Savings and efficiencies
Bolton Council must make savings of at least £60m over the next two years and forecasts that a further £40m will be required in the two years after that.
This means that the council must make savings of £41m in 2011/12, £19m in 2012/13 and £40m between 2013/14 and 2014/15
In January, the council identified £26m of savings for 2011/12 across a range of areas including a reduction in neighbourhood renewal and regeneration programmes, a reconfiguration of the Children’s Services department and a range of savings proposals across all departments. This comes on top of savings of £15.3m for 2011/12 already identified by the council last year. The savings for 2011/12 will lead to a reduction of 698 posts across the organisation.
In February, the council identified a further £15.3m of savings for 2012/13, including a saving of financing costs of £3m and savings of £12.3m across all departments.
A report to identify the final £3.8m for 2012/13 will be brought to the Executive on 27 June.
The savings now identified for the first two years will lead to a total reduction of 811 posts across the organisation (698 in 2011/12 and 113 in 2012/13). However, this figure likely to increase by another 500 as detail for the £40m between 2013/14 and 2014/15 is considered.
These savings of £100m will inevitably have a big impact in terms of the services the council is able to provide for local residents. Despite this, the council is working hard to protect the most vulnerable and to target resources on areas and individuals with the greatest need. We have also prioritised savings that can be made without immediately affecting service quality.
A number of measures have also been put in place to minimise the impact on staff. These include continuing to freeze vacancies, promoting voluntary early retirement and voluntary severance opportunities, and delivering a comprehensive redeployment scheme. These measures mean that of the 811 posts affected over the next two years, 456 are vacant, while 355 staff are likely to be affected.