Councils have a legal duty to have a balanced budget and to spend only what they can afford.  As the Council Tax has not increased for many years, and the money we receive from central government continues to drop, the 2016-2017 budget will see the annual biggest drop in spending yet: a whopping £21 million.

But the Lib-Dem-run council tries to make the money we still have go further, by doing things like sharing buying with other councils, being outcome-focussed, using more IT functions and eliminating duplication between departments.  However it is inevitable that some residents’ services will be reduced.  But Marple has now seen part of the £100 million road and pavement renewal spent on its roads and pavements in this month.

Below is a breakdown of the proposed budget, courtesy of Cllr Iain Roberts, Deputy Leader and Exec Member with budget responsibilities.  The executive will make the final decision in December and the budget voted on by full council in February 2016.  This is only a proposal and I welcome comments via this website or to me personally.

 

Stockport Council 2016/17 Budget proposals in summary

Total in year Cash Limit Reductions from 2015/16 to 2016/17 – £21.080m

Years 0-25 SEND Reform

2015/16 spend: £5,546,000
2016/17 spend: £5,046,000
Saving £500,000

Changes to the provision of transport to young people with Special Educational Needs. Some changes will be to the way of operation (personal budgets, streamlined back-office processes).  The Council will also review who needs transport.  The Council may also ask families of 16-19 year olds to contribute towards travel costs to school.

The Early Years Foundation Stage Improvement Team will reduce in size.  The focus on improving early years provision will remain, but there will be less focus on Good or Better childminders and more provision online.

The Education Psychology Service aims to increase its size by selling more services to schools.

Stockport Family – Integrated Prevention and Safeguarding

2015/16 spend: £24,832,000
2016/17 spend: £21,798,000
Saving £3,200,000 (some additional funding from Staying Put)

Phase 3 of the ongoing project to establish a single, fully-integrated Stockport Family Service providing high quality support to Stockport’s most vulnerable children and families.  The Council will integrate social workers with health visitors, school nurses and midwives.  The new teams would work on a Locality basis with four local teams matching the areas covered by GPs.

The new approach is to work with families rather than doing things to families, a joined up model between services and schools.  A DfE innovation award is providing money to develop the new service.

Leisure Facilities

2015/16 spend: £854,000
2016/17 spend: £495,000
Saving: £430,000

New management agreement with Life Leisure.

Culture, Museums and Market

2015/16 spend: £1,085,000
2016/17 spend: £685,000
Saving £400,000

A new staffing model to run the museums and market with fewer staff. In parallel, longer-term options for how to best run the market and museums are being looked at.

Public Realm and Solutions SK

2015/16 spend: £19,363,000
2016/17 spend: £17,263,000
Saving £2,100,000

– End SSK Cost+ model and streamline processes between SSK and the council.
– Award additional £5m planned highways contracts to SSK and commit to 5 year CCTV contract
– Reduce staffing at parks, including removing permanent staff from some parks
– Reduce frequency of grass cutting
– Mark football and cricket pitches less often (but with better quality, longer lasting paint)
– Reduction of district centre steward visits from 3 days a week to 2 days a week
– Reduce tipper crews from 6 to 5 units
– Reduce agency cover for absence by a third

Public Safety and Protection Services

2015/16 spend: £3,264,000
2016/17 spend: £2,764,000
Saving £500,000

Merge a number of existing teams including environment, trading practices, bereavement services, infection control and community safety into multi-disciplinary locality-based teams removing duplication.

Library Management Efficiencies

2015/16 spend: £2,930,000
2016/17 spend: £2,762,000
Saving: £200,000

Reduction in managers in the library service. No change to opening hours or closures in this saving.

Neighbourhood Management Review

2015/16 spend: £735,000
2016/17 spend: £535,000
Saving: £200,000

Neighbourhood Management has 4 small area based teams working in each of our priority neighbourhoods. Lots of community development work is done, but the impact on inequalities has not been achieved through the current model.  Under these proposals, there will be one team which will move between areas, working on specific priorities in each but supporting the inclusion of residents in priority areas in mainstream services and within mainstream activities.  Also includes a review for 2016/17 of how small grants are used and allocated in local areas.

‘Alignment’ of HRA and General Fund

Saving: £500,000

Highways and Engineering

2015/16 spend: £3,413,000
2016/17 spend: £2,779,000
Saving £500,000 (balance of reduction is a cost neutral adjustment to cash limit re debt charges)

Move all staff into a Greater Manchester shared service for highways under TfGM. There should be no significant impact on what happens on the ground. Details of the new working arrangements to be received from TFGM soon and consulted upon.

Information, Advice and Guidance (AIG) services

2015/16 spend: £2,469,000
2016/17 spend: £2,219,000
Saving £250,000

A comprehensive review of IAG to remove duplication in provision of IAG and get people to access services online where possible. Develop better community resources to help people.

Corporate Support Services (CSS)

2015/16 spend: £20,341,000
2016/17 spend: £18,520,000
Saving £2,000,000 (includes additional investments of £179,000)

Further reduce size of CSS and reduce back-office capacity in response to reduced demand from the rest of the council’s redesigned services.

Stockport Together Initiatives

Health and Social Care Integration (Plan A) – now scheduled for 2017/18

2015/16 spend: £39,583,000
2016/17 spend: £32,583,000
Saving £8,000,000 (also includes £1m demographic funding)

An integrated and joined-up Health and Social Care service with one pathway into services wrapped around the individual, based around eight neighbourhood teams.  The integrated teams include council, CCG and Foundation Trust services.

Health and Social Care (Plan C) – proposed for 2016/17 subject to consultation and discussions with health partners

Proposed Savings: £4,755,000
Remainder to be met from one-off available resources £3,245,000

Cuts in existing council services.  These are not our preferred options, but are offered in the event that, with our partners, we are unable to fully realise the Plan A savings, leaving a gap that needs to be made up.
– Reduce care management budget, saving £2 million
– Reduce size of hospital social work team in line with other councils, saving £258,000
– Withdraw pooled funding for mental health support workers, saving £140,000
– Review current assessment process/staff efficiencies saving £290,000
– Review current in-house services saving £596,000

Stockport Learning Disability Partnership Services
– Assisted Accommodation (Replication of Heys Court initiative) saving £480,000
– Outsourcing remaining Learning Disability tenancies, saving £991,000

Prevention Commissioning
2015/16 spend: £17,230,000
2016/17 spend: £16,230,000
Saving £1,000,000

On target – agreed during 2014

Learning Disability
2015/16 spend: £23,449,000
2016/17 spend: £21,949,000
Saving £1,500,000

On Target – agreed in 2014

Other Initiatives

Digital by Design

Enabler business case.  Net reductions of £750,000 – £1 million in annual IT spend from 2017/18.
Additional one-off investment of £7,434,000

Improve and modernise Council’s ICT to support other changes and facilitate the delivery of future transformation and budget reductions.

Locality Working Project

No direct budget reductions. The Locality Working Project is an enabler for other savings. It has three main streams
– helping local residents and groups to do more on a voluntary basis
– better engaging residents in the decision making of the council
– improving community buildings

 

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