Letter to all staff from Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive Cambridgeshire County Council

Delivering a leaner, local, future together

The County Council is facing unprecedented challenge. The impact of the national debt, combined with the twin pressures of increased demand for our services and inflation, means we have a target of saving £160.6 million over the next five years. That is why I want to talk to you about how we are going to meet this challenge.

I am very proud of this Council and the people who work for it. However, there is no doubt that to meet these tough challenges we are going to have to transform the way we work. This is at the heart of this year’s Integrated Planning Process (IPP), now open to consultation.

We will become a slimmer, even more efficient Council; one which puts communities at the heart of creating and delivering services, and prioritises help for the most vulnerable people in our communities.  We want to be a genuinely local Council, handing power for decision making, budgets and service provision to the most local possible level.

Clearly the changes we’re proposing have big implications for the way we work, and we estimate that over the next year up to 450 people will be affected as the Council transforms. This figure is likely to increase over the next two to three years but it is too early to give a clear indication by how many.

Redundancies are an inevitable consequence of the challenge we face, but we will do all we can to mitigate the impacts. Of course, not all of the reductions will result in redundancy. We've been freezing posts as they have become vacant and some colleagues will retire or move to a job elsewhere.

I do understand how difficult the idea of job losses will be and it’s important that we support each other as we come to terms with this.  We also need to be open and transparent about the impacts while we address budget decisions.

In addition we will be consulting with our recognised trade unions. This will start with a meeting on 17 December with a further one planned for early January. We will work jointly with our trade unions and employees to find ways of mitigating the impacts on staff where possible.

Once the IPP proposals and their potential impact are more fully understood, Directors will hold employee briefings from mid-January onwards. These will update you on where we are with the IPP and seek your ideas and suggestions.

Transforming the way we work

The focus of our transformation will be on what our local communities want and we must all make sure every penny of every pound works in the most effective way possible. All services will face change; some will end, or be provided through other partners and the voluntary and community sectors.

We’ll be making sure that we prioritise services for the most vulnerable and those that most need support.  This will mean moving away from some universal services and targeting particular groups of people, for example in the support we offer for children and young people.

We will be devolving decision making, commissioning and the running of some services to local level, where people are best placed to decide which services they need.  For example, we are considering subsidising fewer bus services and looking instead at developing more integrated community-based approaches to public transport.

We will be making sure that services are provided by those who are able to offer best value. Sometimes this will be us; other times this will mean working with other partners and agencies.

We’ll help communities to step in where we can’t provide services. We’ll listen more, instead of taking a top down approach. We’ll work more closely with individuals and carers on personalising care, so that people can take their own decision on what is right for them. For example, by rolling out even greater use of direct payments and self directed support, we can give more people choice and control over their care needs.

We’ll focus on preventing people needing high levels of care and support and, when people do need it we’ll intervene early, helping to 're-able' them to live independently.

We are already a lean authority compared with many of our neighbours, so we will be starting this work from a base which is already low cost. Everything will be geared to better outcomes for our frontline, while we streamline the back office, share services, and achieve a better uniformity of our standards.

Consultation

We are first consulting residents, partners, employees and communities about the scale of the challenge ahead. To do this, we’ll be using the same consultation method as last year, Simalto. Face-to-face interviews are being carried out across the county using a Simalto grid which contains the same sort of tough choices on services which Councillors will be taking.

This year, we will be launching the consultation online, which means that more people will be able to take part. We’ve already held focus groups with the voluntary and community sector, young people and the business community. The results will be analysed and published by Cabinet in January.

What next?

As well as taking part in the consultation can I encourage you all to keep sending in your efficiency ideas for consideration by our Strategic Management Team, and sharing with colleagues.

Mark Lloyd
Chief Executive