When does hopelessly optimistic and unrealistically ambitious become head in the sand political wishful thinking?
Sunderland City Council are reported to have stated that despite the budget cuts there will be no redundancies and 100% redeployments. The London Borough of Barnet proudly boasted that they intended to by the first “easy council”. They would meet ambitious efficiency targets by providing no frill council services using the model of the low cost airlines. The coalition government claimed front line services would not be affected by budget cuts in the public sector.
The civil servants will have told the government ministers that efficiency saving alone could not deliver the size of budget savings they were looking for. Local government officers in Barnet will have raised concerns about claims that they could make the level of savings required without cutting services simply by adopting the business model of a low cost airline. And I have no doubt that HR and finance staff in Sunderland cautioned against stating so boldly that there would be no redundancies and 100% redeployment. After all Birmingham and Nottinghamshire have already given notice to large numbers of staff that their jobs are at risk and most local authorities have told their staff that the size of savings required and the time scale for delivering the make redundancies inevitable.
All local authorities are going to struggle because of the size of savings required. You can’t make up to 30% savings over four years without reducing the workforce, and cutting services. So why have some councillors tried to maintain despite advice from officers and evidence to the contrary that savings can be achieved without pain and without making very unpopular decisions.
Perhaps some were naive and believed that out sourcing back office functions, reducing the number of management posts, halving absenteeism levels and a ban on overtime and the use of agency staff would mean they wouldn’t have to make large scale redundancies, cut grants to the voluntary sector, close day centres, libraries and leisure centre and take away home helps from frail elderly people. May be some officers told them what they wanted to hear or maybe they just didn’t listen or was it that it was just too unbelievable to be true.
Blair McPherson is author of People Management in a Harsh Financial Climate www.blairmcpherson.co.uk
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