Agenda item

Mr. J. B. Rhodes CC, Cabinet Lead Member for Corporate Resources has been invited to attend for this item.

The Commission considered a report of the Director of Corporate Resources concerning the proposed Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2014/15 – 2017/18 as it related to the Corporate Resources Department and Corporate Items. A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 9”, is filed with these minutes.

 

Introduction

 

The Director of Corporate Resources advised that the overall savings requirement for his Department was £7.3 million and that this would need to be achieved by:

 

·      Seeking to increase income from trading activities, particularly with schools. Currently the Department generated in the region of £33 million from trading activities and would be looking to increase income by £1.4 million. It was recognised that this would be challenging and he welcomed the opportunity to work with a Scrutiny Review Panel which was due to be established to look at the Council’s approach to trading;

·      Transforming the way support services were structured and delivered to ensure that issues raised were more effectively prioritised.

 

Growth

 

G21 School place planning strategy: time limited contribution of £500,000 in 2014/15

 

This additional growth to help establish a dedicated cross-departmental team to research, plan and co-ordinate the Children and Families Service capital programme was welcomed.

 

Savings

 

In relation to paragraph 22 of the report, the Director advised that the County Council had been working to develop management capacity within the organisation. The Leading for High Performance programme, which had initially targeted senior managers, was now being rolled out to middle managers. The objective was to empower managers to examine their service areas critically and to innovate to achieve the savings and transformation that the Authority required.

 

In relation to the concern about being less responsive to support requests, the intention was to examine requests for support critically and focus such support on “must have” services rather than those that were considered “nice to have”.

 

S81 – Review of Strategic Finance, Property & Procurement: £350,000 in 2014/15 rising to £570,000 in 2015/16 and to £1,110,000 in 2017/18

 

The Director advised that ESPO was a successful partnership and, following the management restructuring of the organisation, significant surpluses amounting to between £2-3 million were now being generated. Given the confidence level about the ability of ESPO to continue to generate these surpluses, a decision had been made to include the County Council’s share of the surplus in the base budget.

 

S87 – Strategic Information Technology and Communications Review: £30,000 in 2014/15 rising to £80,000 in 2015/16, to £420,000 in 2016/17 and to £620,000 in 2017/18

 

The Commission was advised that the initial review of communications and engagement activity within the Council had resulted in the centralisation of these activities and more targeted marketing campaigns. This had resulted in a 60% reduction in expenditure. The savings identified would be accrued by further centralisation of communications activities and a greater focus on digital rather than paper-based marketing materials. The intention was to continue producing Leicestershire Matters three times per year as this was the best means of communicating directly with residents of Leicestershire.

 

S88 – Efficiency savings from sharing services with Nottingham City Council: £190,000 in 2014/15 rising to £390,000 in 2015/16

 

Members were advised that there had been initial teething problems with the software supporting the East Midlands Shared Service. These had now largely been resolved and the intention was to focus on seeking additional partners such as district councils or police and fire authorities to take up the services offered.

 

S92 – End support for community ICT: £70,000 in 2015/16

 

The proposal was to work with local parishes and partners with a view to providing the existing service in a more cost-effective way. These savings were not expected until 2015/16. The Director undertook to provide members with a list of organisations that would be affected by the changes.

 

Capital Programme

 

Members of the Commission welcomed the proposals for renewable energy generation on County Council sites.

 

With regard to paragraph 40 of the report, the Director undertook to provide members with details of the two vacant sites proposed for demolition to improve saleability.

 

RESOLVED:

 

(a)       That the report and information now provided be noted;

(b)       That the comments made at this meeting be forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration at its meeting on 4 February 2014.