Why are we doing this? - The face and shape of local government is changing and the council needs to position itself in the best possible way to respond to the challenges ahead. National efficiency targets, widely predicted cuts in government grants and lower returns on our investments mean we are facing a funding shortfall, but we still need to balance our books.
The efficiency programme is looking at how services can be re-structured to reduce duplication and improve customer focus, and has found over £1.2m of on-going savings for implementation. The long term plan will focus on how the council can work smarter with its partners, for example through shared services, sharing the existing campus buildings, focusing on residents’ priorities and running more local services through existing voluntary and community bodies.
The target - Based on our finances and forecasts for the future the council needs to achieve at least £1 million on-going savings per year.
How long is this for? - This is a long term programme supported by a strategy until 2014.
What does the council's strategy include? - It outlines a way forward for this council to achieve the savings by looking at how we deliver services, the processes we use and whether they are the most efficient, as well as looking at other cross cutting areas where savings could be made. The strategy includes a series of ‘quick wins’ in the short term as well as more medium and longer term approaches. A copy of our Efficiency Strategy is now available below but in summary the strategy includes:
• Reviewing corporate budgets, such as the use of consultants, mobile phones, the print budget and refreshments budgets.
• Reviewing pay and benefits for staff. Some of these reviews are already underway like the car allowance scheme and private health insurance scheme, but we’ll also be looking at car leasing arrangements as well as the recommendations from the equal pay audit.
• Business unit reviews. Over the next couple of years all business units and teams will be reviewed. We will be looking at every unit to make sure we are delivering the right services and supporting them at the right level in the most efficient way possible and that services are not unnecessarily ‘gold-plated’.
• Vacancies review. The Strategic Management Team will continue to monitor and review every job vacancy.
• Shared services. Investigating more ways for closer working with neighbouring authorities and sharing services. We will also look at commissioning
All of this work builds on the Sir Peter Gershon efficiency review commissioned in 2003 which was about raising productivity and enhancing value for money and efficiency gains were to be achieved through reforms that involved ' Doing the same for less or more for the same'. All council's were set an efficiency target by the Government of 2.5% a year until 2008. For the council this meant a savings target to achieve of £1,711,000 by March 2008. By March 2008 the council achieved a total efficiency saving of £1,943,500, £232,500 over the original target set.
