The cost in jobs of the pioneering project, set up to help stave off the worst effects of Government budget cuts, has sparked the biggest crisis yet to engulf councils.
The jobs figure is the first real estimate of the human toll of the “shared services” agenda and comes on top of the thousands of staff local authorities are already shedding in the face of the spending squeeze.
At a fraught meeting yesterday of the leaders of the Clyde Valley Partnership councils – Glasgow, North and South Lanarkshire, East and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, and Inverclyde – it emerged that the savings generated from joint working would be well in excess of the £70 million over five years previously announced.
The new estimates put the savings generated from the recommendations of Sir John Arbuthnott at around £212m over five years and £590m over 10 years.
After a five-year implementation period there would be annual recurring savings, averaging around £83m.
The meeting and details of savings and job costs comes just a week after First Minister Alex Salmond launched a public sector review by Dr Campbell Christie, the former trade union leader.
It also follows commitments by the Finance Secretary John Swinney in his Budget of no compulsory redundancies in exchange for a pay freeze and could impact upon meetings next week between the Government and unions.
The shared services agenda could lead to the loss of a further 4000 posts across local government on top of what is already planned for.
Senior sources insist it would be “madness” not to progress with the Arbuthnott plans, claiming that redundancies could be secured by natural wastage. But the jobs issue, with each council already facing redundancies of between a few hundred and 4000, has forced the authorities into considerable backtracking and sparked fears over who will give up most.
One source said: “I wouldn’t say this is dead, far from it, but after all the rhetoric of the past two years over the need to do this the number of jobs has given some of the councils a real fright.
“There’s been talk of integrated services but with regional centres. That’s pretty much the same as the status quo. If we don’t do this it’s madness.
“You’re talking 200 jobs a year from eight councils. The returns are significant. If we don’t, there’s every chance the Scottish Government will make us do it and dilute whatever input we have.”
But Unison’s Mike Kirby added: “The Scottish Government has promised the public service workforce that a pay freeze would be in exchange for job security. The figures coming out of Arbuthnott fly in the face of that pledge and show the severe personal cost the unions always said would come with shared services.”
Four business cases were laid in front of the chief executives, including merging social transport, which would be led by Glasgow; having a joint waste strategy a component spearheaded by North Lanarkshire; closer working on support services, fronted by East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde; and merging health and social care – the most fraught element and being brought forward by Renfrewshire.
The report states: “The savings and options proposed are based on the assumption that all eight councils move forward together on these proposals. Savings and benefits will have to be adjusted if that is not the case. They also assume that councils are prepared to explore new ways of working and to create two new shared service organisations in the areas of Support Services and Waste Management.”
No details are provided on the upfront costs for the implementation of the plans but the report adds that “the joint council approach and the nature of some of the ‘one off’ expenditure creates some challenges”.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Gerry Braiden
Quelle/Source: Herald Scotland, 27.11.2010
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