The process of planning the county council's budget for 2008/9 will be triggered at a Cabinet meeting this week (12 June).
Cumbria County Council is working with partners to lead the development and delivery of a new community strategy designed to improve the quality of life for the people of Cumbria. As part of this process the Council is about to begin the process of planning its own corporate strategy and budget for the next financial year. This will involve considering whether the allocation of funding matches the outcomes we all want to achieve for the community - as set out in the Sustainable Community Strategy and the Local Area Agreement.
The county council will seek to engage communities, service users, partner organisations, employees and trade unions in finding the best ways to reprioritise its resources. The budget planning process will focus on how best to target resources on achieving high priority outcomes, working as efficiently and effectively as possible with key council partners.
Under the Gershon efficiency targets set by the government, all local authorities are expected to find efficiencies of around 3% of their budget. For the county council this represents around £10m, and Cabinet will recommend a programme of inclusive 'service reviews' to explore how the efficiencies can be achieved. These will look across all departments and outside the county council at how greater efficiencies can be gained from working smarter through partnerships.
The county council's budget faces increasing pressures from an ageing population requiring support, increasing costs of waste disposal and the still-undetermined liabilities following the equal pay and equal value claims brought by employees under the Equal Pay Act. Local authorities are also expected to receive proportionately less funding from central government when the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review are announced later this year.
Deputy Leader of the Council, Cllr Joan Stocker said:
"We don't always have all the answers, and we should learn as much as we can from the people who use our services to inform how we run them. Some of the budget decisions that emerge from the service reviews may be difficult and unpopular, but we want to ensure that everyone has a say on how we distribute limited resources.
"So much of our work is now done through partnerships. The Cumbria Agreement, agreed in April by all councils in Cumbria and other key partners, sets out clear shared priorities in areas like health, education, regeneration and transport. We've all agreed to work smarter together in these fields and I firmly believe we can use this budget round to focus more clearly and efficiently on priorities we've all signed up to.
"The council has been careful to manage the financial pressures - by the time our accounts for 2006/7 are done and dusted we will have set aside £22m to cover potential equal pay and equal value liabilities. Managing budgets is now a year-round process and, while many of the parameters that will determine next year's budget are still unknown, we need to start second-guessing what will happen so we can plan for our financial future. We are taking a particularly prudent approach here in planning for the worst case scenario, but it is better to plan ahead and do that than try and find savings at the last minute," said Cllr Stocker.
Each of the seven county council directorates will carry out the service reviews through July, August and September but looking at the budget from the perspective of service users and outcomes. The council's scrutiny team will be involved in the process from the outset. The service reviews will take a detailed look at service delivery to see if it can be remodelled to be more efficient, and channelled in the correct areas. They will be informed by existing surveys of Cumbrian residents and service users which help build value-for-money profiles.
Cllr Stocker said:
"The money the council spends must be allocated to the things that are most important for Cumbria. Good value to local tax payers must be the core principle to this whole process - we need to consider how our services can be as efficient and cost-effective as possible."
The service reviews will go through a period of consultation before culminating in a draft Budget to be produced in December - this will also be subject to public consultation.
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