Sweep widens in bid for more staff cutbacks

The aim is to achieve massive multi-million pound savings, and the council's policy and resources select committee was told that cuts would not be confined to 'backroom' staff in the coming year.

County treasurer Bryan Robinson said this might have an impact on frontline services.

"What is important is that it should not be an adverse impact," he declared.

Answering questions from councillors, Mr Robinson said consultants KPMG had pointed out that only 10 per cent of a large organisation's money was spent on back office staff.

What was illuminating was the amount spent on staff working in the area between the front line and the back office.

"These are sometimes called front line and are not necessarily so,"

said Mr Robinson.

It was estimated that something like 20 to 30 per cent of spending was in this area, so there was a need to make efficiencies here.

"The aim is not to make front line services anything other than better, which is not saying there will not be any change," he told councillors.

Cllr Andrew Smith had earlier commented that a lot of the earlier emphasis had been on not impacting on frontline services, implying that there were inefficiencies only among back office staff. An integrated approach was needed, he said.

The select committee heard that the consultants had just started work at County Hall on the second phase of the county council's fundamental service review.

The first phase achieved savings totalling 15m, which will be on-going every year. The second phase is aimed at making similar savings in 2008-2009, resulting in an annual total of 30m.

It is expected that some 300 jobs will be cut over two years, with many posts already having disappeared - largely through voluntary redundancy and retirement. However future compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out.

The consultants are being paid some 1m for each of the two years.

Cllr Morwen Millson asked whether the effects on staff morale during the first phase had been monitored. "Did we manage to keep morale up while going through voluntary redundancies?" she asked.

Mr Robinson said sickness absence, staff turnover and the like suggested the reverse of a downturn in morale. But it would be silly to deny that people were not concerned if they knew that processes were being implemented that would lead to some people leaving.

The vast majority of staff who went through voluntary redundancy put themselves forward, and were keen to have this result. But there were some staff who were encouraged by the process.

"This had a generally positive impact on those who remain," he said.