Strategy Committee Preview - 7 November
Items of interest:
Item 3 - Revenue Spend
The continued underspend in social services is remarkable and testimony to the work put in by social services management over the last 2 years. The overspend in Environmental Services is predicatble in view of the difficulties over the future of SCL which will be resolved in the next few months. I suspect the overall budget for Leisure may have to be increased slightly for a new provider to have a chance to build up the service and work with the Council to invest in the 4 facilities.
Item 6 - 2006/07 Budget
Good to see the identified £2.2 million Gershon savings are on track for 2007/08 (para 2.3g). When later in the year we hear the usual spin over "budget crisis" from the Council, lets not forget the Council is able to find efficiency savinf equivalent to 1% of its entire budget!
Item 7 - Waste Management
I have already commented on some apects of this. The "keeping ones options open" option makes sense at this stage. In the meantime it would also make sense to ensure our planning policies identifies the Beddington Lane area as an expanded "green technologies" corridor so that we can attract new companies interested in the expanign green waste market.
Clearly the report implies a review of what will in future go in weekly and fortnightly collection. Learning the lessons of the past, this would be best to do through:
a) A public consultation through Sutton Scene magazine
b) Questions in the 2007 MORI poll
c) A full scrutiny by the Environmental Services Committee with recommendations made to Strategy Committee, rather than the process being the other way round and Executive led.
Item 8 - Day Services for Older People
I have already commented on aspects of this. The consultation on option 3 is reasonable at this stage, but people will want to see what this means for their actual Tier 2 Day Centre, before signing up to any principles as the implication of the report (para 5.5) is that some may be reduced in size or even close as about one third (60 out of 188) of Tier 2 places go as a result of more active elderly staying more independent. However it is clear that Tier 3 Day centre provsion is likely to remain at the same size with a bigger shift to specialist capacity. The new facility at Belsize Garden will be also available for any expansion here. This is likely to be sited at Gaynesford, Cloverdale, Oakleigh and Belsize Gardens. I can see that Ludlow Lodge and Cheam Priory will not be used for this service.
The development of a wider market of local services through direct payments to older people is a reasonable aspiration (the one for the physical disabled works well), but should be phased over a number of years so that we do not demoralise skilled staff and volunteers. In addition, instead of the Council closing centres itself it should allow more independence to existing centres and allow the emerging market to determine whether they expand, close or merge.
Item 9 - Durand Close
It is a bit unclear what the covenants on the Harcourt Avenue and Ruskin Road sites say, but presumablythe general fund of the Council will be compensating the Housing Revenue Account for loss of income.
The revisions to the Durand Master Plan regarding the community centre and the shop seem sensible. The expansion of house gardens also seems like a good idea.
Item 11 - Heritage Service - Museum Accreditation
This is good news and could lead to the Council using £9000 a year to pay for free admission of the Heritage Centre. I will cover this more in another article.
Item 3 - Revenue Spend
The continued underspend in social services is remarkable and testimony to the work put in by social services management over the last 2 years. The overspend in Environmental Services is predicatble in view of the difficulties over the future of SCL which will be resolved in the next few months. I suspect the overall budget for Leisure may have to be increased slightly for a new provider to have a chance to build up the service and work with the Council to invest in the 4 facilities.
Item 6 - 2006/07 Budget
Good to see the identified £2.2 million Gershon savings are on track for 2007/08 (para 2.3g). When later in the year we hear the usual spin over "budget crisis" from the Council, lets not forget the Council is able to find efficiency savinf equivalent to 1% of its entire budget!
Item 7 - Waste Management
I have already commented on some apects of this. The "keeping ones options open" option makes sense at this stage. In the meantime it would also make sense to ensure our planning policies identifies the Beddington Lane area as an expanded "green technologies" corridor so that we can attract new companies interested in the expanign green waste market.
Clearly the report implies a review of what will in future go in weekly and fortnightly collection. Learning the lessons of the past, this would be best to do through:
a) A public consultation through Sutton Scene magazine
b) Questions in the 2007 MORI poll
c) A full scrutiny by the Environmental Services Committee with recommendations made to Strategy Committee, rather than the process being the other way round and Executive led.
Item 8 - Day Services for Older People
I have already commented on aspects of this. The consultation on option 3 is reasonable at this stage, but people will want to see what this means for their actual Tier 2 Day Centre, before signing up to any principles as the implication of the report (para 5.5) is that some may be reduced in size or even close as about one third (60 out of 188) of Tier 2 places go as a result of more active elderly staying more independent. However it is clear that Tier 3 Day centre provsion is likely to remain at the same size with a bigger shift to specialist capacity. The new facility at Belsize Garden will be also available for any expansion here. This is likely to be sited at Gaynesford, Cloverdale, Oakleigh and Belsize Gardens. I can see that Ludlow Lodge and Cheam Priory will not be used for this service.
The development of a wider market of local services through direct payments to older people is a reasonable aspiration (the one for the physical disabled works well), but should be phased over a number of years so that we do not demoralise skilled staff and volunteers. In addition, instead of the Council closing centres itself it should allow more independence to existing centres and allow the emerging market to determine whether they expand, close or merge.
Item 9 - Durand Close
It is a bit unclear what the covenants on the Harcourt Avenue and Ruskin Road sites say, but presumablythe general fund of the Council will be compensating the Housing Revenue Account for loss of income.
The revisions to the Durand Master Plan regarding the community centre and the shop seem sensible. The expansion of house gardens also seems like a good idea.
Item 11 - Heritage Service - Museum Accreditation
This is good news and could lead to the Council using £9000 a year to pay for free admission of the Heritage Centre. I will cover this more in another article.
posted by Charlie Mansell at 5:51 pm
2 Comments:
Hi Charlie
Think your comments about Gershon savings are off the mark.
I have been to a few meetings where the problem of actually making savings under the Gershon rules have been discussed.
They are not going to acheive their targets.
Social service savings are only due to an undercapacity in older peoples services.
They are going to need that money desperatley next year as far as i can see.
Tim
I bow to your more up to date knowledge on this.
My understanding was that over the next few years we were likely to make significant savaings on transactional services, though I recognise from what I have seen on other Councils, that this is dependent on politicians and senior management being clear as to what they want. This seems to much less clear than expected.
Nevertheless the Council is basing its 2007/08 service costs on them and none of them were queried at Strategy today, so maybe you might want to scrutinise them further on this?
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