Council cuts into the bone to save £75M

 

by Theo Cronin

 

THE SHAPE, scale and scope of West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is set to dramatically alter as proposals are announced to save £75million over the next three years from its budget.

It is stated around £60million can be removed from the local authority’s ‘back office’, a figure equating to a 30 per cent reduction in council bureaucracy.

Over the past three months no department or council service has escaped intense scrutiny from cabinet members, their officers and accountants.

Each of the nine departments has announced a series of proposals, the extent of which significantly changes both the role and size of the organisation, transforming it into more of an enabling body, once its statutory duties have been met.

“It has been a very targeted approach and we are reshaping the County Council,” said Louise Goldsmith, leader of WSCC. “The role will change to very much the facilitator. We are redesigning how we work, and what that means is where we have 10 to 12 people doing things, we will reconfigure that to seven or eight.”

However, WSCC will not be drawn on redundancies, but a series of other ‘R’ words litter the proposals, many of which translate in terms of job losses. Children’s Homes, Community Libraries, and Office Services are to be ‘reviewed’, senior management has been ‘re-structured’, the Fire and Rescue Service and library Service ‘re-designed’, many teams ‘re-configured’, services ‘rationalised’, and everywhere budgets ‘reduced’.

Payroll, finance, procurement and other ‘back office’ functions look likely to be outsourced to the private sector, or shared with neighbouring local authorities.

WSCC employs around 6000 staff, of which ‘more than a thousand will be affected’ according to Chris Earwaker, branch secretary of Unison West Sussex.

The Liberal Democrat opposition has also said the number will be in the ‘several hundreds’.

Louise Goldsmith hopes a ‘block on employing new people’ in combination with ‘redeployment following natural wastage’ and ‘retraining’ will mitigate many of the potential redundancies.

In line with central Government dictat, WSCC is ‘fully committed to not increasing council tax 2011/12’.

Mrs Goldsmith has also declared that despite the cuts, they are ‘protecting the very vulnerable and the very weak’, and that will continue to be their ‘priority’.

However, £31M of the £75M savings is to be found from the Adults’ Services budget. It includes £704,000 from the closure of council run day centres for those with physical or sensory impairments, including Harwood House, Horsham; The Brooks, Pulborough; and The Grange, Midhurst.

Its calculated £7M could by saved by joint commissioning of services with NHS West Sussex. In 2012 WSCC takes over responsibility for Public Health. Savings are forecast by merging the two organisations’ operations.

More than £5M is saved from ‘ensuring maximum value is obtained from WSCC’s contracts with SHAW Healthcare and making best use of those care homes’. Mrs Goldsmith denied paying care homes less would have a detrimental effect on the quality of care provided. “It will be fine,” she said, adding much of this work started a few years ago, and that they have ‘realigned the contract to get more money out as savings’.

It is estimated £3.5M could be saved by raising the eligibility for adults’ social care from 'moderate' to ‘substantial’ and ‘critical’ needs only. This brings WSCC into line with 75 per cent of other local authorities in the region, and demonstrates a theme often repeated throughout the proposals – ‘no gold plating’ or ‘nice to haves’.

In many cases, such as Trading Standards, school transport, bus subsidies, support for talented and gifted students, discretionary social care, learning service, training, the Arts, and the Youth Service, WSCC often proposes to only meet statutory requirements, necessarily impacting of the quality of life and services many have come expect in West Sussex from their council.

Raising the eligibility for social care will have significant financial and social implications for many, and so is it the right move to make? “It is the one we have to make,” said Mrs Goldsmith. “The fact is this is not a whim. This is from the Government who have to pay off the enormous debt from the previous administration. This is not an option, we have to deliver this.”

After poor grant settlements in previous years, WSCC has stated ‘there is no more fat to trim’, and now the leader is taking the analogy to its logical conclusion. She said: “Finding £75 M having already taken out £40M means we are now cutting into the bone – we don’t have an option – it is not a pleasure for us but we have to act responsibly to deliver these savings.”

However, cutting some services like the Youth Service is being presented as an ‘exciting’ opportunity to put into practice many of the theories of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society‘ model.

£2M could be saved by removing the universal provision of youth services in West Sussex . WSCC sees itself becoming a facilitator not provider. Mrs Goldsmith denied they weren’t interested in Youth Services, rather it ‘will be promoting and helping other people to provide youth services in a variety of different ways’.

The council will assist with obtaining CRB checks, or perhaps a building could be transferred to a church group or community organisation keen to provide a village youth club? The budget proposals include reducing council office buildings from 49 to just six, saving £1.1M.

In respect of Youth Services, Mrs Goldsmith said: “It is a completely different role and this is what I mean by talking about the shape of the County Council changing. We are at a crossroads. We have done Youth Services, but now it is more about communities organising themselves to deliver what they want in their communities – bottom up.”

Similar moves include a predicted £1M saving from a review of Community Libraries which could potentially be staffed by volunteers, or perhaps community centres could lend books?

The changing role of the county council will involve the development of more community action plans, to help communities develop community bus services for example, after £2M is saved from bus subsidies, affecting non school journeys, rural, Sunday and evening services.

Highways and Transport is the third hardest hit department. Sussex Safer Roads Partnership will be £973,000 worse off. £1.43M could be taken from the capital programme, detracting from safer routes to school, cycle schemes and traffic calming.

And any renewed contract for Highway Services and Infrastructure will include reduced frequency of graffiti removal, grass cutting and footway clearance, saving a further £2.5M.

The 3 in 1 youth concessionary fare scheme will incur a £50 administrative fee - an example of how the authority aims to raise revenue where possible. Its hoped £121,000 worth of new registration income can be earned for example by restructuring venue fees and running baby naming, citizenship and wedding vow renewal ceremonies.

Such revenue increases pale in comparison though to the many larger sums of millions, associated with the outsourcing of whole departments, and savings to be made by partnership working with other local authorities. Its forecast £2.5M could be saved if West Sussex Fire and Rescue shared management and back office functions with neighbouring authorities.

Such large savings inevitably mean redundancies, leaving many hundreds of council employees anxious and uncertain this Christmas.

To date 71 local authorities nationwide have announced more than 70,000 job losses since the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review in October.

Whilst some job losses are confirmed for West Sussex , 100 in the Youth Service, 100 more in the Learning Service for example, Mrs Goldsmith said: “I am not going to comment because we really do not know, and this is phased over three years.”

However, the majority of the cuts hit hard in 2011, due to the way the Government has ‘front loaded’ its management of the nation’s debt.

Chris Earwaker from Unison West Sussex said: “Our members are very worried. I think the proposals taken together including potential outsourcing mean well over a thousand employees will be impacted, and the impact comes mostly in the first year, apparently due to government funding.”

The leader of WSCC said the council has joined other local authorities in making a ‘huge representation’ to the Government about ‘this front loading’ and she recognises it is ‘very aggressive and very high impact’.

But is it playing politics with people’s lives to enforce the most dramatic cuts at the beginning of the Government’s new term? Mrs Goldsmith said: “I think the whole ethos of this is George Osbourne saying lets get this debt under control and therefore we are going to front load this to reduce the debt we have. So our targets are very high in the first year and we understand that.

“We understand exactly what a concern it is for staff. There is redeployment and re-skilling as an option, but is a very very difficult time for everyone.”

 

The budget proposals are being debated at a full council meeting at County Hall, Friday December 17. Budget recommendations will be made by the cabinet on January 25. 

Final decision will be taken at the budget meeting of the full council on February 11.

WSCC is inviting residents to participate in an online consultation - visit www.westsussex.gov.uk and search 'have your say' then click on 'live consultations'.

Alternatively, please email your thoughts, opinions and letters for publication to ct.letters@sussexnewspapers.co.uk

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