Restructure Project Plan and Timeline

A phase-by-phase project plan with owners, dependencies and the statutory clocks that govern the dates you can commit to.

When to use it

As soon as a proposal is credible, so the consultation calendar drives the business timetable rather than the other way round.

Building a restructure timeline around the statutory clocks

Restructure timetables usually fail for the same reason: the business date is chosen first and the consultation period is squeezed to fit. It should be the other way round. The statutory minimum consultation periods set the earliest lawful dismissal date, and every other milestone is planned backwards from there.

Six phases, one critical path

This plan lays out preparation, consultation, selection, decision, exit and post-restructure recovery, each with owners, dependencies and a status column you can take into a weekly governance meeting. The worked example shows how a 45-day collective consultation, individual meetings, appeals and notice periods combine into a realistic end date.

The dates you cannot move

Where 20 or more dismissals are proposed at one establishment within 90 days, collective consultation must begin in good time and at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect; that rises to 45 days at 100 or more. Notification to the Secretary of State runs on the same clocks. Confirm which route you are in using the Redundancy Compliance Decision Tree before you publish any timetable, and hold the detail in the Collective Consultation Timetable.

Planning the phase people forget

Recovery is a phase, not an afterthought. The retained team needs a plan from the week outcomes are confirmed, and leavers need support arranged before their last day rather than after it. Both are on the plan for a reason — programmes that treat them as optional tend to pay for it in attrition six months later.

Using it in governance

Run the plan as a live document. Every change to numbers, scope or timing should trigger a re-read of the compliance position, because a change in one can move you into a different consultation route entirely. Our guides set out how the phases connect if you want the full narrative behind the template.