Cornwall Council could cut over 400 jobs as it tries to save £55 million
The local authority has laid out its budget plans for the next year
Last updated 2nd Dec 2021
Cornwall Council has published its draft budget proposals which explain that the authority will need to save £55million next year.
The budget report going to the council’s Cabinet next week says that £53.2m of these savings have already been identified and that work is continuing to find the other £1.8m which are required.
A large chunk of the savings will be achieved in plans to cut 410 jobs from the council by the end of March 2022 – helping towards shaving £18m off the council’s workforce bill.
But where are the cuts going to be made to achieve the savings required for the council to balance its books?
Detailed draft proposals show that staff cuts will be made across all departments and include cuts to social workers and planning officers.
They also reveal plans to close day centres, cut residential nursing home beds and support services for some of Cornwall’s most vulnerable people.
There are also proposals which would reduce the number of inspections and maintenance on rural roads.
Here we look at some of the key ones listed in the published documents.
Firstly the council is looking to save £8m a year on how much it is spending on interest and repayments for its borrowing. It says that this will be done through “reprofiling, removing unutilised budget of completed projects and review of wider programme activity to improve efficiency”.
The council is also looking to save £3.9m through savings from the Corserv Group which is wholly owned by the council. The group, which includes Cormac and Newquay Airport, has a turnover of £164m and the council “will seek to apply the same savings principals to the group which have been applied to the priorities and spending review for Cornwall Council”.
One saving proposal for £5.1m is reported as “being developed” but involves the Better Care Fund which is a pooled budget between the council and NHS Kernow.
The council is also looking to save £4.5m by moving from “traditional care models” such as residential placements and domiciliary care to “community based provisions”.
There are plans to save £431,000 in providing accommodation for children in care although the documents state that it is dependent on the number of children coming into care and “there is a rise in demand in Cornwall and seen nationally which could impact the intention”.
Changes to the council’s offices and buildings – including the reduction of sites with a move to more staff working at home more – aims to save £984,000.
The council is also set to review high cost packages for adults aged 18 to 64 who need support services. This aims to save £990,000 – a cut of 5% in current costs. It says that it will look at alternative options for some elements of care packages such as “care technology” and “particularly to reduce the level of 1-1 provided”.
Savings have also been identified in cutting the spend on employees’ mobile phones by almost £67,000 a year and ending a National Bookstart book gifting programme for early years children to save £43,000.
The council is aiming to save £2.4m by adopting a new approach to purchase residential and nursing care services for older people.
A number of other spending areas will also be cut including a £150,000 reduction in printing and photocopying; £222,000 cut in non-recruitment advertising; a £46,000 reduction in spending on books and publications; cutting spending on consultancy by almost £98,000; cutting mail and post expenditure by £390,000; cutting spending on promotional material and marketing by £75,000 and cutting spending on stationery by £30,000.
The budget plans also include cutting £1m in road inspection and maintenance by reducing inspection of rural roads from three times a year to twice a year.
Plans to save £1.65m from adult social care will be achieved by cutting five full time posts and six full time vacant posts from the council’s early intervention service. Consultation proposals have been drawn up for this.
Another consultation looks at the proposed closure of four day services “where attendance has diminished” to save just over £1m. The documents say “care needs will be met by alternative ways”.
Cuts of £2.5m are planned in children and families services through “deletion of social worker and frontline social care practitioner vacancies and fully scaling back planned investment in specialist positive behaviour support team”. Full time employee cuts will be made in family group conferencing.
A saving of £1m has been identified in children’s health and wellbeing from current vacancies or the end of grant funding. The communities and public protection service will also look to save £1.3m through vacancy reductions and redundancies across the service.
Customer and business operations will save £1.4m with the department protecting jobs by using vacant posts where possible.
The council’s customer and support services will save £350,000 through staff cuts and also reducing “members’ budget”.
Savings of £308,000 could be made in economic growth with areas being reviewed including commissioning, culture and archives and a reduction of posts for those working on EU fund delivery.
The education department is looking to save £224,000 with “significant impact” on outdoor education, music hub and video interactive therapy service. The council has launched consultation on the outdoor education centres and music hub.
In the environment service the council aims to save £622,000 through redundancies and vacancy reductions while the finance and commercial department looks to save £367,000 in a number of ways including vacancy removal.
The fire service will aim to cut £200,000 by reducing spending on administrative staff – with the report stressing that savings do not relate to firefighters.
The council’s operations and change department will cust £1.6m including removing roles in IT and property departments.
In planning and development the council will save £960,000 which includes a cut of four to five enforcement and appeal planning officers.
And a senior management review will aim to cut £1.2m through “rationalisation of senior management leadership capacity”.
In transport a saving of £495,000 will be made including streamlining the highways service and includes “shifting the accountability and decision making for localised issues entirely to Cormac”.
The council’s public health department has to make £389,000 of savings which includes “a commitment to not undertake in full a planned expansion of the public health team”.
Other savings include £500,000 through a review of transport for education and £50,000 by ending the council’s presence at the Royal Cornwall Show.
And the council is looking to save £600,000 by reducing commissioned beds at the Trefula residential home in Redruth by 14.
Continued delays to rolling out new fortnightly rubbish collections and food waste collections will also save the council £1.5m.
Finally the council is looking to save £1.1m from the provision of supported living residential and nursing services for working age adults.
The draft budget proposals, which also include an expected council tax rise of 2.99%, are set to go to the council’s Cabinet for consideration next Wednesday (Dec8) before then going to the council’s various overview and scrutiny committees and out for public consultation.