Our budget discussions with Cabinet get under way next week as we prepare for yet more tough decisions. We’ve set aside a week to go through the current situation, the outlook for the next four years and what that means for our budget. In short, in the past four years we’ve undergone major change and transformation which has saved almost £70m. The daunting prospect we face in the next four years is to save a further £80m. That isn’t because we haven’t done our job, we have, but the continued austerity measures and reduction in government funding will continue for the foreseeable future. Add to this the budget pressures such as rising demand for social care and unfunded pay rises and the picture is very demanding. That’s the backdrop for our discussions and next week is the chance to look at how we bridge that budget gap. Once we have more details of the proposals we’ll engage staff across the council through team meetings and roadshows.
We’ve already taken some tough decisions including the forthcoming transfer of our leisure centres to a not-for-profit leisure trust, Freedom Leisure. This was the only realistic option that protected our staff and facilities in these unprecedented budget times. The recent Unison newsletter compares this transfer to the previous Capgemini ICT contract and the housing stock transfer ballot a decade ago. It’s misleading to make these comparisons. The issues with the Capgemini contract have been well-documented, along with my own personal views about it. But it’s totally different to what we plan with leisure staff and facilities in partnership with Freedom. The ballot on housing stock transfer was a government policy and, faced with limited resources at the time, we had little choice but to give tenants a say. They rejected it and I’m delighted that since that time, due to the work we put in to get a good deal through the housing revenue account subsidy buy-out and the hard work of our staff, we’ve built new council houses and invested tens of millions in improving council homes. I welcome discussions with unions but I also want staff to feel reassured and confident about the decisions we make.
Senior management restructure
We’ve appointed three Heads of Service to complete the senior line-up in the Place directorate. Nigel Williams is Head of Building Services, Geoff Bacon Head of Property Services and Mark Wade is Head of Housing & Public Health. All three have been doing the job on an interim basis and I’m sure they’ll continue the good work. Congratulations to all three.
New recruits
Welcome to our 15 new apprentices who’ve started work this week. They’ll spend the next four years training to become carpenters, plumbers, electricians, plasterers and multi-trade personnel. They’ll work on projects such as constructing our new schools, building new energy-efficient council homes and improving existing council housing. They’re the latest in a long line of trainees and I’m really proud of our track record with apprentices.
A Healthier Wales
A Healthier Wales: our plan for health and social care published in June sets out 40 actions to be implemented in the next three years, through a dedicated Transformation Programme. I was asked to join the Advisory Board set up to support its delivery. On Tuesday I attended its first meeting, along with colleagues from the health and social care spectrum. The board will review the funding allocated to new projects, monitor progress on delivering the actions and discuss the need for wider system change and progress towards achieving the future vision of health and social care. You’re probably fed up with me rattling on about the financial challenges facing councils but the demographic time-bomb of an ageing population with increasing care and health needs is the largest of all these challenges. Systemic change is needed because the existing arrangements are unaffordable. Our approach to delivering adult services must change but this is the case in every council across the UK. I hope I can make a useful contribution to this Transformation Board because it’s critical to our well-being as a city and a council.
Corporate Management Team
CMT this week discussed a range of matters including disaster recovery for ICT, our new Oracle sickness monitoring system and the current year budget monitoring. Our budget tracker shows we need to increase the pace of implementing this year’s savings and I’ll be impressing on managers the need to do this. We also agreed the draft corporate plan and performance report in advance of its consideration by councillors. Thanks to all the staff who have worked on this.
ERW
I’ve been working with colleagues to improve the operation of our regional school improvement consortium, ERW. As lead Chief Executive I’ve been dealing with a number of issues and I hope to be in a position to communicate the way forward to colleagues in schools across the region in the next few weeks. It’s essential we build upon the excellent performance of our schools and provide the best possible support for school improvement across the Mid and South West Wales region.
Depressing reading on the budgets. allied with that we are also told that personnel who leave cannot be replaced. how are departments expected to perform without key personnel who have left is anybody’s guess.
if we need to save then why are the councillors budgets not being looked at as they are allocated 10K every year – surely this should be put into other development or maintenance budgets or saved.
why is it that we as employees always have to deal with cuts but the members don’t?
our office is potentially going to lose a key employee to another Authority who we can’t replace – can somebody tell me who is going to do this work?
Thanks for your comments Steve. As you rightly point out it is becoming increasingly difficult for councils to deliver services in the face of continuing austerity. Some councils in England, where reductions bit earlier than Wales, are now on the verge of collapse and I hope that this position is recognised by central government and addressed during the forthcoming spending review and budget announcements. In the meantime we will be discussing every area of spend with the Cabinet over the coming days and weeks with a view to protecting jobs and services.
Phil
hi Phil, worrying times.
Out of curiosity, when we sell land/buildings to the private sector to offset savings, why don’t we, as an authority take a leaf out of their book and develop. Take Penllergaer offices, I have no idea how much it was sold for but I’m pretty sure a developer will build homes and sell them for a huge profit. My question is: why don’t we do it. It could help towards the lack of housing issue and at the same time generate money. if we keep doing this, as an authority we wont have anything left.
Hi Robin,
Thank you for your comment on my blog regarding reviewing the way in which we dispose of our land. I am pleased to be able to say that we are indeed creating a developer arm within the council to do exactly what you suggest. A range of sites are being worked up with the key desired outcomes being both financial returns and the delivery of more affordable homes and homes for sale. I think it’s safe to say that the size of a project such as Penllergaer would be a little beyond us as the moment but we certainly have an aspiration to be one of the larger developers within the area. In addition you may be aware that the council is also embarking on its programme of building council houses which should also improve the supply of affordable housing.
Phil