Agenda item

(1)       The Committee considered the Chief Executives Departments (CED) Draft Budget proposals set out in the Draft Budget 2011-12 and the Draft Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2011-2013 and also the report which was circulated specifically relating to the key areas of these documents for this Department. 

(2)       Mr Wood, Mr Shipton and Mr Simmonds introduced the Draft Budget 2011-12 and the Draft MTFP 2011-2013  for the Chief Executives Department and Financing Items  and then answered questions from Members about the following issues:-

(3)       Clarification was sought on the “Reduction in Member Allowances & Overheads” of £200,000 (page 99 of the Draft Budget).  Mr Simmonds explained that there would be full details by 1 April 2011.  This reduction reflected the new Directorate and Cabinet Member responsibilities and would depend on the way that the Cabinet was restructured and the number of Deputy Cabinet Members.

(4)       Mr Shipton explained that currently they did not know where the staffing efficiencies would occur, it was expected that that they would be delivered as much as possible through natural turnover and not filling vacancies, which would emerge during the year, but it was inevitable that there would be some redundancies. It was not possible at this stage to say what proportion will be met from natural turnover.   Business units had been given a target figure., The top tier re-structuring had already delivered savings and it was expected that further savings would be delivered as this process went though the next tier.

(5)       Mr Simmonds explained that £750, 000 had been allocated for savings from the top tier review.  He stated that in the Finance Unit it was difficult to say were the staff saving would come from, as finance staff from the directorates were being re-absorbed into the Finance Unit.  Mr Shipton stated that unit staffing figures would be available for the final version of the Budget Book following the County Council agreement of budget (as has been the case in previous years). 

(6)       In relation to savings from “changes to human resources policies” (page 102 of the Draft Budget), Mr Shipton stated that Ms Beer was working on a proposal and this would be the subject of a consultation. 

(7)       Mr Shipton confirmed that the largest part of the “other” savings of £1.7million was the reduction in the cost of employer’s pension contributions from 23.1% to 21% which would save a significant amount (£526,000) with little direct impact on staff.

(8)       In response to a question on what budget consultation would be carried out following the cessation of consultation work by Ipsos MORI, Mr Shipton explained that although the work of Ipsos MORI had been helpful in obtaining in depth feedback from a small group, he confirmed that they were looking at other ways of achieving this including using on line consultation. 

(9)       Mr Shipton stated that the un-ring fenced grants for LINks could now be used to contribute to the funding of Healthwatch. 

(10)     RESOLVED that the revenue and capital budget proposals included within the Medium Term Financial Plan 2011/13 be noted and the comments made by Members on the revenue and capital budget proposals be fed into the Cabinet Budget meetings and County Council in February.