that needs to get into shape if it is going to cope with these challenging economic times.

“Reduced budgets have had a direct impact on the county council’s headcount and, as such, these changes have to be announced.”

Areas where cuts and job losses will be made include business support, corporate services, schools and education strategy, and the youth service.

Planning and service development within the adults health and community well-being department and the modernisation of information services will also be affected.

The Conservative-led council says it hopes to issue as few compulsory redundancies as possible, relying where possible on voluntary redundancies and reducing the use of interim, temporary and agency posts.

Tom Smith-Hughes, leader of the council’s Lib Dems, said Government spending cuts left him with no choice, but to support the overall transformation programme.

He said: “We understand significant savings have to be made. Our main object is to protect frontline services.

“We have been critical of some savings the council has made, for example with Connexions closing.

“But staff are there to provide a good service to the people of Essex and if we can provide a better service at a lower cost, then we would support that.”

He added: “It’s particularly difficult and unsettling for the staff concerned.”