Archived decisions

Appendix 5

Children's Services

Efficiency improvements 2006/07 to 2009/10

 

2006/07

2007/08

2008/09

2009/10

Cashable efficiency improvements:

£'000

£'000

£'000

£'000

A

AES eligible and budget saving

       
 

Youth Service related: lease costs (£17k) (+£85k - 2006/07); deletion of various posts (manager post (£53k), admin post (£34k), Drug Development worker (£35k - 2004/05))

85

0

0

0

 

Early years - absorption of inflation by providers

194

194

194

194

 

Stonham contract

100

0

0

0

 

Family Group Conferences

25

100

0

0

 

Management structure review (planned in order to deliver Pay and Benefits realisation targets)

0

320

480

0

 

IFA Regional contract - more effective contract negotiations. (New contract to be in place from April 2007)

0

100

0

0

 

Market Supplement changes - The equalisation of the market supplements paid to social workers in the north and south of the County, in line with changing market conditions has enabled the department to maintain the same level of staffing with reduced costs

45

135

0

0

 

Fostering service investment - A one-off investment of £500,000 in fostering services in 2007/08 is expected to realise £300,000 savings in 2007/08 through reductions in the level of external placements made and on-going savings of £100,000 (net of sustainability costs)

 

300

0

0

 

NCP / IFA temporary one year posts - Funded from one-off LPSA1 reward grant, these two posts are expected to reduce the NCP / IFA budget pressures and mechanisms for monitoring achievement of this will be established once post holders are in place so the success can be evaluated and quantified.

 

Not yet known

Not yet known

Not yet known

 

Integrated Youth project - Work to specify the tender documentation for the future of youth work as an integrated service with Connexions is underway. That contract will be effective from April 2008. The department will be seeking major efficiencies in service delivery as a result of this contract. Also, during 2007/08 the Youth Service will work with Connexions to deliver the Youth Green Paper with no additional funding

0

0

Not yet known

Not yet known

B

AES eligible but no budget saving

       

Early Years - place creation excess (£223k in 2004/05); training (£19k in 2004/05); supporting extra 3 year olds (£17k in 2005/06)

17

17

17

17

 

Youth Service admin review

50

0

0

0

 

Increments and re-gradings

293

310

327

344

 

Teenage pregnancy partnership

0

25

0

0

 

Support service review

0

100

0

0

C

Budget saving but AES ineligible

       
 

Home to School Transport - investment of £30,000 in taxi procurement pilot expected to deliver efficiencies in 2007/08 and 2008/09 onwards

0

Not yet known

Not yet known

Not yet known

 

Special Education Needs - Collaboration between Applemore and Oak Lodge schools will provide services for children with SEN who would otherwise have moved to more expensive Non County Placement provision

 

Not yet known

Not yet known

Not yet known

 

Legal 24 hour standby arrangements - Cessation of this 24 hour standby cover is a cashable saving since the level of service provision will not be reduced

0

25

0

0

D Non-cashable efficiency improvements

       
 

Increments and re-gradings (absorbed in schools activities - a further £320k each year)

320

320

320

320

Total AES eligible (a+b)

809

1,601

1,018

555

Total Budget Saving (a+d)

769

1,469

990

514

Total of all efficiency improvements (a+b+c+d)

1,129

1,946

1,338

875

Notes

Cashable efficiency improvements are defined in the annual efficiency statement (AES) as occurring when:

- inputs (money, people, assets etc) are reduced but outputs remain unchanged

- the price of inputs (procurement, labour costs etc) are reduced but outputs remain unchanged.

A reduction in price of inputs is measured in general against the increase in the Gross Domestic Product deflator (likely to be around 2.5% in 2006/07). Thus if the price of inputs remains constant there is a gain of 2.5%.

a efficiency savings that count against the AES and produce budget savings - this will include general procurement savings against the budget provision of a 2.5% increase in prices

b efficiency savings that count against the AES, but do not produce a budget saving because the efficiency is avoiding unbudgeted cost e.g. staff reductions made to absorb increments, procurement efficiencies where costs are still exceeding 2.5%, capital receipts or developer contributions applied to avoid unplanned additional borrowing

c efficiency savings that do not meet the AES criteria but produce a budget saving. These will include efficiency savings that relate to LEA services to schools (that are outside the scope for AES) and fortuitous savings that are not strictly efficiencies

Non-cashable efficiency improvements are defined in the AES as occurring when:

- increased outputs or improved quality of service are obtained for the same inputs

- increased outputs or improved quality achieved at a rate that exceeds the increase in inputs.