Gershon Efficiency Review
Sir Peter Gershon was commissioned in 2003 by central government to undertake an independent review to assess how the public sector could exploit opportunities for efficiency savings, so that resources could be released for front-line public service delivery. As a result the Gershon Efficiency programme 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. The Statement documents below detail how these efficiencies were achieved:
- 2004/05 - £271,000
- 2005/06 - £738,000
- 2006/07 - £382,500
- 2007/08 - £552,000
By March 2008 the council achieved a total efficiency saving of £1,943,500,…….. £232,500 over the original target set.
This has been achieved by the management of the budget strategy, the corporate improvement programme and the corporate ‘Fit for Purpose’ organisational restructure and review. The Fit for Purpose review is in response to Government’s White paper - Strong and Prosperous Communities, and the need of the council to deliver even greater efficiencies.
Our savings are substantial in cross cutting efficiencies and reflect our role as a district authority as we continue to make significant savings and efficiencies as detailed in our annual Budget Book and recognise that not all efficiencies meet the Gershon agenda.
The 2007 Comprehensive Spending (CSR07) review was published in October 2007 and includes a new performance management framework detailing how efficiencies will be monitored and reported in the coming 3-year spending review period. Please follow the link for more detail:
Delivering Value for Money in Local Government: Meeting the challenge of CSR07 .There is a further link to the governments Improvement Network which provides detail on a number of topics including how the efficiency agenda is linked to the White Paper, the Business Improvement Package, the Transformational Government agenda, the Varney Review, the National Improvement Strategy, the Comprehensive Spending review and other government initiatives.
A copy of our Efficiency Strategy is available below and provides guidance on how the Gershon agenda links to our Corporate Improvement Programme of work, such as delivery of best value and value for money services. The strategy will be reviewed in 2008 to meet the new Comprehensive Spending Review for 2007
In addition there is a copy of the report completed by the Improvement and Development Agency (I&DeA) in March 2007 who undertook a review of the councils efficiency programme, the headline findings were that the Council:
- Is deserving of its ‘Excellent’ status
- Employs a core of competent, enthusiastic and motivated staff
- Has a strong financial position with appropriate financial systems and controls
- Holds a significant asset base
- Provides a good range of quality services
- Achieves impressive customer satisfaction rates
- Is well on its way to achieving its Gershon efficiency target
- Could utilise the opportunity of the current ‘Fit for Purpose’ review to drive the efficiency agenda, and
- Follows programme management techniques to deliver the ‘Fit for Purpose’ review
Documents