To make sure that our Council is best placed to deliver our Council’s Priorities and achieve the required level of savings (£32 Million over the next 3 financial years), Councillors today (18 December) agreed to ‘re-shape’ Council services.
The Council will now implement an organisational structure that can be sustained for at least the next 5 years. This will give stability whilst freeing up time and resource to meet the future financial challenges through innovation and service development. It will also deliver management reductions by making our structure leaner and more efficient to protect frontline services.
Speaking at the committee, Chief Executive Gavin Stevenson said:
“Over the past few months you will be aware that I have been working on my proposals for re-shaping the Council. I have developed proposals that will focus on how we deliver our services to meet the needs of the most vulnerable, and children and young people, and achieve better impact for the local economy and communities.
We deliver services that people depend on, that make a difference to people’s lives and that communities need. My proposals are aimed at organising our services to meet those very needs, encouraging openness and transparency, and continuing to support local communities and the people we serve. My proposals would see the Council adopt a principle of “do it once, do it well” to grouping of services and activity, removing bureaucracy, duplication and inefficiency.”
The shape of the Council will now be changed to four Directorates: “Children, Young People and Lifelong Learning”, “Communities”. “Economy, Environment and Infrastructure” and “Corporate Services”.
Council Leader, Ronnie Nicholson, said:
“I am pleased that Full Council has given its support to the proposals to reshape the Council. Our Council has already saved £40m over the last 4 years by reviewing how services are set up, making them more efficient and reducing waste. But we face an immense challenge in sustaining our current levels of service in the face of saving a further £32m over the next 3 years. The reshaping process, which will see the number of council departments reduced by a third, will help meet that challenge whilst at the same time protecting the services that are important to the people of Dumfries and Galloway”.
Some of our Council services have had to deal with change on a daily basis. I am confident that by successfully delivering this change programme, we can create a council fit for the future, delivering the highest quality of service to our local communities, service users and help us focus on our Council’s Priorities.”
