New ways of working at Dorset Council could eventually save millions of pounds each year – but could result in hundreds of job losses.
The council claims more use of technology will improve services for customers – in tandem with a savings target of £9million in staff costs during the coming year – and up to £23.5m of savings in staff costs by the end of the five-year plan.
The ‘Our Future Council’ programme aims to deliver a ‘saving’ in staff costs of £9m in year one of the plan, starting in April 2025.
The main staff union at County Hall, Unison, says the target savings figures could result in hundreds of job losses.
The council’s own report says: “Efficient processes will be implemented to remove duplication and consolidate approaches, ultimately reducing the organisation’s size,” adding: “The programme will seek to deliver a reduction of spend on employees by £9m through vacancy management, management of turnover, service reviews and structural change.
A further £1m of savings will be achieved through the reduction in commissioned spend (external contracts).”
Similar transformation plans at other councils, including at Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, have been slow to progress and have met with staff resistance.
Dorset Council will be embarking on its transformation plan at a time when Chief Executive, Matt Prosser, is leaving to take up a post in Wellington, New Zealand and the new Lib Dem administration will have only had majority control for a year.
The previous, Conservative, administration had been reluctant to reduce staffing and since becoming a unitary council in 2019, under their control, staff numbers had increased to the current figure of around 3,800 full-time equivalent posts.
A Unison spokesperson describes the consultants report as “extremely concerning” and says it could, potentially, lead to hundreds of job losses at a time when services are already “cut to the bone, with staff not able to cope with the extreme workloads, and with workplace stress at an all-time high and staff morale at an all-time low.”
The official says that with a high percentage of older people than most counties Dorset already has a third of its residents ‘digitally excluded.’
“How can the report blatantly claim that there will be a major positive impact for communities when the focus of the proposal is using Ai and Robotic process automation for customer contact, ?” said Unison.
The union says there has been a lack of transparency about the proposed changes and no meaningful consultation with any of the staff unions.
“The figures are now citing up to £24million in staff cuts, yet we have not been told this. And the roles that will be deleted will most likely be administration and customer services roles, this will impact low paid women the most, yet there has been no equality impact assessment.”
The union also claims that despite statements about needing to make savings there has been an increase in higher management levels with five Corporate Directors in the Place directorate alone.
“We are sure there are other options that could have been looked at such as income generation and less spent on consultant and agency fees… we cannot keep cutting our public services that our communities rely on,” said the union.
A report to councillors, by external consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers, suggests ‘transformation savings’ of between £18m and £38.5m a year are possible overall; the higher figure amounting to almost 10per cent of the annual council revenue budget.
The report warns that to make progress the authority will have to be prepared to ‘invest to save’.
This appears to focus, for the public, on the increasing use of technology to get as many people as possible needing to contact the council to, effectively, serve themselves through contact with machines, rather than people.
Said a summary of the ’Our Future Council’ plan, which will run from 2025 to 2029: “Our aim is to achieve financial resilience and provide sustainable, excellent services, positioning Dorset Council as a high-performing, customer-focused council. The “Our Future Council” transformation will enhance customer interactions and internal operations, supporting the new council plan to create a fairer, more prosperous, and sustainable Dorset.”
The report also talks of ensuring local communities, customers and employees being at the heart of changes and “achieving right outcomes with a relentless focus on cost-efficiency,” including having a workforce with the right skills for future needs to “ultimately creating a streamlined, digital, and unified customer and employee experience that delivers better outcomes at a lower cost.”
Among the technological solutions suggested is intelligent voice automation, ‘robotic process automation’ and the use of artificial intelligence which the council says will “enhance, not replace, the human support provided by our professional customer services and specialist officers.”
While the council report claims the changes will create an improved service for local residents and partner organisations it also says financial savings will have to be achieved with a projected £50.8million budget shortfall expected by 2028-29 and the need to make £35million of savings in 2025-26 alone.