Appendix 4(b)
Chief Executive’s Directorate
Savings Proposal / Savings Reduction 2011/12
£,000 / Impact on jobs / Wards Affected
Reduction of two senior management posts
Two Corporate Management Teamposts have been deleted, leading to a 22% reduction in the Corporate Management Team.These posts are the Director of Marketing and Communications and the Director of Change. / 200 / 2 / All
Efficiencies from reorganising Change Support Service
Staff who work in areas such asorganisational development, project management and training have been brought together into one central department to make the team more efficient and reduce the number of people needed.
However we will stop delivering SPRINT IT training to external organisations which has trained over 1,000 delegates over the last 10 yearsand will see a real reduction in direct and bespoke training delivery for some soft skills courses with low uptake for example assertiveness, problem solving/decision making and time management, allowing us to focus more on supporting corporate priorities such as ICT systems training, Safeguarding and new courses and development opportunities to support the Creating Workforce Capacity Programme.
Continued development of the e-learning portfolio continues, with a growing range of courses that provide a more flexible and tailored approach to learning without the need to attend traditional classroom based events. These courses can be done from the desk top and at the learners own speed. / 300 / 5 / All
Review Marketing & Communications, inc sponsorship and events
Radically reduce the Council’s event programme including removing key events such as the Salford Ice Rink (8,000 visitors) and Proms in the Park (6,000 visitors) for 2011/12.
Restructure and significantly reducethe Marketing and Communications function and only provide this support for thecouncil’s most critical priorities.
Review all sponsorship arrangements with our partners to seek significant reductions in the investments we make, especially in the short term. / 3,660 / 15 / All
Manchester Knowledge Capital
The withdrawal of North West Development Agency funding has meant that this organisation was forced to wind up and our contribution is now not required. Manchester Knowledge Capital helped to develop and manage the Innovation Fundand secure funding from NESTA across the city and the wider conurbation and this will now cease. / 40 / 0 / All
Salford Community Radio – reduced subsidy
Consultation has begun with Salford Community Radio to determine the likely impact of a 10% subsidy reduction. The reduction will still allow the station to continue to provide a service to the city on a smaller scale. / 6 / 0 / All
Redesign delivery of Skills and Work support
During 2010 – 2011 the performanceof the Skills & Work servicehas been extremely positive with 1,680 residents registering to receive supportto find work, 424 undertaking education and training and 698 residents supported into employment. Next year, whilst the service will prioritise families at risk and people affected by benefit reform and child poverty, a 25% reduction in funding willundoubtedly result in fewer people being supported to move off benefits and get into work.
The Skills & Work service is supported by a network of eleven localCommunity & Voluntary Sector providers under the Commissioning Programme - Raising Aspirations. Although savings can be made through delivering a corporate approach to commissioning some of these organisations, it will not be possible to continue todeliver the same level of support in light of the 25% reduction in available funding journey into employment. This could impact on the ongoing viability of some excellent local grass roots organisations.
Salford City Council has been the lead authority for Greater Manchester’s hugely ambitious Future Jobs Fund programme, which is on track to support 8000 young and long-term unemployed people from across the sub-region into newly created jobs. Salford alone will support 800 people into work this year, but will not be able to continue to deliver at such volume in the coming years. Salford City Council is committed to building on the positive foundations laid under Future Jobs Fund, but will have todeliver a more much more targeted programmeand at a much smaller scale, probably creating in the region of 100 jobs per year. / 1,168 / 1 / All
Review of Strategy, Policy and Performance resources
Four jobs (10%)to be removed from Policy and Performance section who look at changes to legislation and how it affects Salford. This could have an impact on future policy/performance legislative changes and could impact upon our current performance management arrangements which have been externally recognised in the past. / 100 / 4 / All
Total – Chief Executive’s Directorate / 5,474 / 27
Customer and Support Services Directorate
Savings Proposal / Savings Reduction 2011/12
£,000 / Impact on jobs / Wards Affected
Income generation – Registrars office
Increase income by introducing a second ceremony room. This will give people the choice to have their wedding in the new room at the existing £43.50 rateor use the recently refurbished and improved ceremony room at an increased cost of £103.50 (Monday to Fridays), £153.50 (Saturdays). It will also be possible to have your wedding reception at the Civic Centre for the first time.
There will also be an increase in charges for priority certificates for births, deaths and marriages will increase from £14 to £20.We would normally issue approximately 3,000 priority certificates per annum. / 40 / 0 / All
Introduction of charges for credit card payments
A credit charge fee of 1.4% will be introduced for all payments of council tax, business rates, sundry debts etc. The charge will not apply to debit card payments or other payment methods. The council currently has to pay this fee for 1500 credit card payments each month. This proposal means the charge is passed on to the customer. / 40 / 0 / All
Increase in council tax/business rates court costs
Fees for council tax and business ratepayers facing court action for not paying will rise from £77 to £80. These increased court costs are likely to affect up to 17,000 council tax payers and 1,000 business rate payers each year. / 50 / 0 / All
Spending Reductions - Insurance claims reduction
During 2010/11 the council has brought insurance claims handling in-house, rather than paying outside companies to do it. The in house team has already started to weed out some of the fraudulent claims and better negotiate settlements when the council admits liability. This currently costs around £2.6m per year. / 275 / 0 / All
Reduced lease costs-printing equipment
The Council has negotiated cheaper lease costs for printers, leading to improved printing facilities being available within the Council. / 30 / 0 / All
Collaborative working-legal services
Manchester and Salford’s legal services will be working together and sharing resources to save money. / 312 / 0 / All
Efficiencies in financial support services (Accountancy, Payroll, Invoice Processing, Audit and Procurement)
Following the Think Efficiency programme the payroll, invoice processing and accountancy functions will be reduced. This will have an impact upon the support provided by Audit and Procurement to front line services. / 857 / 25.8 / All
Efficiencies in local tax collection and benefits processing, customer contact centre and face to face customer services delivery through Gateway Centres
Increased use of electronic records, automated call/claims handling procedures and a real drive to work with residents to change their contact preferences to cheaper electronic channels through the Council’s website.
If on-line services are not taken up this could delay benefits claims handling (current new claims handling times 18 days) and call response times (current performance times 81% of calls answered within 30 seconds). These services are currently under pressure because of increased demands due to current economic climate. Current benefits claimant levels are 34,000.
The Council will no longer be able to deliver computer training to residents either on a one to one basis (1,500 customers per annum) or as part of its support to community groups in developing websites etc (800 customers per annum). Such services have previously been targeted at vulnerable groups such as the long term unemployed to support skills development and to provide help in their search for jobs. The Council will seek support from other partners such as SalfordCollege in reducing the impact of the removal of these services.
There will be a reduction of 8 staff providing customer services in some outlets such as the Little Hulton One Stop Shop where this year approximately 1,500 customers will be dealt with. This will mean therefore a significant reduction in the range of advice and information services currently provided through the One Stop Shop. / 764 / 31 / All
Little Hulton
Review provision of Occupational Health Services
These savings will be as a result of sharing serviceswith a major local partnerto save money and maintain current levels of service provision. / 50 / 1 / All
Reduction in administrative support resources
The Think Efficiency process led to all admin staff being centralised, meaning fewer people were needed to deliver an admin service. Further reductions will mean changes in working practices including the increased use of technology in delivering support to front line services. / 408 / 17 / All
Reduce Gateway Centres opening hours
These savings are based upon a reduction in early morning and late evening opening hours at the three Gateway Centres in Pendleton, Eccles and Walkden. This will affect at least200 customers each week. / 40 / 3.5 / Langworthy
Eccles
Walkden
Restructuring of Democratic Services and Members support
Bringing together staffing resources in Elections, Members’ support and the Council’s scrutiny process. This will reduce the cost of supporting meetings including printing costs and it will result in a reduction in service to the Mayor’s Office and Community Committees. / 360 / 9 / All
Reduce inspection and investigation regimes
Merge various inspection teams from across the Council, forming one more effective central team. This should not affect overall service. These teams currently carry out tasks such as benefits claims investigations and council tax property inspections. / 100 / 4 / All
Further reductions in in-house development and support
Centralise ICT function from across the Council within Customer and Support Services Directorate. Work with other AGMA councils to look at how this service can be linked together to be more effectively delivered. / 220 / 10 / All
Close Contact Centre on Saturday morning
The Customer Contact Centre will close on Saturday mornings to the public. The centre currently deals with approximately 250 calls per week from residents seeking help and advice. A limited emergency service will be provided. / 50 / 2.5 / All
Deletion of HR managerial post
Deletion of one managerial post which specifically managed the council’s job evaluation scheme. The scheme has now been delivered so the job is no longer needed. / 46 / 1 / All
Reductions in HR staffing
Reduce the number of HR staff in line with the reduced staffing levels generally across the Council. The team will be centralised, rather than having specific HR officers for each directorate. / 50 / 2 / All
Reduce council tax discounts to empty properties and second homes
Empty properties and second homes currently get a 50% reduction on council tax. This will be changed so they only get a 10% discount.
There are currently 3,600 empty homes and 200 second homes in the city. This also supports the council’s plan to increase the availability of housing in the city. There will be a slight increase in the cost of collecting this money from the owners of the property. / 1,300 / 0 / All
Reduction in Audit Commission fee
Following the abolition of Comprehensive Area Assessment, the Audit Commission has ceased work on this programme, these savings reductions represent the reduced fee that the Council will now pay for services from the Audit Commission. There will remain some residual services in respect of closure of financial accounts and other monitoring arrangements. / 100 / 0 / All
Total Customer and Support Services Directorate / 5,092 / 106.8
Children’s Services Directorate
Savings Proposal / Savings Reduction 2011/12
£,000 / Impact on jobs / Wards Affected
SEN Statements – Staff Reductions
We will reduce the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Admin team by 20% in 2011/12.
We currently have 1,151 children in Salford with an SEN statement, a rate of just under 3.5% against a national average of 1.93%.The main impact of this reduction in staffing is a risk of failing to meet the statutory duties relating to the assessment and drafting of statements for children with SEN. This could mean that children will wait longer before being given the support they need. This will place more pressure on our ability to monitor services provided as part of out of borough placements. / 69 / 1.6 / All
SEN Co-ordinator
We propose to remove the grant towards the training of Special Educational Needs (SEN) Co-ordinators in schools. This will mean that SEN coordinators in schools will no longer receive specialist training from the Council, schools will be required to do this themselves. / 60 / 1 / All
Delete Brief Intervention Manager’s post
Due to the removal of Area Based Grant funding the team manager’s post will be deleted from the structure.
The Brief Intervention team helps families to overcome problems within the family and assists in the prevention of family breakdown. This team will now be put into the new Early Intervention and Prevention Service structure and will be managed alongside a range of other services rather than having support from a specific manager.
The impact will be that the service will need to be targeted towards children experiencing the most turmoil from family breakdowns. / 54 / 1 / All
Learning Mentors/Learning Support Unit
Learning Mentors provide support for vulnerable young people in our communities. Due to the removal of Area Based Grant funding the admin support for Learning Mentors and Learning Support Units will stop. The admin support will be provided through a shared team with other services.
The impact of this will mean potentially a slower response time to requests for information. / 17 / 0 / All
Educational Psychology Service – Income
The proposal is to increase income generation by providing training for ManchesterUniversity and Salford schools. In addition, the service employs two trainees on fixed term contracts. When these contracts end on August 31st 2011 they will be released and no further trainees employed. Instead we will sponsor one student. / 78 / 2 / All
Clothing Grants
This proposal will reduce the current budget provision by 50% to bring in line with average expenditure over the past 3 years i.e. £10k down to £5k.
An average of 250 grants are given out each year at a rate of £20 for Primary School pupils and £30 for High School. The grants pay for school uniforms. We have operated a surplus in this area because of an expected higher demand for clothing grants. / 5 / 0 / All
Minerva House Closure
The lease at Minerva House will end from September 2011. Children’s Services staff will relocate to the Civic Centre complex. Plans are currently being put into place to ensure that the move is successfully completed by June 2011. The savings include all associated costs with running the building. / 275 / 3 / All
SEN Transport Review
We aim to make better use of the vehicles that transport children and young people with SEN by getting better deals on fleet hire and renewal; developing car pool arrangements; reducing the time when vehicles are not in use; using partnerships with other authorities to get better contract deals. In order to achieve the savings we will need to invest in two more staff to undertake this work. These staff will work with young people to help to encourage them to travel independently.
This transport review will be jointly developed across the City Council. / 230 / +2 / All
Music Service – Reduce Schools Discount
We will increase the charging policy to schools for Music and Performing Arts Service and reduce the amount of out of school activities that are offered.This service currently supports nearly 4,000 children and young people learning to platy an instrument. Just under 6,000 are involved in other music activities with the service.
The changes described will be greatly increased if the current Music Standards Fund grant (£512K) is cut following a national review of music services. This could dramatically decrease the numbers of children and young people learning music. A further review of the service will be undertaken in 2011/12. / 110 / 2 / All
Restructure Locality Teams
Following a restructure of Locality Based Teams that support children and families there will be a reduction of two Locality Manager posts and the deletion of three vacant posts. Remaining managers will deal with a broader range of issues instead of being specialists in one area. This will in all likelihoodmean that children and families are waiting longer for the right sort of support. / 234 / 5 / All
IT Infrastructure – Replace Managed Service
Some aspects of IT services will be provided by an external company instead of employing consultants.This is linked to the Building Schools for the Future investment and a contract with RM to provide IT services to schools. The contract is also being rolled out to primary schools. / 112 / 1 / All