The consultation begins to decimate Children's Services

I received a proposals paper below about the "consultation" on the Education and Children's Services budget and the proposed £3.5m of savings at Reading Borough Council. I say "consultation" because the same day the consultation ends redundancy notices are to be issued.

Firstly my heart goes out to the large numbers of hard working council staff who are set to lose their jobs and their livelihoods for a crisis they did not contribute to. It is official that this is a well run and economically viable council. Don't believe the ConDem scaremongers.

Secondly These cuts are deep too fast, but above all they are unfair and hitting the most vulnerable children in our society, including a £55.000 cut in Child Protection. Beggars belief.

It is interesting that the Trade Unions and members will have their representation rights decimated. Typical Thatcherite response to curtail trade union rights before they cut public services and privatise services to their bankster friends.

Rest assured I will making representations on behalf of children and families to stop these cuts as this doesn't have to be this way. It is curious that Reading's Tories, aided and abetted by their Lib Dem friends have not taken the choice of other councils like Bracknell and cut elsewhere but have made Children's Services face the brunt of the brutal cuts.

BUDGET 2011/12 - SAVINGS PROPOSALS Education and Children Services

Trade Union Representation - £36k

In line with the December 2010 Personnel committee proposal to consult on funding for trade union secondments, DECS are proposing to reduce the current commitment of £68k to £32k for the financial year 2011/12. This level of savings will represent a significant reduction in the funds available for full time representation from the Unions representing those members from the teaching profession. The impact in DECS will flow from the decision of Personnel committee.

Family Group Conferencing -£37k

The Family Group Conferencing service is an intervention with extended families which seeks to reduce the number of young people who end up being accommodated or taken through a protracted legal process. The conferences are coordinated by independent workers who contract with each Berkshire LA on a per conference basis. Reading has a full time FGC Manager to support the referral, contracting and coordinator recruitment & review aspects of the service. The target saving of £37k represents a 44% reduction in budget for this service and is predicated on a demand level of 50 to 60 conferences per year.

A separate, detailed paper (Family Group Conferencing Consultation January 2011) is available via the link in Annex 4 and presents a detailed analysis which gives rise to the following options that deliver the full level of required savings:

1. The FGC Manager post is deleted; the LADO role is modified to support the Coordinators and the Safeguarding business support service is extended to provide referral and allocation support for the service. This option risks a significant reduction in resource to promote the service as an effective intervention, and a reduction in the time available to deliver safeguarding audits to schools. The cost per conference is a nominal £800 with this model which can deliver up to 60 conferences.

2. The FGC Manager role is reduced to two days a week and the remaining time is either spent facilitating conferences (offers 46 conference capacity at £1043 per conference) or used in cash form to commission external conference coordinators (42 conferences at £1143 per conference). Both options offer continuity for referral and allocation. The single role has the risk that the service would be less able to respond to the flexible time demands of the client group (no conferences would be done by external coordinators) and neither meets the likely demand level.

3. Commission a service for conferences at a nominal cost of £720 each (10% reduction on best in house cost) with a total cost of £48k, which is 66 conferences. While attractive when established there is no existing market for this service; limited capacity to run the commissioning process and limited gain (£80x60) of £4800 to justify the activity at the current time. This option could be explored for 2012/13 by consideration of partnership with a larger authority.

There is no option to remove the service completely as the Public Law Outline requires that Children’s Social Care consider the possible impact of a FGC in all cases and use it where appropriate.

There is increased flexibility with option 2 if the level of budget reduction is lowered which may better offset the costs associated with the level of staff change required.

Option 1 is the management recommended route, acknowledging that this has the largest impact on existing RBC staff and associated costs, as the solution most likely to maintain flexible delivery and lowest nominal cost per conference.

Whitley to West Reading Bus Route - £20k

Working with Transport and Reading Buses colleagues, this management action has already been taken. The bus is now shared with other routes but is maintained within the fleet in case the expected increase in pupil demand requires further bus route variation. There is no impact to staff with this proposal.

School Meals - £120k

School meals are provided via a contract arrangement, with a set cost per meal regardless of who consumes the meal. This cost is reduced by a grant which has historically been ring-fenced for this purpose.

It is proposed to ask Schools Forum to agree an increase in meal price to £2.20 parents and to the LA for meals provided to those with a “free school meals” entitlement. This will release the grant for other purposes in the schools budget and consequently reducing the demand on the LA budget.

There will be no impact on those eligible for free school meals. We estimate this increase is about £1 per child per week for those who currently take up a hot school meal each day.


Knowledge Management - £90k

There is a separate paper available via the link in Annex 4 looking at a three year plan to reduce Data costs across the directorate by £230k, including a full review during 2011. The year one plan to achieve the savings target of £90k in 2011/12 is a mixture of income generation and a retrenching of Knowledge Management to a data service.

Schools are being offered services to provide statutory returns, vulnerable group analysis and more tailored support through three bands of charge. We estimate that this option should bring in at least £50kpa and if we were very optimistic, cover the full £90k savings. However in the event buy back from schools does not cover this shortfall, we would then propose to re-issue the PIPVCS invitation to the Knowledge Management team and review fixed term contracts that end during 2011/12. It is expected that these options can realize the necessary level of budget savings without having to consider further measures. Such reductions however do mean reduced capacity in the team and the areas where Knowledge Management will do less are: Support for non-data activities such as RAISE form development, general project support, unplanned reporting tasks through the ad-hoc process, a tighter set of performance measures for the Directorate and individual teams.

Business Administration - £154k

As part of the management restructure that was consulted on during 2010 and coming into effect from January 2011, the full year saving effect will be delivered. There is no further change required to deliver this 2011/12 saving. A copy of the consultation can be found via the link in Annex 4.

Student Support Service - £113k

This service has long been planned to transfer to the Student Loan Company from April 2011. Plans are well advanced and the staff in this service have worked very professionally to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and are fully aware of the opportunities open to them.

Contractual Support for Capital Projects - £35k

With an expected reduction in available capita, a corresponding reduction in the number of projects and a more systematic charging process it is anticipated that we can reduce the charge to capital made to run the Asset Management Unit. This reduction will be achieved thorough the application of consistent charging for the full AMU staff costs to projects and a review of staffing levels once the 2011/12 capital programme is agreed.


Reduced ICT support to Schools - £20k

With the removal of the Harnessing Technology Grant and the expected recommendation to schools forum to remove IRIS access (at a cost of £950pa per school) we are able to reduce the level of support we offer directly to schools. This saving has been built into the budget transfers to the CICTS service where the Business Account Manager has responsibility for the common services and we continue to provide VLE and e-safety support via the ICT advisor post.

Question 1: Are there any further risks associated with these budget reductions in Business Transformation?

4. Proposals for Children’s Action Teams
Service Reductions and/or buyback from Schools - £305k

The CATs have five savings proposals that are:

Educational Psychology

1. Reduce the Educational Psychology (EP) Service capacity by 1.8 FTE and reduce the locum budget by 75%. This can be achieved by not replacing two vacancies that are held within the CATs. The CATs will need to change the allocation of service to Schools as a consequence of this decision and we will be inviting schools to purchase more EP time in the future through our Guide to Services. This will provide £100k worth of savings from 11/12 onwards.

The main risk of this decision is the LA could see a further rise in demand for statutory assessments and statements with less early intervention services in place.

Education Welfare Assistants

2. Remove the Education Welfare Assistant posts from the Education Welfare Service in CATs. This will affect 5 people who are in post, who provide 3.37 FTE of capacity.

We are proposing that we remove these posts from September 2011 onwards unless they are bought back from schools. We will give schools the opportunity, through our Guide to Services, to request extra buy in to the existing Service Level Agreement (SLA) that schools purchase for Education Welfare. This will provide £52k worth of savings in 11/12 and then £89k from 12/13 onwards.

The main risk of this decision could be a decrease in the excellent performance of our schools attendance rates, as these post holders complete much of the proactive attendance work in Schools with vulnerable families.


Behaviour Improvement

3. Remove 3 posts from the West Children’s Action Team that were originally created from the Behaviour Improvement Programme. 2 of these posts are Links workers, one of which is currently filled providing 0.8 FTE of capacity and one is vacant, which would provide 0.4 FTE capacity. The third post is our full time Behaviour Support Teacher, which is currently filled. We would propose to remove all these posts from September 2011 as the Behaviour Support Teacher is currently on a 3 day a week secondment to Ranikhet Primary School until the end of the academic year and as with the EWA we want the opportunity to discuss with the West Cluster of schools the opportunity to fund these posts into the next academic year. This will provide £51k worth of savings in 11/12 and then £87k from 12/13 onwards.

The main risk of this decision could be an increase in both fixed term and permanent exclusions and decrease in attendance in all West schools in particular the 2 schools that are using the Links Worker.

Extended Schools Co-ordinator

4. Remove the 3 Extended School Coordinators posts; all 3 of these posts are currently filled. There have been previous consultation documents on this decision and the CATs have created an SLA opportunity for schools to purchase this service to enable continuity into the next financial year. This will provide £103,000 worth of savings from 11/12 onwards. There is a separate consultation document which can be found via the link in Annex 4.

Emotional Wellbeing Development Officers

5. A separate consultation paper on posts funded by the Targeted Mental Health in Schools Grant (TaMHs) including 4 emotional well being development officers and one project manager who is at risk due to grant fall-out. We will offer these services to the schools as part of our Guide to Schools. A separate consultation is available via the link in Annex 4.

Total Savings in the CATs budget in 11/12 will be £305k and from 12/13 onwards will be £379k.

Question 2: Are there any further risks associated with these budget reductions in CATS?


5. Proposal for School Improvement & Inclusion

Overall reduction in School Improvement Posts - £407k

School consultancy and Whitley Excellence Cluster (WEC)

These reductions reflect the full year impact of the 2010/11 in year reductions, flowing from grant fall out and mainstreaming of grants into the dedicated schools grant, which have previously been consulted on which can be obtain via the link in Annex 4. This resulted in 11 posts being deleted. In addition the reductions in respect of WEC have already been separately consulted upon, affects 8 posts (6.5 FTE) funded by the grant. This position paper received two responses, one of which was from the WEC team and another of which was from a WEC primary school. A copy of the consultation can be obtained via the link in Annex 4. Both responses to the consultation outlined concerns that the front line work of WEC would cease. However the grant funding this programme has now ceased and the Council will proceed with the reductions as planned. However there is an opportunity for schools in the area to sustain the service by buying the service back by using additional funding from the pupil premium and other funds being mainstreamed into the DSG.


School Improvement Partners

The White Paper removes the statutory obligation of Local Authorities to provide School Improvement Partners for every school. Local Authorities, therefore, have greater choice as to how to deliver school improvement functions, whilst intervening where there is clear underperformance. In line with this the SIP grant of £49k has been removed as has £120k of area based grant which was also used to support the SIP function. Whilst RBC can support SIP work in schools which in the past three years have been on or below new floor standards, it is only possible to allocate three half days a year to all other schools. Governing Bodies will also need to buy in external support for the headteachers’ performance management. The removal of grant funding means that the local authority will no longer employ external consultants. Schools Forum may wish to consider whether additional funds should be allocated to the SIP function in Reading.

Equalities Service

With regard to equalities service, although there are 7 proposed redundancies (4.8 FTE) put forward we are requesting Schools Forum to retain the funding centrally to enable a core service to continue to be provided and sustain the remaining posts.

Reduce funding for delegated SEN bands 4-6

The LA has substantially increased the amount of delegated funding to schools for pupils with special educational needs. This now exceeds the budget available for these students by £230K. So the local authority is proposing to reduce the unit cost for SEN bands 406 by £1K per pupil, with the exception of pupils in resource units. This affects funding for £230 pupils. Schools could use the pupil premium and other grant increases to offset this reduction.

Behaviour Review - £200k

The Local Authority (LA) is currently engaged in a review of the services provided to address the needs of Children and Young people who present with Emotional, Behavioural and Social Difficulties (EBSD). The LA is working with schools, health, families, representatives of communities and the current service providers, to explore how best to configure services that ensure effective specialist interventions with families, CYP and providers. This is seen within the context of both preventative work within families, schools and communities and direct intervention in these three contexts when children and young people present with EBSD.
The LA currently provides a spectrum of resources that cost around £6.5 million. A conference is being held 17/02/11 to bring providers and users of our services together in order to plan the best configuration of services needed to ensure young people entering adulthood do so as happy, healthy, safe and able to cope with change and challenge, as enthusiastic and skilled learners, and as adults who value themselves and others.
There is anticipation that this process will identify £200K savings. Until the outcome of the conference on the 17th February is known, it is not possible to predict where these potential savings will come from.
Cranbury College
Cranbury College is undertaking a consultation on their staffing structure based on their budget reduction related to the Behaviour Review, the impact of academies, the outcome of the Service Level Agreement buy-in, and the 10% savings in line with all Local Authority services. It is not possible to predict the impact on the reduction of posts at this time. It is likely that once the level of buy-in is known that the consultation model structures will have to be revised and consulted on anew. It will only be at the end of this process that staff ‘at risk’ can be identified. However, the timescales set out in the consultation document will be adhered to. The consultation paper is available via the link in Annex 4.

Question 3: Are there any further risks associated with these reductions in School Improvement?

6. Proposals for Children’s Social Care

Service Manager – Service Development Post - £30k

A saving on the above post can be achieved by the existing post-holder being redeployed to a position vacated by PIPVCS and by re-allocating the post to a lower grade service delivery post. There is still a business need for the post, however, following improvements in the service there is a reduced need for senior project management capacity.

Consultancy Support for Safeguarding - £25k

Following improvements in the service following the JAR the budget held to provide consultancy capacity will be impacted by potential requirements arising from the Munro Review.

Question 4: Are there any further risks associated with these reductions in Children’s Social Care?

7. Proposals for Extended Services
New Directions - £100k

New Directions has a budget of approximately £2m, £200k of which is funded from Reading Borough Councils budget and the remainder is income generated through external funders. However each year the service has also generated a pressure in the council’s budget due to external funding streams being reduced. It is our intention to reduce the costs to the council by £100k in 2011/12 and a further £100k in 2012/13, making New Directions entirely self funding. However, the savings in year 1 will need to be greater than £100k in order to address the ongoing budget pressure that has existed for some years. (Approximately £160k) The service aims to develop its strategic commissioning role, reducing its direct delivery, although it recognises that New Directions certainly in the next 2 to 3 years will continue to have both a commissioner and provider role.

In order to achieve year 1 savings the following are proposed.

1. Review and reorganise the Outreach and Employment Team as Local Area Agreement grant funding has ended, making the ‘Outreach & Employment Lead’ 1 FTE and 0.5 FTE Employment Advisor & 1 FTE Outreach Officer posts redundant
2. Closing the 2 New Directions Crèches in July 2011 and making all Crèche Worker & Team Leader posts redundant. Users of New Directions in need of crèche facilities will be able to access government funding and alternative local provision. This affects proposal affects 10 posts in total.
3. Further Education funding for adult courses is expected to decrease by 25% over the next four years. In anticipation of these reductions the service will be closing the Wilson Centre from July 2011 and relocating staff to other New Directions centres, reducing senior management by 1 FTE. As this option impacts primarily on three senior managers a separate consultation commenced on this proposal on the 9th December 2010 with initial responses returned by 31st December 2010.
4. In line with our shift in role to one of commissioner, we will move to commission family learning, as has successfully been implemented with Health and Lifestyles courses, making 1 FTE Family Learning Lead redundant.
5. The Service will also introduce online enrolment for leisure courses as well as transform the Management Information System validation to ensure it is fully robust.

Consultation papers on the above are available via the link on Annex 4.


Early Years - £193k

The current Sure Start, Early Years and Childcare grant (SSEYCG) comes to an end in March 2011. This grant is currently ring-fenced for specific activity such as the Every Child a Talker programme (ECAT) and the graduate leader fund (GLF) the coalition government have removed the ring fencing of grants, and moved part of this to the Early Intervention Grant.

The work funded by the SSEYCG included in this proposal is:

• Every child a talker
• the 2 year old places
• Graduate leader fund
• the childcare sufficiency audit
• The early years foundation stage (EYFS) aims to ensure that all children get the best start in life though access to good quality early years provision. The early year’s quality team.

The removal of ring fencing provides us with the opportunity to review and consider how we use other models of delivery. It may be possible, for example, to make quality more integral to service delivery and devolve the responsibility for ensuring quality support to a local level involving partners and parents. This would provide an opportunity to consider a more inclusive approach to delivering quality and adopt the recommendations made in the IPPR and PWC report ‘Capable Communities - Towards Citizen-Powered Public Services’

The aim of the proposal is to refocus and remodel the work considering a number of options for delivery, such as commissioning some of this work or delivering it in an alternative way which will provide savings.

The Early Years Workforce team are based in the quality team. It is proposed that this function will transfer to the DECS central workforce team in April 2011. This team will reduce from three staff to one workforce and training post that will be part of the DECS workforce team.

We propose early years training will be commissioned by the DECS workforce team.
The proposal for the remaining staff within the quality team is to significantly reduce the current staff resources allocated as a central resource and to move to a more localised model where quality is sustained through the children’s centre reach areas.
We currently have advisory teachers within our children’s centres working at a local level. We also have advisory teachers within the quality team as a central resource working across Reading. We have good early year’s practitioners in nursery classes and the private, voluntary and independent sector (PVI) who are teachers and graduates.

We propose to rationalise this and have the practitioners at a local level working together within clusters which include PVIs and schools. It is proposed that the children’s centres advisory teachers’ role is revised to include a role for supporting the quality of childcare in the children’s centre reach area.

The overall quality team will reduce to 6 FTE from approximately 12.3 FTE creating a saving of 193k in year 2011/12 rising to 290k in year 2012/13


Kennet Day Nursery - £86k

Kennet Day Nursery (KDN) is an Ofsted registered nursery for Reading Borough Council staff. There are 56 full-time childcare places available for children aged 0-5 years.

The proposal is to make the nursery run on a self-funding/breakeven basis by increasing fees to match overall expenditure By December 2011. The aim of this proposal is to be in a position where the fee income increases to a level where it offsets the budget pressure that Kennet Day Nursery has each year. Occupancy patterns throughout the year fluctuate considerably. An ideal level for occupancy in any setting is 90%. The current fee income from Kennet day nursery is based on 83% occupancy as an average.

Current fees are £187.00 per week for a child aged 0-2 years and £177 for a child aged 2-5 years. If fees were raised in April 2011 to cover all nursery expenditure over 2011/12 they would need to be £220.00 a week per child, an increase of 24.5%. KDN fees would then be in the upper quartile for Reading. Childcare costs would increase by £43.00 per week or £2,193 per annum based on 51 weeks of the year.

RBC funding for Kennet Day nursery is shared between directorates on a usage basis so this saving would not be a saving for DECS alone. The costs to RBC for 2011/12 are currently estimated at £84,600 assuming occupancy is at 83%.

The nursery is located in the basement of the civic centre, so it is in RBC funded premises. In real terms, other than staffing costs, the running costs are primarily catering costs (KDN is in the school meals contract) and cleaning costs as utilities costs are absorbed within the costs of the main building of the civic centre.

Maintenance costs are required at regular intervals. These have been covered in the past through capital in the early year’s grants, which have now ceased. In the longer term maintenance costs and some capital funding will be needed to ensure standards and quality outlined by Ofsted for registration as a childcare provider are met.

There are 54 staff that are currently using the nursery and a total of 60 children. Some children are attending part time and some parents have more than one child using the nursery. The staff currently using this provision are mainly based at the Civic centre or the Town Hall.

The risks of this proposal are to staff and budget. The impact on staff of a 24.5 % increase needs to be seen in the context of a no pay increases for public sector workers over the next two years. This means any fee increase will have a significant effect on their ability to pay for childcare. The occupancy level is the biggest risk to the budget. As the fees go up in price, staff may decide to opt for other arrangements thus reducing occupancy and increasing the budget pressure on the Council. Current costs are considerably lower than other nurseries.

It is also likely that the council will be employing less staff over the coming years. There is a risk this could reduce the demand for childcare places from staff. If numbers start to decrease and occupancy is low, going out to other companies is another option to consider. However, the childcare sufficiency audit would indicate there is sufficient childcare in Reading town centre and other areas of Reading. Whilst providers are optimistic they are reporting occupancy levels are low.

The Personnel Committee makes any decision on increases in fees and therefore this proposal is scheduled to be presented to Personal Committee in January.

Play Service - £134k

The Reading play service has been subject to a recent restructure following a period of consultation by those affected during November and December 2010. All posts within the new structure were successfully recruited to. The outcome of the restructure has been the deletion of 3 posts, effective from 1st April 2011, with a saving of £94k.

The out of school care service provide holiday and afterschool clubs across Reading. This service has income from fees to offset running costs. To date in this financial year the after school and holiday clubs have met their income targets and occupancy level. The customers of this service are both children and parents. The Children receive good quality afterschool and holiday childcare. There are personal social and other educational benefits to children attending these clubs.

The parents that use this service are mainly working parents that need childcare at either end of the school day and during school holidays to ensure they can meet their work commitments. An increase in fees will increase the costs to parents and present a risk that parents will then reduce or stop using the service as its not affordable.

The average attendance per day at after school clubs is 71 children across Reading.
The average attendance at holiday clubs is 89 children across Reading.
There are a total of 117 children from 96 families using the after school clubs.
There are a total of 377 children from 291 families using holiday clubs.

This proposal is to increase fees for out of school and holiday childcare provision. The main budget expenditure for this service is staffing costs. Staffing ratios are required by Ofsted, and impact on the number of places available in each setting. In recent years this budget has been considerably reduced. The budget has been reviewed to make costs lower and maintained the number of places. Any potential for further shaving of costs is very limited. It would mean employing less staff which would reduce the places available. Demand for places remains constant and the clubs are currently meeting occupancy and income targets.

Holiday and After School club fees to be increased by above inflation (3%) year on year in April.

Current £17.50 is the daily rate for Holiday Clubs.
From April 2011 fees increase by 14% to £20.00 per day.
In April 2012 fees increase by 25% to £25.00 per day.

Currently £7.50 is the daily rate for After School Club.
From April 2011 fee increase by 33% to £10.00 per day.
In April 2012 fees increase by 33% to £15.00 per day.

The risks of this proposal are that firstly fee increases may make the costs of the service unaffordable to parents and some may withdraw from using the service. The level of occupancy impacts on the fee income that offsets the cost of this service, so low take-up of the service is a risk to future viability.

Secondly, the Childcare sufficiency audit completed in October 2010 indicates that holiday and afterschool club places are in demand and there are not enough of them in some areas. The LA has a duty to provide sufficient childcare places to meet the needs of working parents/carers under the 2006 Childcare Act.

However, we have not yet tested the market to see if there are any alternative providers. We would want to test the market and approach the private, independent, voluntary sector providers and schools that would meet this demand. A commissioned play service may provide a value for money option in this case; further work would need to be undertaken by the commissioning team to ascertain the position of the market.

We would need to work though the commissioning process and consider TUPE or redundancy costs for current staff. Approximate redundancy costs for 16 staff (including two management posts outside of the separate management proposal) are £103,800. The RBC funding of £252,900 could then be used to commission these services. We would anticipate that savings could then be found and out of school services provided at a lower cost by the voluntary sector.

The consultation paper on the above can be found via the link in Annex 4.

Question 5: Are there any further risks associated with these reductions in early years and play.


Integrated Youth Development Service

Youth Engagement Service – £232k

The proposal is to reduce the resource within the Youth Engagement Service from £966k to £706k through implementing cuts of £232k. This represents a cut of 27%.

The 4 Youth Work Area Teams are located within the CAT Structure. They consist of 16 Youth Development Worker Posts, 4 Advanced Practitioner posts and 4 x Area Team Leader Posts. There 7.3 FTE sessional and part-time youth workers across the 4 areas in post. In addition there is 1 x IPA Team Leader and a team of IPAS.
The proposal is:

• To reduce the number of Team Leader Posts from 5 posts to 3 posts.
• To reduce the number of Youth Development Worker posts from 16 – 12.6 FTE.
• To reduce 1.3 FTE 15 part-time assistant youth work posts.

The proposed reduction aims to minimise the impact on direct delivery through making efficiencies to the management structure where possible. There will be an impact to frontline youth work delivery:

• Schools will be provided with the opportunity to buy in youth work provision in schools such as PSHE delivery and group work. This will no longer be provided free of charge.
• Provision of youth work will be significantly reduced. Work will be further targeted to young people most at risk. The criteria used for closing provision will be based on the both the quantity and quality of impact and demonstrable outcomes for young people, levels of deprivation, and levels of vulnerability of young people attending.

Duke of Edinburgh Award Licence – £13k

The proposal is to no longer hold the Duke of Edinburgh Award Licence and to cease the support for Duke of Edinburgh currently provided to schools and Award groups. This will result in the reduction of the part-time Duke of Edinburgh Award Officer post.

No 5 Youth Counselling - £43k

The proposal is to commission youth counselling services with a new specification in 2011/12. The Director post, currently employed by RBC and seconded to No 5 will no longer be required and can be reduced.

Intensive Service – £186k (Youth Offending and Source)

The Ministry of Justice Grants to the Youth Offending Service have not yet been announced. Partners have also not yet confirmed the expected cuts to their contributions to Intensive services. However we are predicting between a 12.5% -15% cut to the YOS grants.

The significant reduction in first time entrants to the Youth Justice System and the forth coming reduced expectations in performance reporting on Youth Offending teams, combined with more effective processes means that the pressures on the service have reduced considerably over the last two years.

The introduction of a new web based management information system will significantly reduce the amount of data inputting currently undertaken by SOURCE practitioners this will enable a saving through efficiencies.

The Resettlement & Aftercare Programme (RAP) is a non-statutory element of delivery within the YOS. The proposal is to significantly reduce the resourcing of this programme. Support will be provided to this group of vulnerable young people through the delivery of targeted youth support provided across IYDS/CATS as appropriate. It is assumed that grants will no longer be ring-fenced. If the RAP Grant is ring-fenced then the RAP elements of these proposals will need to be revisited.


The proposals are:

• The function of the Business and Performance Manager post is no longer required. It is proposed to delete this post saving £50k.
• To reduce the Young People’s Drug & Alcohol Worker posts from 2 to 1 saving £38k.
• The RAP Senior Worker post will be deleted to save £40k
• The RAP Activity and travel budget will be cut to save £30k.
• Activity, travel, and sessional budgets will be reduced from across the Youth Offending Service budgets to save £28k.

IYDS Building Management - £32k

It is proposed to reduce the caretaking establishment by 1 x 0.465 post which has been vacant for 6 months and caretaking has been successfully managed within the current establishment, saving £18k by deleting the vacant post.

There will be a reduction in the Building Management budget of £14K. This will in part be met through efficiencies and in part by increasing the lettings income target for 2011/12.

Connexions Services - £345k
Prevention and Support Service - £350k

The current Connexions Contract is due to end in March 2011. It is anticipated that the statutory duty for section 68 will remain and there is an expectation that LAs will manage a smooth transition to the ‘All Age’ (16+) careers service. It is expected that some elements of this will be in place from September 2011 and that there will be full implementation from April 2012. Schools will have a statutory duty to secure careers guidance in the future, but it is not yet clear whether this will be implemented. Specific responsibilities that will remain with LAs include: preventing NEET and tracking and supporting vulnerable young people.

It is proposed to reduce the commissioned Connexions services to £600k in 2011/12, a reduction of £345k. Delivery will be reconfigured to meet the specific responsibilities that will remain with the LA as described above. This will have a significant reduction on the level of Information Advice and Guidance provided face to face by personal advisors but web based services will be developed as an alternative.

The commissioned PASS/ PAYP services, delivered by Connexions Berkshire, will be reduced from £749k to £399k.

Question 6: Are there any further risks associated with these reductions in IYDS which have not been alluded to.


8. Proposals for Finance
Post Reductions - £97k

These reductions reflect the full year impact of reductions being achieved through PIPVCS and natural wastage for two Finance posts within the Directorate. These reductions have already been consulted on within the 2010/11 in year reductions consultation paper and response. This process is being managed through the PIP for Finance. There has also been a consultation conducted with staff by the Director of Resources.

9. Cross Directorate Proposals
Management Reductions - £100k

Consideration will be given to the overall management structure of the Council during April/May 2011 to ensure that it reflects the budget settlement and decisions, the voluntary management de-layering scheme, that the Council can effectively deliver its revised priorities, that management is more streamlined and reflects the new Performance Improvement Programme Operating model. A new management structure which will affect senior management posts in DECS will be devised and sent out for consultation in spring 2011. It is anticipated that this will release at least £100K of savings from the DECS budget

Commissioning Team Savings on External Placements - £250k

A target saving for the Commissioning team has been set within the budget for savings on independent fostering agencies, SEN external placements and social care residential placements through better placement decisions and more effective procurement.

Cross Berkshire LSCB and Children’s Trust - £19k

The LSCB has an annual budget of £113k, of which £92k is paid by RBC including grants. The rest is a proportional contribution from PCT, police and probation services. The RBC budget is £62k staff costs and £52k expenses (including the budget for the chair of the board and one serious case review).

The Children’s trust team was reduced and restructured in the middle of 2010, down to the current 0.5 FTE post.

Options to share resources across local authorities have been declined at the current time and we are therefore consulting on the option to rationalise the two business management roles for the LSCB and the Children’s Trust and utilise the business support resource for both.

The LSCB business manager is currently a full time post, which it is proposed to reduce to a 0.6 FTE post. It is proposed that the two posts (with a common working day when possible) have shared responsibilities. One individual will lead on the LSCB the other on the Children’s Trust but with both cover and extra resource available as needed. It also provide the option of additional hours (at additional cost) if needed in the event of exceptional workload on either role. The LSCB administrator will also become a shared resource for both roles. Both posts will continue to report to their respective Heads of Service but be co-located to maximise shared working. This change will save £19k

Question 7: Are there any further risks from the above savings that may have not been considered by management in the Cross Directorate Savings?

10. Responding to this consultation:
You can provide feedback on the questions in this consultation in five ways:

1. Send your initial feedback on the questions in the paper to Tracy Boulton-Lacy by noon on 4 February. A proforma is provided to assist you in Annex 1 if required.
2. Provide feedback on this consultation to your union representative.
3. Provide feedback at the meeting that will be organised to discuss these proposals for your service.

All initial feedback should be returned by noon on 4 February 2011.

11. Timetable
This is subject to variance due to individual consultations and the overall council timetable

7 January – Consultation issued
January – 1 to 1s and group discussion with management
January – Directorate and Schools Joint Forum meetings
12 January – Schools Forum
17 January – Cabinet
4 February – Initial response to this consultation due in
End February – Final proposals circulated and at risk letters sent out
12 April – Consultation ends
12 April – Issue of redundancy notices