Corporate services savings proposals

Caroline Holland, Director of Corporate Services, introduced the replacement and new savings proposals for the corporate services department. In response to a question about which posts in the resources division were affected by proposal CS46 and whether they were vacant posts, Caroline Holland undertook to provide this information, together with an explanation of why the deletion was being deferred. ACTION: Director of Corporate Services

In response to question about savings proposal CS2015-05, Caroline Holland confirmed that the proposed staffing savings would be dependent  on the successful rollout of the new financial management system.

In response to a question about savings proposal CS2015-06 deletion of an auditor post, Caroline Holland said that this would be partly offset by reduced costs within the shared service but may also result in a reduction of audit provision.

Medium term financial strategy

Caroline Holland highlighted some of the adjustments that had been made to the medium term financial strategy, including inflation assumptions, pay adjustments and revised predictions on government grants.

In response to a question about reserves Caroline Holland explained that the earmarked reserves include a “balancing the budget” reserve to assist in ensuring that a balanced budget is achieved each year (if savings exceed the target in one year the reserve can be topped up and then paid out if there is a shortfall in a subsequent year). If the Revenue Support Grant is considerably lower than predicted, the reserve can be used to give the council time to consider its approach to identifying further savings.

The Chair invited Lyla Adwan-Kamara, CEO, Merton Centre for Independent Living to address the meeting. Lyla Adwan-Kamara said that many of the proposed savings, not just those in adult social care, would impact on disabled people in the borough. She said that she was looking for a robust debate about the savings choices being made by the council, including challenge from the scrutiny panels. She said that the year on year approach made it difficult to appreciate the full scale and impact of the savings programme and that the public had been consulted on some aspects but not on others. She also said that it was difficult to understand why some departments’ savings targets had increased more than others.

Caroline Holland responded by explaining that unmet departmental savings targets were rolled forward each year in order to not penalise those departments who had met their targets. The ratios set for each department related to controllable expenditure and were as follows:

·         0.75 Children, Schools and Families Department

·         1.00 Communities and Housing Department

·         1.50 Environment and Regeneration Department

·         1.50 Corporate Services Department

Caroline Holland added that there was a statutory requirement to consult the public on some savings but not on others. There is no requirement to consult on the medium term financial strategy or on the overall budget, apart from with business rate payers. The council has re-instated the meeting with voluntary sector groups to explain how the budget is put together. Meetings also take place with the trade unions.

Members discussed whether to send a reference to Cabinet. It was generally felt that the savings that were being proposed were inevitable and that there was a lack of alternative measures that could be taken. There was some frustration that alternative savings had not been submitted to provide a basis for choice. There were mixed views on whether, given the context, scrutiny should express its anxieties and concerns to Cabinet and there was a consensus to not send a reference to cabinet in relation to this round of budget scrutiny.

Members asked Julia Regan, Head of Democracy Services, to email all councillors alerting them to the briefing session on the budget that the Director of Corporate Services will be giving on 6 January. ACTION: Head of Democracy Services

RESOLVED: to use a future meeting of the Commission for in-depth scrutiny of the allocation of savings target weightings between council departments, including consideration of changes in demand and information on the approach taken by other boroughs. The recommendations from this review would apply to the 2017/18 budget.