East Renfrewshire Council Budget 2015-18: Keeping You Informed

Overview

**This consultation is now closed. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the Council's feedback.**

East Renfrewshire Council is in the process of setting its budget for the next three years (2015-18).  The Council wishes to keep staff and residents informed during this time and provide opportunities to hear their views.

The Council has prepared a budget pack which sets out the savings that are being proposed to help meet East Renfrewshire Council’s estimated funding shortfall of £20million between 2015 and 2018. The pack also sets out how the Council will continue to invest in services and deliver our priorities.  This has been sent out to all households and is also available using the link at the bottom of this page.

Reducing our spending is not a new challenge for the council but the impact of the savings required over the next three years should not be underestimated, especially against a backdrop of the considerable savings already made by the council since 2011, amounting to around £32million.

The list of savings proposals presented in the pack is not exhaustive and we will continue to consider additional proposals that may arise from ongoing service redesigns and reviews of our internal processes, management, administration arrangements and national developments.

It is important to recognise that no decisions on 2015-18 savings proposals have been made. The final decision will be made in February 2015 when Council agrees its budget for the forthcoming three financial years. Elected Members will decide when and how savings will be implemented, having reflected on comments from local people, staff and trade unions.

Why your views matter

The purpose of this process is to provide an opportunity for service users to be informed and understand the Council’s savings proposals, give their views on how the Council could reduce the impact of the proposals on service users and where possible, suggest any alternative ideas.

Please read through the budget pack provided before responding.

What happens next

The budget consultation process took place from 10 November and closed on 5 December 2014. Residents and staff were informed about the budget savings proposals and process through a range of methods including ER magazine to all households, East Renfrewshire Council website, social media, local press, libraries and Citizen Space.

A range of opportunities were provided for residents and staff to be kept informed and also make alternative suggestions on the budget savings proposals as introduced through ER magazine.

There were three main ways to comment:

1. Citizen Space survey for residents and staff;
2. Paper copies of the survey available through libraries for both residents and staff;
3. Budget event at St Ninian’s High School on 19 November which was open to invited service users.

The budget process generated a high level of activity within communities. More than 750 people were involved across all three channels. There was also a significant amount of participation through social media with over 400 tweets and thousands of people reached through facebook.

All responses were included in feedback presented to East Renfrewshire Council’s Budget Strategy Group on 18 December. This will help make the final decisions in January 2015 and a feedback report will be made available at the end of February, following the full Council meeting on 12 February where final savings will be formally agreed.