Falkirk Council has been forced to make huge savings over recent years, with around £10m cut from budgets every year since 2008. The financial situation is now set to get even worse, with massive savings of £45m needed over the next three years, according to a report presented to Council today (7th October).

Estimated savings of £18.4m are needed next year, followed by £15.2m in 17/18 and £11.4m in 18/19.

Councillor Craig Martin, Leader of Falkirk Council, said: “Our aim will always to continue to protect services to our communities, particularly the most vulnerable, however the level of pressure on our budgets over recent years will inevitably have an impact.

“As costs rise and funding is reduced, our budget gap has grown to around £45m – and that is a huge obstacle to overcome. This saving will have to be made over the next three years at the same time as demand for local services is increasing due to our area’s growing population.

“Every Council in Scotland has to find millions of pounds worth of savings from already stretched budgets. Falkirk Council is no different and we are working hard to use every resource we have wisely and to reduce our expenditure wherever we can.”

Councils are legally required to approve an annual balanced budget and set Council Tax by March 2016. Members and officers have been working together to explore all options for delivering services in different ways and balancing the budget.

The report to Councillors set out a range of possible savings, adding up to a total of £15.4m, grouped under nine themes. These are:

Transformation – this involves modernising the way services are delivered, for example using technology to let customers serve themselves on line, reducing the number of offices the Council has and enabling staff to use mobile and flexible ways of working. Other initiatives include changing how residential care for children is provided in future.

Efficiency – for example, reducing what is spent on property and supplies and services, making savings through not filling vacant posts and not renewing temporary contracts, reducing printing costs across the Council and looking at how janitorial services are provided in schools. Other areas where savings could be made, include adjusting our internal budgets to take account of any underspends, cancelling some contracts and reducing the internal budgets for training and occupational health.

• Adult Care – for example, reviewing the subsidies given to private bus companies to support less popular services, considering a new charging policy for homecare and reviewing how day care is provided to older people.
• Built Estate – this means looking at the number of buildings the Council has and how they are used. For example,reducing the number of community halls, potential closure of Caledonia Day Service and possible amalgamation of some smaller primary schools.
• Economy – this could mean a possible reduction in what the Council spends on supporting business, town centre regeneration and tourism in the area. Community learning and development support for adults could also be reduced and costs for community lets of Council buildings could go up.
• Environment – for example, this could mean removing the community safety team, reducing the frequency of street cleaning, grounds maintenance and grass cutting and reducing the opening hours for household recycling centres.
• Income – this means increasing the amount of income the Council collects. For example, raising charges to cover the full cost of providing a service and increasing fees in areas such as special uplifts of waste and childcare.
• Young People – a number of proposals are being considered that could affect young people. These could include fewer Support for Learning Assistants, withdrawing employment and training services for young people and stopping the school library service.

Delivering savings of this scale means that the Council will need to reduce the services it provides to the public and the number of staff it employs and negotiations with Trades Unions are well advanced. The Council restructured earlier this year, reducing the number of departments to three and it now has fewer senior staff, saving £240k per year.

A recent independent inspection by Audit Scotland said that the Council would need to make changes at a more rapid pace if it is to save the required £45m over the next three years.

Before any final decisions are made, savings proposals will be reviewed to see how they might affect service users, particularly those who may be more vulnerable. This information will be taken into account at the Council’s budget meeting in February.

Full details of the budget savings can be found on our site.

No final decisions will be taken until the Council’s budget meeting in February 2016.