Edmund Farrow, Treasurer of Drummond CHS Parent Council, attended a meeting held by City of Edinburgh Council to discuss budget plans and strategies with Parent Council representatives on 24 November 2015.
The article below is based on his report of the meeting, with additional material by David Sterratt, Chair of Drummond Parent Council.
City of Edinburgh Council’s online budget consultation runs until 17 December. Libraries should have the budget proposals available to look at or you can see them here.
The Council is encouraging people to respond using their interactive online feedback systems rather than just emailing their councillors, in the hope that better demographic information about those responding can be obtained. There’s an online budget planner. It’s a lot simpler than last year's, being designed to gauge people’s general priorities, but it doesn't bear much relation to the detailed budget proposals. To respond to the detailed proposals go to the survey linked from this page.
There’s also a place for making and commenting on ways of bringing in or saving money: https://edinburgh.dialogue-app.com/
Overall situation
The Council needs to find an additional £126 million annually in savings or income by 2020 (out of an overall budget of around £1 billion). This is due to increasing demand for services, inflation and changes to legislation. The population of Edinburgh is increasing and the proportion of the population that is old, young, or has special needs is also going up.
Legal changes include things such as pension schemes, National Insurance, and teacher/pupil ratios. The National Insurance changes alone will cost Edinburgh £10 million a year from 2016. Additional saving may be required depending on the Scottish Government’s response to the Chancellor’s autumn statement. Education and social work make up 75% of City of Edinburgh spending.
Given the current financial climate, the Council will give priority to services which benefit:
- the old
- the infirm
- the young
- those with disabilities.
The Council intends to save money through:
- increased efficiency
- the reduction and/or transformation of lower priority services (including a reduction of approx 2000 staff)
- preventative activity
- maximising income
- borrowing for capital expenditure.
The aim is long-term stability.
Children & Families budget
In 2016/17, sport and libraries will be brought into the same budget. It will become Communities & Families.
Between 2015 and 2020, primary-school pupil numbers in the city are projected go up 8 per cent and secondary ones by 15 per cent. There is £200 million of capital investment planned for schools in that period. However, this does not include dealing with rising primary numbers (7–8 new primaries) or a new high school in Craigmillar. Hopefully, £250 million of additional funds can be raised from developers as part of planning consent, but that money only comes through once the developments are sold, and the infrastructure needs to be built first.
An example of possible transformation of services is where a school and a library or an Edinburgh Leisure sports facility are next to each other: they could be combined to increase use and efficiency. Obviously, there would be plenty of practical issues involved but there simply isn’t money to maintain all the current Council facilities. Ideally, changes will be locally driven and involve consultation. Unfortunately, the Council has to find £46million in savings before April so there is significant time pressure.
To review the school music service to explore the potential for it to be self funded, for example through the creation of a social enterprise model. 25% of the budget would be retained to support children in families who do not have the resources to access the new model and consideration would be given to those following SQA courses. A service will be created where the quality of provision will be maintained, however, there will be a contribution for music tuition based on the ability to pay.
This would provide a total cumulative saving of £1.668 million on a budget of £2.222 million, with the number of Full Time Equivalent employees fallng by 4 from 54.8. Potential impact on service outcomes are not listed, but there 'will be full consultation with parents and staff when it becomes appropriate to do so'. It would seem likely that a number of children will be put off taking up an instrument, either because they do not qualify for support or because there is a stigma in claiming support.
Discussion
Opportunity was given at the meeting to discuss some of the budget proposals and suggest savings and priorities. There was strong support for increasing Council Tax amongst those present, but that is not currently allowed by the Scottish Government. A tourist tax (perhaps of £2 a night for a hotel room) was another possibility but would require Scottish Government legislation.
Many people mentioned the trams. Proponents argue that extending the route would not make much difference to the overall budget because the trams would bring in revenue to cover the cost of the borrowing to build them in the medium term. Furthermore, much of the early investment might come from Lothian Buses’ funds. (That presumably means fewer new buses but the money can’t be used for general Council costs whatever happens.)
Many of the proposals presented by the Council were along the lines of ‘2.5 fewer posts out of a department of 56 that works across the entire city’, so it was hard to assess what kind of impact they would have. Concern was raised over the speed and scale of the cuts.
More proposals
David Sterratt, writing in a purely personal capacity, adds: Throughout the Council there are 70 specific proposals, for example:
- Review of libraries to bring them 'in line with 21st century requirements. Libraries will have a wider role in the provision of advice and support for local communities. There will be a rationalisation of libraries to meet the needs of local communities. Some libraries will continue to be stand alone, others combined with community centres and some run by local communities. There will be full engagement with local communities about any proposed changes'.
- Withdrawal of the night noise team service, which runs Thursday to Sunday, with anti-social behaviour noise calls being directed to Police Scotland.
- Various 'Service Prioritisations' in Waste and recycling, including collecting garden waste once every three weeks throughout the year, ending trade waste collections for non-Council buildings, and ceasing to accept commercial waste at community recycling centres.
It is not obvious that these proposals will save as much as intended For example, will ceasing to accept commercial waste at recycling centres lead to an increase in flytipping and more effort going into clearing it up?
My impression of the past five years is that Council Tax freeze and the squeezing of Scottish Government funding has led to a steady erosion in the quality of service, epitomised by the erosion in the road surface. The Council has its hands tied and, despite its well-documented failings, earns a degree of sympathy from me. I'd be willing to pay more tax for a better quality of service, and I'd like that choice to be on offer at the forthcoming Holyrood election.
Do you think Council Tax should rise? Can you identify waste in the Council? Tell them via this link, and then tell us at spurtle@hotmail.co.uk and @theSpurtle and Facebook
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Gaye Cleary There's currently a petition asking to say 'no' to music budget cuts - here's the link for those interested https://www.change.org/p/city-of-edinburgh-council-say-no-to-the-proposed-budget-cut-of-our-edinburgh-schools-music-tuition-service