Chief Exec of County Council takes voluntary pay cut

I spoke a lot about the importance of strong political leadership when I became Leader of the Council a few months ago.

There’s lot of ways you can demonstrate this. Being clear about your objectives, making sure the Council’s policies and actions deliver them, never forgetting our promises to the electorate and residents. Deliver on that and residents will trust us to do what is right by them and spend their money as effectively as we can – so important in difficult financial times.

Of course you don’t lead an organisation like the County Council on your own.

Aside from the Leadership which at Cabinet level, through scrutiny and in their division councillors provide, there are our officers, experts in their field, led by our Chief Executive, Mark Lloyd.

As Head of Paid Service, Mark leads the Council’s workforce. It is an incredibly demanding, stressful and hugely responsible role.

His leadership also has to be strong.

One of the most important characteristics of a really good leader, I’ve always felt, is the ability to lead by example.

And when residents are finding life tough, and tightening their belts because money is tight, council’s can’t be out of step with what the people who pay for services are experiencing.

Those at the top, like Mark, are well rewarded for the difficult job they do.

So, it is very pleasing that Mark has chosen to lead by example, and yesterday announced he will be taking a voluntary 5% pay cut from the 1st July. Mark has also chosen not to take any of the pay increases to which he’s been entitled over the past three years. This makes his pay now 5% less than when he started at the Council in March 2008.

It’s an important act, and part of a general picture of wage restraint at the Council that demonstrates it the right thing. There won’t be any performance related pay increases at the Council this year, for example.

The County Council has a strong track record of financial management. But public expectation now goes beyond just good stewardship of public funds. We are meeting those expectations, walking the talk, and in doing so, we are demonstrating that we are doing right by residents.

County Council Budget – overview

Integrated Planning Process – budget setting.

There will be no increase in the County Council’s element of Council Tax in the next financial year, and probably no increase for a further four years. The County Council aims to save £50.4 million in 2011/12 and £160.6 million over 5 years.

The Council faces increasing pressures of demand, an increasing and ageing population and inflation coupled with a 14 per cent reduction in the core funding received from Government.

A new set of Council priorities are being proposed:

Supporting and protecting vulnerable people when they need it most

Helping people to live independent and healthy lives in their communities

Developing the local economy for the benefit of all

Four principles will guide the way the Council work – being a genuinely local council, making sure the right services are provided in the right way, investing in prevention, and working together.

In Children’s Services a fundamental shift from universal to targeted services is proposed, which over the next four years would save £1 million from youth services, £761,000 from home to school transport and £600,000 from children’s centres. Direct support to some children and young people will end, saving £1 million from disability services, £527,000 from specialist teaching, £315,000 from budgets for educating looked after children and £301,000 from the Cambridgeshire Racial Equality and Diversity Service.

The Council aims to save £950,000 from children’s social care, £240,000 from the early year service, and £3 million from mainstream and special educational needs school transport.

In Libraries, Learning and Culture, the Council will save £282,000 through operational efficiencies, income generation and new ways of working, £108,000 from redesigning the mobile library service, and £100,000 from introducing more self service and using volunteers in libraries. Working in partnership with other councils to provide support services and creating a Trust to run libraries will save a further £294,000.

In social care, promoting prevention and localism will save £2.9 million, adopting reablement approach a further £4.75 million, and decreasing the cost of high cost and complex placements will save £1.3 million.

In Environment Services, a proposed restructuring Trading Standards will save £641,000 over four years, reducing spending on environment and climate change £492,000, a proposed restructuring waste services will save £159,000 and a proposed reduction in senior management will save £100,000. Further efficiencies from the highways services contract will save £2.4 million, and restructuring Highways and Access £1.1 million.

In public transport, phasing out subsidised bus services will save £2.7 million but there will be an extra £1 million invested in supporting community transport schemes over the next five years as well as a summit on how to make public transport more locally focussed and value for money. There will also be a £1.4 million saving in revenue funded highways maintenance but an extra £3.85 million investment in this area from capital funds.

In Corporate Directorates, over a four-year period, reducing properties and maximizing office space in retained buildings will save over £1 million, reducing the contact centre opening hours and standards and moving more services being accessed and delivered online £426,000, reducing IT functions and delivering services in different ways will save £989,000 and reducing communications and marketing activity will save up to £550,000.

Budget decisions have and are being made in conjunction with Community Impact Assessments, which consider the impact of our services on communities, with particular reference to ensuring equality and cohesion. These will continue as changes are made to services.

To deliver the proposed plan, The Council will have to work in a completely different way.

The County seeks to be a genuinely local council.  It will hand decisions about spending and service provision to people at the most local level wherever possible. We know that a lot of people are already actively involved in their local areas, and we want to free up communities to do even more and support themselves.

We will focus on prevention – helping people early on, increasing their independence and choice, and helping them to help themselves.

We will make sure that every penny in every pound counts.  We will protect the frontline and will be as efficient behind-the-scenes as possible.  We will only provide services directly when this makes most sense. And we will work even more closely with other public services, the private sector, voluntary organisations, and communities to make sure we’re joined up and providing the best value possible.

The reduction in our grant reflects the part public services have to play in repaying the nation debt. There is no escaping the fact that there will be cuts to services. Cambridgeshire was already a lean authority and that has made for difficult decisions.

We will focus more than ever on our priorities, so our proposals will protect the most vulnerable, help people to live independent and healthy lives, and promote economic growth.

 

County Budget

The County Council is facing unprecedented challenge. The impact of the national debt, combined with the twin pressures of increased demand for our services and inflation, means we have a target of saving £160.6 million over the next five years. That is why I want to talk to you about how we are going to meet this challenge. There is no doubt that to meet these tough challenges we are going to have to transform the way we work. This is at the heart of this year’s budget process, now open to consultation. We will become a slimmer, even more efficient Council; one which puts communities at the heart of creating and delivering services, and prioritises help for the most vulnerable people in our communities.

We want to be a genuinely local Council, handing power for decision making, budgets and service provision to the most local possible level. These changes will have big implications for the way we work, and we estimate that over the next year up to 450 people will be affected as the Council transforms. This figure is likely to increase over the next two to three years. Redundancies are an inevitable consequence of the challenge we face, but we will do all we can to mitigate the impacts. Of course, not all of the reductions will result in redundancy.  We’ve been freezing posts as they have become vacant and some staff will retire or move to a job elsewhere.

 

BAM NUTTALL – they are joking of course !!!!

I come from a business background and have had to defend my own company robustly on occasions in the past. But BAM Nuttall seem to be trying to rewrite history and believing their own story. I can accept they may have got it wrong, might have under bid the work, might have taken on too much but I can’t accept what they are saying now. They are taking the council and the people of Cambridgeshire as fools and that is not good enough.

Council leaders have described statements made by BAM Nuttall as laughable as the contractor’s Chief Executive Steve Fox has said the company needs to be told how to fix defective work on the Busway. Defective works include parts of a cycleway that have been built in a drainage ditch so they flood and are impassable for more than half the year, a car park that has been built with a gradient that does not conform with national standards so puddles form when it rains and a leaky bridge.

The latest interview given by Steve Fox where he talked about the notified defects and said” the Council has not clearly demonstrated that they are defects” and “if you tell us what to do we’ll even see if we can do it for you “. The Council has clearly indicated to BAM Nuttall why the works are defective and has even given the contractor solutions to deal with the problems. In addition BAM Nuttall told the people of Cambridgeshire in a public statement in April that it was working towards rectifying the six defects.

Any work that does not meet the standards set in the contract is documented by an independent Project Manager and notified to BAM Nuttall and the County Council. The contractor is then responsible for correcting defective work, even if they disagree with the independent assessment. Despite the public statement in April the contractors have made no meaningful progress and are now refusing to correct some defects without being instructed to do so – an order that means paying more to the contractor to correct defective work they built.

The Council has been clear that it is not prepared to accept the route on a ‘sold as seen’ basis with outstanding liabilities. Opening the route before the defects are corrected would also mean it would need to close again for the work to be carried out.

 

Cambridgeshire Libraries

Cambridgeshire libraries are among the first in the country to work with other authorities to protect services and make savings. Plans are progressing to join with four other councils in the East to save up to £500,000 by sharing services. This is part of the Library Service Review. In-depth investigations into a range of options from forming a trust to using more volunteers are also to be carried out.

The results will be reported back in January with final proposals about the future shape of library services. The County Council needs to make a £2.2 million reduction (almost 30%) in its Library Service budget over the next three years. Public engagement activity launched this summer has put communities at the heart of transforming library services. Some 4,000 people have responded, and a full report of the public consultation will be published in November with the findings used and incorporated into options to be considered in January.

 

Every child deserves a family – can you help

This news article is on the Cambs County Council website which is worth a read and support.

A campaign continues next week to encourage more people in Cambridgeshire to find a place in their homes for a child needing secure and loving parents.

Adoption Week runs from November 1 – 7 and Cambridgeshire has a number of children who for variety of different reasons are not able to be brought up by their birth families.

For these children the County Council’s Adoption team needs adoptive parents who can help them develop their personality, encourage their talents and provide them with the opportunity to excel in life.

Anyone can apply to become an adoptive parent regardless of sexuality or relationship status, but applicants need to be over 21 years old, honest, healthy and robust enough to take on the parenting of a child.

Adoption is a lifelong commitment and the child would become a part of the family. The parent would become the legal parent of the child after an Adoption Order has been granted.

The County Council also knows that children do better when brought up in families that have a similar cultural background and heritage. They therefore encourage adopters from a diverse variety of backgrounds and cultures.

In Cambridgeshire there are a number of children who have been waiting for adoptive parents longer than others. This includes children who are older, have a disability or some degree of physical or emotional needs.

The local authority also has a number of children that have a strong bond with their brothers and sisters and may need to be placed with them or at least be able to maintain contact with them throughout their lives. Some of the children also have additional needs and uncertainties due to past experiences and poor starts in life.

The Adoption team is therefore looking for families that are willing to offer the best for the Cambridgeshire children – anyone who is patient, flexible and energetic.

Anyone wishing to find out more about adoption should contact the Cambridgeshire County Council Adoption Team on freephone 0800 052 0078 or visit www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk

 

Local Government Shared Services – board appointment

At the full council meeting on the 19th October 2010 I was confirmed as a board member of the shared services project with Northamptonshire.

This is an exciting piece of work bringing together the back office functions of both the county councils. Sharing these services will produce significant savings and with a fair wind actually improve services.

Working with both county councils will be a challenge but one that has the potential to reap rewards. Getting effective working between two different organisations will require a mix of diplomacy, strategic thinking and above all a healthy dose of common sense. I hope I have enough of all three.

Little Wilbraham September 2010 parish report

School expansions approved: Plans have been approved to increase the size of six primary schools in Cambridgeshire to cater for an expected rise in pupil numbers. Cabinet has agreed the proposed expansions of the six schools, providing an additional 170 places across the county.

* Abbey Meadows Primary School, Cambridge – an extra 30 Reception places from September 2010
* Colville Primary School, Cambridge – an extra 30 Reception places from September 2010
* Spring Meadow Primary School, Ely – an extra 30 reception places from September 2010
* The Weatheralls Primary School, Soham – an extra 30 Reception places from September 2010
* St John’s C of E Primary School, Huntingdon – an extra 30 reception places from September 2010
* Pendragon Primary School, Papworth Everard – an extra 20 reception places from September 2011

There is also a proposal for a new primary school in the south of the city. I am concerned that this additional capacity inside the city will have a negative impact on the schools close to the city. I have spoken with the cabinet member David Harty and made the case for some flexibility on how the number of classes are calculated.

Library review under way: All options being looked at. The way forward is still not clear. I am chairing a scrutiny committee tomorrow that will be looking into the review in some depth. Our report will go to cabinet along side the library review paper for consideration.

Safer and Stronger Communities Scrutiny Committee: I now chair this committee. It will be looking into a number of issues that span different organisations, for example the police, probation, courts, criminal justice board, drug prevention as well as libraries and adult education. Our first member led review is on Integrated Offender Management. We will be holding organisations to account for joined up working where offenders are concerned.

Cabinet Assistants: Four new posts of cabinet assistants have been created to help cabinet members. I have been asked to assist the cabinet member for corporate services. This does not cost the council anything and has no allowance attached.

Financial situation facing the County: Next month the Coalition Government will be announcing details of its Comprehensive Spending Review for Local authorities. This will set out in more detail how much funding Cambridgeshire will have for providing services in the next three years.

Public services are facing an unprecedented period of retraction as Government funding is cut back as a result of general economic conditions, the need to resolve the deficit and political decisions on the role and scale of the state. Based on Treasury estimates, the County Council is currently planning for a potential reduction in its funding from Government of up to 40 per cent in real terms over the coming five years.  Our ability to raise council tax rates and charges will also be severely limited.

This means that, in order to place the council on a sustainable footing for the future, the way services are currently delivered will have to be completely and radically transformed. In the future, the County Council will become both a commissioner as well as provider of services, working increasingly in collaboration with other public services, the community, and the private and voluntary sectors. Some services will end, and others become more targeted to those in the greatest need.

Cambridgeshire’s resilience: We cannot underestimate the potential impacts – 43% of people in employment in Cambridgeshire work in public services. Because the unique qualities of Cambridgeshire’s economy – the knowledge base we have through the universities, our bio-tech, clean tech industries – we are well placed to weather the storm.

It’s not the same picture everywhere in the county – there are particular issues in Fenland with deprivation and social cohesion. Clearly some areas will continue to need more support than others. We are already addressing the big society agenda which is already happening in the county. Starting soon we will be asking people in Cambridgeshire for their ideas and in particular their capacity to volunteer.

Councils committed to being as transparent and accountable: Cambridgeshire is showing its commitment to being open about its finances by publishing details of all spending over £500. From the week beginning Monday, September 20 Cambridgeshire County Council will reveal all its spending of £500 and over for July and August this year. Monthly updates of spending will follow.

Almost immediately after the general election, the Government asked all local authorities to prepare to publish this financial information by January 2011. As part of its commitment to be as open and honest as possible Cambridgeshire County Council is joining around 50 other authorities in publicising the information early.

The County Council is committed to being as transparent and accountable as possible. We were one of the first authorities to publish details about our senior management pay and we are in the first group of councils to put this information about spending over £500 on line. We have a good national record for managing finances and we are eager not only to publish this long before the Government’s deadline of January but to eventually exceed Government expectations by publishing spending below £500 as well.

 

Share Services Scrutiny

I was asked to chair my second member led review. The subject was shared services. The idea being that we share the costs and benefits of back office functions with Northamptonshire. This has been talked about for a number of years and was reaching the point where a decision was imminent.

There has been plenty of scrutiny over the years but much of it was very general and not in any great detail. The model had evolved, over time, and needed to reflect the current economic crisis. In order to make the savings sharing services must translate into job losses. This affect people so when a decision is likely then the process must go forward as quickly as possible so that any uncertainty is kept to a minimum.

This time chairing this member led review would be more complicated as it would involve members not just from Cambridgeshire but also from Northamptonshire. We met a number of times to scrutinise the outline business case and then the detailed business case. We were able to robustly question officers and cabinet members from both County Councils.

I started from a sceptical position concerned that the savings seemed modest compared to the organisational change required to make them. However, over the scrutiny process it felt like the business case stacked up. I am sure that somethings will not happen as expected and additional costs will crop up, they always seem to, but it was evident that further saving above and beyond those highlighted are likely.

Our cross party and cross council member led review made a number of recommendations but were supportive of the initiative. I presented our report at cabinet and was faced with the cabinet response paper that dealt with most of our concerns but not all. Cabinet agreed not to recommend shared services to full council until these concerns had been ironed out between myself, the cabinet member and the relevant officer. I am pleased to say all our recommendations were finally accepted and the report was presented to full council where it was approved.

Holding the executive to account

Part of the role of a County Councillor is to scrutinise the activities of the executive. This is carried out through 5 scrutiny committees which are comprised of members from all parties. In fact they perform much the same way that commons select committees do in Parliament. They are public meetings which you may attend. It is normal for the senior officer to be present together with the cabinet member. They are asked questions and pressed for detail.

Where an in depth review of a subject is required a member led review takes place. This is normally 3 or 4 members who carry out detailed scrutiny over a period of between  3 – 6 months. A report is written which would normally contain a number of recommendations for improvement. The report goes before cabinet who have to reply either accepting or rejecting the recommendations. Most recommendations are accepted and put in place by an agreed date.

The reports finally end up at full council.