6. Value for Money, Resources and Delivery

The Council's Corporate Plan relies on a robust and systematic approach to efficiency, value and the use of resources.  This section explains in high level terms how the Council will do this.

During the period of the Corporate Plan this will mean a significant step change to the way the Council works and how it is structured to ensure it is fit for the future.

Value for Money and Efficiency

The Council already provides value for money in its key services by delivering high performing and improving services while keeping its costs low. Council Tax is also slightly below average for similar Councils.  Customer satisfaction has recently improved.  The Council has also delivered £11million of efficiency savings over the past 4 years and is planning for at least a further 3% efficiency improvement in each year of this plan totalling £9 million.

In independent inspections the Council is rated as a 3 star (out of four) Authority which is improving well.  This is being achieved in the context of the sixth lowest funding grant per head of population for unitary Councils.  Our spending on services per head of population is in the lowest 25% of all Unitary Councils.

However, the Council is determined to improve its efficiency and value for money even more in the following ways:

• Better understanding its costs and drivers within the few high cost services it has.  In some instances higher costs may be related to local circumstances.  In services to those with Learning Difficulties the Council will continue to build on significant steps taken to reshape the service.  Progress in Mental Health Services is more difficult and sensitive but the Council with the PCT will be looking to reconfigure the services over the next 3 years.  Our planning service has higher costs per household when compared with other Unitary Councils.  This is related to the Council having more listed buildings than almost any other Council (for which planning applications attract no fee) and the city of Bath is a World Heritage site with its own unique planning considerations
• Developing a 4-5 year transformation programme to improve the quality and value of our services with a customer focus
• Improving our procurement and contract management arrangements working with neighbouring Local Authorities and regional improvement partnerships
• Safely integrating our adult and children's social care services with the Primary Care Trust to improve quality and value for money and over the period taking opportunities to share support services
• Building on our much improved project and programme management to manage projects on budget and on time
• Continuing our review of schools to improve the learning environment and reduce surplus places
• Significantly increasing the number of services achieving Charter Mark accreditation for excellence in customer services

Financial Strategy

For 2008/09 the budget has been balanced with £2.8 million of immediate efficiency savings £2.5 million in increased fees and charges and £0.5 million of reductions in lower priority services within a net revenue budget of under £111 million.

Going forward, if the Council does nothing its costs relative to its income in the Medium Term Financial Forecast, indicates potential funding gaps of £6m in 2009/10, £4 million in 2010/11 and if trends continue a similar amount in 2011/12.

The Council's strategy to deal with these cost pressures is to:

• Use our approach to efficiency and value for money to continue to drive out efficiency savings of £3 - 4million per annum
• Continue to review fees and charges to ensure where there are few or little overall community benefits that costs are fully recovered.  If our charges are out of line with other similar Councils or service providers we shall make appropriate adjustments.  Clearly, this excludes services for which we cannot make charges by law or where government regulates fees and charges
• Continue to reprioritise resources from lower priority services to higher priority services
• Keeping Council Tax rises under 4% for the 3 year period

The Council continually reviews financial risk and maintains a reserves strategy which over the 3 year plan period to 31 March 2011 will enable the current target level of general reserves on £11.5million, to be met. In addition the Council maintains an exceptional Risk Reserve in respect of Spa Claims and Single Status.  We are adding £1.8million to reserves each year to reach our current target of £11.5million in general reserves by the end of 2010/11.

Services are given a direction of travel in relation to future cost and performance. This direction is indicated in Attachment 3 to the Medium Term Financial Strategy by service and is determined by the indicators that the Council calls "squeeze, hold and drive".  Implicit in all these is that all Services will investigate ways to improve productivity and those which are not squeezed in cost will need to drive up performance and productivity. The Council's Service Planning process enables Services to focus on the changes needed to deliver the Council's Improvement Priorities within its financial constraints.  It provides the means for Service Managers to work through with elected Members in the short and medium term the detailed implications for services, including implications on resources - workforce, technology and property.

Given the likelihood that pressures on the revenue budget will increase over time, the council is developing a more fundamental medium term approach to revenue resource planning as well.  Having developed proposals to achieve financial balance for 2008/09, the Strategic Directors Groups will be leading a process to develop medium term change proposals in 2008 which will enable service choices to be made, as well as significant cashable efficiency savings through "service transformation". This will be carried out while enhancing / maintaining priority services and potentially reducing or stopping others where necessary. This will be carried out in the context of the direction of travel outlined for services in the Financial Strategy and Corporate Plan priorities. This will build on and develop the council’s existing change programmes.

The Financial and Capital Strategies will also look to:

a)  Introduce sustainable practices as one of the means by which the Council can achieve organisational shift, increasing capacity through the more efficient use of resources

b)  Complement improvement projects with a series of expenditure reviews on selected services, using a variety of techniques such as activity based costing, to highlight areas of possible productivity gain and cost reduction

c)  Co-ordinate its work to attract external funding and maximise the impact of resources put into bidding processes, including those with partners. It will continue to "invest to save" in order to achieve sustainability for future years

d)  Opportunities to reduce overhead costs through exploring new approaches to procurement, sharing specialist resources between agencies and eliminating internal duplication of effort

Working Even More Effectively with our Partners

The Council alone cannot address all the issues and priorities of the area.  The new arrangements we have put in place for the area's Local Strategic Partnership put us in a good position to work even more effectively with our partners to address those issues.  The key priorities of our major partners are strongly aligned with those of the Council.

The Council will also be on working with the community and voluntary sector to focus commissioning of services and improve the effectiveness of our relationships.

The Local Strategic Partnership will continue to set the overarching priorities and direction of travel for Bath & North East Somerset over the next 20 years through the Sustainable Community Strategy.  It will be implemented through the Local Area Agreement (LAA) for Bath & North East Somerset, which will become the performance framework for the Council working closely with its partners for 2008/09 – 2010/11.  The LAA is important in that it reflects the key priorities for the area.  Effective partnership frameworks help us deliver the LAA at a local level and by working at a sub-regional level, through the West of England Partnership, help us deliver the key priorities for the sub region as contained in the Multi Area Agreement. 

A wide range of partnerships that sit beneath the auspices of the Local Strategic Partnership help the Council to deliver its objectives.  It is recognised that the Council cannot work in isolation and needs to work with its partners, through established and well governed partnerships in order to  provide better outcomes for the community it serves.  Robust governance and performance management arrangements will ensure that the partnerships are delivering to their full potential. 

We are working more closely with partner organisations at all levels to ensure better outcomes for the community.  In particular the Council and the Primary Care Trust where joint services are being developed. 

Developing our Workforce

The Council’s Human Resource strategy has successfully supported the delivery of the Corporate Plan over the last five years and we are now developing a workforce planning strategy to ensure that the Council’s workforce is ‘fit for the future’ to deliver its objectives and emerging priorities.  Work has already started in several key services, notably Adults, Children’s and Customer Services.  The strategy will build on existing good practices and introduce modern employment initiatives which reflect the changing demands of both customers and the workforce. It will provide the framework for the development of local, service based workforce plans.

Using our Asset More Effectively

The Council owns property assets worth at least £600 million.  Many of these are used to deliver services to the public.  The proactive management of the Council's commercial estate, comprising mainly freehold ownerships in Bath, aims to balance income generation to the Council to support service delivery across the area, with the ability to influence and enhance the unique character of the city.

In addition, the Council aims to generate £80 -£100 million of resources over 5-7 years, to reinvest in the revitalisation of the area by the disposal and redevelopment of some interests and by the use of any increases in income above inflation to borrow prudentially.

Increasing focus will be put on minimising the impact on climate change where the Council is building new facilities and to adapting to the already inevitable effects of climate change in new and existing facilities.

New Technology

The Council's transformation programme to delivery quality and value will depend on significant investment in new technologies and new ways of working.  This will be captured in our Information Management Strategy during 2008 to be implemented over the period of this plan and beyond.  The Strategy will be based upon:

• Reducing as much as possible our multitude of systems used to deliver a huge range of services
• Delivering a sound infrastructure to support service transformation and new/flexible ways of working
• Enabling quicker, more efficient interaction with our citizens, providing them with more choice on how they can interact with us for transactions, information requests etc