Council working through major savings plan
Shropshire Council has met almost half of the major savings required as a result of large cuts in Government funding – but the rest is needed over the next few years.
A total of over £85 million needs to be saved by the end of March 2015, which is £9.5 million more than the figures projected earlier this year. The savings target is being revised on a regular basis, depending on savings actually made so far and pressures outside the council’s control, such as inflation and higher energy costs.
The council’s Cabinet today (Wednesday 16 November 2011) agreed further savings proposals, as part of wider changes in the way it provides services in the future, rather than reducing the scale or quality of essential frontline services.
Some of the proposals outlined in the report included innovative changes to adult social care, aiming to support people to live independently in their own homes for longer, which most prefer, rather than going into costly residential care.
These changes will not affect who will be eligible for care, or the quality of care provided, and the proposals have been discussed through the council’s current major consultation into the future of adult social care in Shropshire, ‘Live life: your way’.
Chief executive, Kim Ryley, said £40 million of the total savings had now been found, leaving a further £45 million to be identified over the next two financial years.
He said:
“We had to work extremely quickly to find £40 million of savings in the current financial year, as well as in-year savings during 2010/11, because the Government frontloaded its budget cuts. Although we still have £45 million to find, we now have time to work through the detail of how this can be done, and full action plans are now being brought forward for discussion and agreement.
“The uncertainty surrounding future funding from the Government doesn’t help, and makes it very difficult to plan what savings we will need to make after 2013. That’s why we have to work to estimates and projections, which means our overall savings total will fluctuate as time goes on, and why we need sufficient reserves to provide a secure buffer against any unpleasant surprises.”
The proposals agreed by Cabinet included a temporary spending freeze across a number of non-essential areas, including furniture, stationery, printing, marketing, room hire, conferences and consultants’ fees. This freeze will save £1.5 million by next Easter.
Council leader, Keith Barrow, said:
“Let’s not forget, councils up and down the country are under an incredible amount of pressure at the moment to balance their books in the face of massive spending cuts. I think we are doing a very good job in Shropshire to make as many of the savings as possible internally rather than cutting essential services that local people rely on.
“I’m not denying that we have had to make some extremely difficult decisions, but there is no avoiding the hard financial facts. We are absolutely committed to doing things differently, such as sharing resources with other organisations, so we can preserve essential frontline services wherever possible – we will not be making massive cutbacks in services like some other councils are doing, nor will we make hundreds of our valuable staff redundant, at great initial expense to Shropshire’s economy.”
