The SDLP is axing its deputy leader role in a shake-up to "modernise" party structures after a bruising Stormont election.
The current number of around 60 party branches will be reduced to one for each of the 18 Assembly constituencies.
A new representative forum will be formed and the party will also recruit a new senior staff member to fulfill a general secretary or chief executive-style role.
Read more: Councillor who switched from Greens to SDLP asked Alliance about joining weeks earlier
It follows an internal review led by South Belfast MP Claire Hanna in the wake of May's election in which the SDLP suffered significant losses.
Election candidates and party members shared their views as part of a consultation conducted over the course of the summer.
An internal meeting of members was held at the weekend at a Belfast hotel to discuss the findings of the review.
Nichola Mallon had been SDLP deputy leader since 2017 but she lost her North Belfast seat in May's election.
Her MLA seat was among four lost in the poll which saw the party fall from third-largest at Stormont to fifth-largest.
Now with eight seats in the Assembly, the party has taken up the role of the official opposition after losing automatic entitlement to a ministerial post in a new power-sharing Executive.
Party sources, who described the review meeting as "positive", said it was felt the deputy leader position did not have a clearly defined role within the party's structures.
They said the aim is to "streamline" the party to boost its effectiveness as a campaigning organisation for communities and "reflect modern campaigning methods".
Speaking at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Ms Hanna said the plans were about ensuring the SDLP is "talking to communities rather than to ourselves".
She told UTV the new "streamlined" structures would give "more opportunities for members to engage in different ways".
The MP said it would give members the "tools to campaign on the issues that matter to the people we represent".
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the party would have a "broader leadership team", with representatives such as South Belfast MLA Matthew O’Toole appointed as their Stormont leader.
"We want to build a united leadership team where everybody's involved in those decision-making processes," he said.
The Assembly poll saw the SDLP's vote share drop by almost three points to 9.1% amid an Alliance surge and a shift to Sinn Féin.
A recent LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph suggested a further hardening of support behind Sinn Féin, the DUP and Alliance as Stormont's three largest parties.
It comes as the DUP continues to block the restoration of Stormont power-sharing in protest over Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol.
During the election count in May, Mr Eastwood argued the nationalist electorate may have "lent" their vote to Sinn Féin to secure the First Minister post.
It followed a campaign in which the DUP and UUP had refused to confirm whether they would take up the Deputy First Minister post if Sinn Féin became the largest party.
Sinn Féin rubbished that idea, with Finance Minister Conor Murphy saying that he had heard the same analysis in the 1990s.
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