The Big Conversation - Proposed Savings
Tameside’s Saving Proposals
As a result of the Government’s deficit reduction plans, Tameside Council is facing unprecedented cuts to funding. We are now in the first year of these reductions, and on course to deliver £35.4 million of savings for this current financial year (2011/12). Next year (2012/13) we are looking to save £22.2 million. Our current estimates suggest we need to save a further £97.2 million by 2015.
Tameside has a strong track record of sound financial management, and anticipated the impact of these cuts well in advance. This allowed us to plan an early response.
Early in 2010, we started to re-design our services and promote voluntary staff exits. In June 2010 we issued a review and moratorium on expenditure, reviewed our capital investment plans, increased our focus on making savings from procurement and undertook further re-design of services. Because of all of this, the 2010/11 financial year ended with an underspend, giving us an excellent start to deliver this year’s savings of £35million.
We reduced our senior management costs by 40% in the last 2 years and redesigned our services so we now operate with around 1100 (30%) fewer staff. This has been achieved through voluntary, not compulsory, redundancies, reducing our monthly payroll by £3million. The full impact of voluntary severance costs has delivered savings of approximately £12 million so far. We have also made significant savings from our Member services equating to £114,000.
We have reduced overtime payments to our staff, have cut back completely on our administrative costs, such as ordering refreshments and printing papers for our meetings, and introduced charges for Councillor and staff car parking.
All in all, these interventions combined with redesigning our services has meant that compared to October 2009, when the Council spent £25million each month, almost two years later, in July 2011, our spending was at £20million each month, a 20% reduction.
We are now moving on to the next stage of our work, and have developed ideas to start to address the £31.4m of savings for next year. We want your views in developing these, and invite you to become involved in our “Big Conversation”. We want your views to ensure we continue to deliver the same excellent services to our customers.
The proposed budget reduction plan for 2012/2013 is set out below grouped into the following areas:
You can also find details of our decisions on our forward plan,
Current Consultations
| Area | Proposal | Saving Proposal £'000s | Consultation Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connexions | We have re-negotiated the Connexions contract to target those most in need of support. Careers guidance and support will now be the responsibility of the borough's schools. We will continue to spend £916,606.00 on this service next year. | 1,000 |  |
| School Crossing Patrols | We are reviewing the existing provision of school crossing patrols, exploring alternative funding options. We are working with schools and other partners to review the way we continue to achieve very high levels of road safety whilst reducing the cost. We will do this through a risk based approach and by exploring alternative funding options. | 347 | We have already consulted on this proposal and we are currently in the process of implementing in order that we can achieve the necessary budget reductions as soon as possible - if you wish to make any comments about the proposal or how we are implementing please click here  |
| The Sports Trust | We will continue to deliver additional savings by reviewing contributions to the Sports Trust and performing a review of staffing in this area whilst continuing to improve service provision. The council will continue to provide £1.56 million per annum. | 150 | We intend to implement this proposal as quickly as possible as we believe that it is important we achieve savings as soon as we can and we do not believe it will affect the service delivered to users and residents. Where any staff are affected by the proposals we will consult with employees and their unions through the normal processes – If you wish to make any comments about the proposal or how we are implementing please click here |
| Administrative reductions | We are continuing to reduce the number of staff and spend in various support services across the council e.g. Human Resources, Performance, IT, Legal and Finance. We are not recruiting to vacant posts unless it is absolutely necessary and/or they cannot be filled by an internal employee. We are developing new ways of working to improve the way we work at lower costs. We are already making significant inroads into this saving target in this current year. We will explore sharing these services with other councils. | 4,538 | We intend to implement this proposal as quickly as possible as we believe that it is important we achieve savings as soon as we can and we do not believe it will affect the service delivered to users and residents. Where any staff are affected by the proposals we will consult with employees and their unions through the normal processes – If you wish to make any comments about the proposal or how we are implementing please click here |
| Administrative processes | We are reviewing the way we manage our performance and plan our business. We will look at our routine business processes, such as our stock, supplies and payment of invoices, to eliminate any duplication and increase efficiencies reflecting the fact that the Audit Commission recognised that we were one of the most effective and efficient councils in the country. | 400 | We intend to implement this proposal as quickly as possible as we believe that it is important we achieve savings as soon as we can and we do not believe it will affect the service delivered to users and residents. Where any staff are affected by the proposals we will consult with employees and their unions through the normal processes – If you wish to make any comments about the proposal or how we are implementing please click here |
Proposed Budget Reduction Plan
Corporate and Back Office Services
| Area | Proposal | Saving Proposal £'000s | Consultation Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Card Payment charges | We are reviewing the charges the council has around credit cards, focussing on reducing costs by passing on the standard 2% charge on credit card transactions to those customers who wish to pay in this way so it is not subsidised by other tax payers. Introduction of this charge will bring us inline with the charges already used by many existing companies. There will be no additional charge where council tax is paid by direct debit, cheque etc. | 40 | Consultation Closed |
| Reduction in councillor administration and grant monies | We are reviewing further the administrative support provided to councillors and the mayoralty (which currently costs less than a penny a household) following significant reductions achieved last year which saw reductions of over 30%. We will also be reviewing the small budgets that councillors have to fund activities in their ward. | 230 | Consultation Closed |
Adult
| Area | Proposal | Saving Proposal £'000s | Consultation Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redesigning our Adult Social Care service | We are reviewing the way we manage the provision and delivery of adult social care services in Tameside. We will continue to support the most vulnerable. We will look at re-directing resources from our back office functions and accelerate our programme of early intervention and prevention work to reduce and/or delay residential care costs. Our continued spend will exceed £80 million in this area. | 5,426 | We will be consulting on a number of individual aspects of this global saving requirement where they affect service users, residents and service providers. Where any staff are affected by the proposals we will consult with employees and their unions through the normal processes - click here if you wish to be notified of any consultations affected by this proposal |
| Bereavement Service charges | We are reviewing the charging policy in relation to bereavement services. The review will take into account how much other authorities charge across Greater Manchester. | 80 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Top Notch Garden Services and Furniture | We will deliver savings by reviewing provision and ending contributions to parts of Top Notch which are not self sustaining. People with learning disabilities who use the service will be offered alternative support including skills development. We are proposing a 16% reduction in this expenditure. | 20 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Review of Meals provision across Adults Services | We are reviewing our food provision, including luncheon clubs and Meals on Wheels, across Adult Services, and seek to develop new models to deliver such services. | 100 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Residential and Nursing Care Provision | The Council has been consulting directly with residential and nursing care providers in Tameside for a number of weeks regarding fee and quality premium proposals for 2012/13. The proposals and consultation arrangements with the care sector have been detailed in a Key Decision Report which is attached for reference and details how the £2M savings from this proposal would be achieved. | 2,000 | Consultation Closed |
Children
| Area | Proposal | Saving Proposal £'000s | Consultation Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tameside's Youth Opportunity Fund | The external grant we receive for our Youth Opportunity Fund was withdrawn in 2010/11 by Central Government. We propose that young people will now be able to request funding for activities through our 'You Choose' events. We are also reviewing the success of the You Choose grants to ensure that they are set at the right level to maximise outcomes for young people. | 240 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Educational Psychology and Welfare Services provision in schools | We will continue to provide a free statutory service to schools, but we are looking to allow schools to buy additional services to help support their children in the way that they want. | 261 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Supporting children with emotional health and wellbeing | We are reviewing our emotional health and wellbeing services to better target the support for the benefit of young people and reduce administration. We will continue to spend approximately £300,000 each year in this area. | 150 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Funding fostering placements | We are reducing the need for more costly non-Tameside foster placements by working in new ways to reduce the number of children coming into care. We are also increasing the number of Tameside foster carers recruited, reducing the demand for more costly out of area placements. We are proposing a 12% reduction in spend as a consequence of improving our placement processes to achieve better outcomes for children and families. | 500 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Out of Hours' Service for children | Our 'Out of Hours' service provides children with social work support during the night. We are redesigning our management arrangements, whilst maintaining this essential service for our children. We are proposing a 13% reduction in expenditure following this review. | 100 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Our Early Years Workforce | The Government has reduced the grant available for this area of work. We are reviewing the funding for our Early Years workforce training by delivering training in a more targeted and focussed way for the most vulnerable groups. We will continue to ensure we have a highly skilled early years workforce and we are committing almost £260,000 next year to this service to continue to deliver this. | 300 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Mental Health services in Schools | We are looking to work with our partners in the borough to continue to provide mental health services through other agencies in Tameside whilst reducing costs. | 100 | Central government made the decision to cut the funding for this service so we are no longer able to continue funding but we are looking to work with other agencies to see how we can ensure this important service is available within the borough |
| Review the way the Youth Service buys activities from Community Groups | Funding has been used to develop a self sustaining social enterprise model to provide activities for communities. | 54 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| School Clothing Grants | We are reviewing our policy around clothing grants in line with other Greater Manchester Authorities. We would continue to support the most vulnerable making sure our resources are targeted where they are needed most. | 231 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Youth and Family Teams | We are reviewing our Youth and Family Teams Service to target support to those most in need: our most vulnerable and complex families. We are looking to improve our partnerships with schools, voluntary groups, and our partners. We are also looking at more effective ways of using Children's Centres and Youth Centres by working with families in one location. We are proposing a 12% reduction in expenditure for this area through more effective working. | 550 | Consultation Closed |
| Behaviour for Learning & Inclusion | This review of the Behaviour for Learning and Inclusion Service will seek to ensure that a full range of early intervention, statutory provision and collaborative strategies that have been agreed with the Schools Behaviour and Attendance Partnership are available to meet the needs of children and young people. This will place more of the decisions about support in the hands of schools. | N\A | Consultation Closed |
Place
| Area | Proposal | Saving Proposal £'000s | Consultation Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neighbourhood Services in Tameside | We are reviewing the way we work in our neighbourhoods, delivering efficiency savings by combining teams. This will ensure we make the most efficient use of the staff and skills we have. A number of central government grants such as Working Neighbourhood Fund have ceased. This proposal will include looking at the work of our patrollers. We will continue to spend in the region of £1 million in this area. | 1,330 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Grounds maintenance and street cleansing | We are reviewing the street services we provide such as street cleansing, grass cutting and litter picking. This will include the targeting of priority areas. We will continue to spend £3.4 million in delivering services. | 1,020 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Greater Manchester Charges | We are working together with all of the Greater Manchester Councils to review our contributions toward passenger transport, concessionary transport, land drainage costs and local transport charges. | TBC | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Council owned land and buildings | We are looking at the ways in which we use our land and buildings, so we use them in the most effective and efficient way. We propose to take a 2 stage approach, firstly looking at those buildings which are vacant or cost us more than £20,000, secondly looking at all of our land and buildings' use. This review will take into account community use and we will continue to support local voluntary groups. | 750 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Sports facilities in Longdendale and Oxford Park | We are proposing to engage with local communities to develop activities at Longdendale Gymnastic Centre in combination with the Ken Ward Sports Centre, and Oxford Park with the long term aim of increasing income by encouraging more usage. | 50 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Refuse collection vehicles and recycling services | We plan to review the way we use our refuse collection fleet of vehicles. By owning our refuse vehicles rather then leasing them we can decrease costs to the Council while continuing to provide the same level of service. We plan to further review and extend our kerbside recycling facilities in order to avoid increased landfill charges associated with black bin waste. We currently recycle around 38% of our waste, if we can recycle 50% of our waste this will save the council in excess of £4 million each year in landfill charges. We will also plan to improve recycling facilities for visitors to our cemeteries. | 221 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Environmental Enforcement and Trading Standards | We are looking to explore options for other ways to provide environmental enforcement specifically around specialist services. By sharing specialist services (such as dog control) with neighbouring councils we will work differently but deliver the same level of service. | 50 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Bed and Breakfast accommodation | We are planning to extend the contract around temporary homeless accommodation provision. The contract will promote a reduction in the use of bed and breakfast accommodation by finding better options for people who use this service. | 30 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Transport | We are reviewing the costs of our transport functions, focussing on delivering transport as efficiently and effectively as possible. For example we will review our taxi service contracts which we use for groups such as disabled children, to see if we can make this more efficient and make better use of our own vehicles through improved co-ordination of transport budgets. | 500 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Small contracts relating to heritage and sports | We will continue to provide heritage and sport services however we will not be renewing smaller contracts for example sports and bidding advice, sports sponsorship and archaeological projects. | 90 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Tameside's Third sector | We are examining how savings can be made in grant aid given to charities that deliver services in Tameside. We will encourage new ways of working to deliver savings and improvements by encouraging organisations to work together | 30 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Car Park income for charitable donations | We are reviewing the current levels of charitable donations made from our car park incomes. We will continue to strongly support voluntary groups and charities. | TBC | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Business Rate Relief | We currently offer business rate relief to Tameside's community / voluntary groups and charities. We are reviewing our approach to this discretionary rate relief, looking in detail at the criteria for it being granted. We will have a 12 month notice period if there are any changes. This currently costs the council £200,000. | TBC | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Sport Development Grant | Our proposal will make savings by ending the Sports Development Grant, however, our individual services will continue to provide sports development across Tameside and further support to sports provision will be provided through funding through 'You Choose'. | 100 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Festive Lighting | We are reviewing the way we fund our festive lights, and planning to encourage increased levels of local sponsorship to contribute to costs. | 55 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Tree Management | We are reviewing the use of in-house and external services when looking after and maintaining trees. There will be £200,000 ongoing expenditure. | 100 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Park Café, Bayley Hall | We are looking at making Bayley Hall / Park Café a self sustaining social enterprise whilst continuing to offer employment training and opportunities for vulnerable adults. | 100 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Road Surfaces | We will receive more income to improve the road surfaces in the borough through a permit scheme whereby utility companies are charged for a permit to work on Tameside's roads. | 225 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Highways Expenditure | We are reviewing planned and reactive minor highway maintenance and will target spend on high priority areas. The proposed saving is 3% of total expenditure. | 204 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Tameside In Bloom, Nursery and Watering Teams | We are reviewing the provision of bedding plants, hanging baskets, floral design, troughs and tubs across the borough to deliver more savings. We are looking at the types and amounts of hanging baskets and bedding plants in parks, cemeteries, town centres and amenity areas that are used. We want to encourage community groups to take pride in their local areas and work with us to help make Tameside a more attractive place to live. This is a 25% reduction in spend. | 55 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Arts, events and theatre programme | We are working with arts, event and theatre providers in Tameside to support them to become self-financing in future years. | 180 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Sports Club Development Fund | We are planning on making savings through a reduction of the Sports Club Development Fund. Sports Development officers would continue to support local sports clubs to ensure quality of provision. | 50 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Contributions to Greater Manchester's cultural scene | We are looking to review the wider contribution we make to supporting cultural activities in Greater Manchester in conjunction with other local authorities. | 155 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Investment in long-term projects | We are reviewing the level of spend on long term projects such as transport improvements, housing or retail development. | 200 | Click here to be notified when this consultation opens |
| Customer Services and Welfare Rights Advice | We are looking at a new approach to customer contact and care. This will include investment in an improved call centre, improved web access and a review of face to face access points and welfare rights advice in the borough. We will continue to provide customer services in the most efficient and effective way possible. Our future budget in this area will exceed £500,000. | 380 | Consultation Closed |
| Libraries | We are reviewing the current and future requirements of our library service to deliver an efficient and effective service. We remain committed to providing a library service that meets the needs of customers in Tameside. We will continue to spend nearly £3 million on libraries in our borough. | 435 | Consultation Closed |
| Public Toilets | We are reviewing the operation of our four public toilets located in Mossley, Stalybridge, Droylsden and Denton. The review will consider usage and alternative provision in these areas. | 71 | Consultation Closed |
| Polling Stations | We undertook a wide public consultation in 2010 and reduced the number of mobile polling stations we used in 2010 by using alternative cheaper premises. We will continue to review the existing mobile polling stations, with a view to reducing the list further. | 5 | Consultation Closed |
| Car Parking | We are conducting a comprehensive review of car parking including blue badges in Tameside so that our car parks continue to remain affordable and that the charges are fair to all users of the car parks across the borough. We will manage the supply of parking spaces and ensure town centre car parks can be used by their target customer and there is sufficient turnover to create a vibrant town centre. | 250 | Consultation Closed |
| Museums and Galleries | We are planning to re-design our museums and heritage services, concentrating on our most popular centre, developing Portland Basin into a central heritage hub for Tameside. We will continue to spend £500,000 on museums and galleries in our borough. | 214 | Consultation Closed |
| Council Tax Rates for Second Homes | We are reviewing the council tax discount we award to second homes in Tameside. Second home owners in Tameside currently receive a discretionary 50% discount in council tax charges – in the interests of fairness we are intending to set it at the statutory minimum of 10% for Council Tax year 2012/13. This would affect 73 household in Tameside which claim this discount. Meanwhile, the Government are consulting on plans which would enable the discount to be removed entirely. | 34 | Consultation Closed |
| Redesigning the Council's Health Service | We are planning to change the way we manage our health improvement work for example by looking at the geographical areas in which we work. | 235 | Consultation Closed |
| Advocacy services | Our advocacy services help people to speak up for themselves, or on behalf of other people, the person is often receiving a service from a statutory or voluntary organisation. We are planning to deliver our advocacy services differently by making some changes to our contracts. | 20 | Consultation Closed |
| Choice Shop | We are reviewing the current Choice Shop contract which expires in March 2012. Nationally, ‘First Stop Advice’, is being developed by the Elderly Accommodation Counsel. This service is free to use and duplicates much of the Choice Shop's information. We plan to promote this service to providers and service users and ensure that people can access a range of information and advice through our new customer contact approach. | 50 | Consultation Closed |
Page last updated: 17 May 2012