Following the announcement of the Scottish Government's provisional grant settlement, Falkirk Council’s expected budget gap for 2019/2020 has increased from £18m to £20m.
Although the settlement represents a real-term funding increase, the reality is a reduction to Falkirk Council’s core funding because a significant percentage of the money allocated is ring-fenced to finance Scottish Government priorities.
No final decision on the Scottish Government’s proposed grant settlement will be taken until the budget is approved by the Scottish Parliament over the coming weeks.
Bryan Smail, Chief Finance Officer, said: “The Council will still be spending c£340m next year however the reduction in our revenue grant is more severe than assumed in our Medium Term Financial Plan. Ministers are currently negotiating alterations to the budget to ensure it gets passed through the Scottish Parliament and we hope those negotiations will result in an improvement to our settlement. Regardless, we are working hard to identify additional savings options that members will consider when they set our own budget in February should the settlement remain unchanged.”
Currently, directors are working on five-year business plans to radically alter how the Council operates to help fill the current, overall shortfall of c£60m+ by 2023.
As well as investigating how services can transform and modernise, through the Council of the Future programme, other ways of reducing costs need to be considered, including workforce changes. These changes could include:
- Voluntary severance
- The non-filling of vacancies
- Reviewing temporary employees and agency workers’ contracts
- Altering working patterns
- Retirement
Karen Algie, Head of Human Resources & Business Transformation, said: “If we are to bridge our funding gap over the next five years, the Council has to transform into a smaller organisation with fewer buildings and staff, and provide fewer services in radically different ways.
“Although the Council of the Future programme will be central to our transformation, the deficit is such that we need to investigate other ways to save money. That is why we need to hear from employees who think they may want to make changes to their employment over the next five years as soon as possible.”
The Council’s severance policy provides information on voluntary severance and the retirement policy contains information on flexible retirement. Application forms for both are available on our wesbsite. Employees can email hrhelpdesk@falkirk.gov.uk and request the policies and applications forms be sent to them directly.