Axing council bosses will save £11million
Ally McRoberts • Published 3 Feb 2012 08:50
7 Comments
FIFE Council's decision to axe 300 management posts will save £11million per year.
The jobs will be gone by 2013-14 and they'll also save a whopping £147,000 - by deleting ONE senior post.
Stuart Nichol, the executive director for environment and development, will retire next month and will now not be replaced.
A saving of £25,000 will also be made on secretarial support.
Instead, the council is taking the opportunity for a shake-up at the top with six executive posts being reduced to five.
The council has to save £90 million by 2015 and the current system, with services grouped under six directorates with an executive director in charge of each, has been in place for five years.
But chief executive Ronnie Hinds will today (Thursday) tell councillors that "public service reform is a priority issue for all public bodies in Scotland".
And his report says, "As part of this approach to reform, we should not assume that an organisational structure that has served us well in the past will continue to be optimal as we address new challenges.
"At the most senior levels in the council, an opportunity has arisen to review our directorate structure with the retirement of the executive director of environment and development in March."
And he continued, "The only saving arising directly from these proposals would be the deletion of a post of executive director, this would reduce expenditure by £147,000 per annum, including on costs.
"It should be borne in mind, however, that savings from previous and ongoing restructures have produced savings in excess of £1.5 million in chief officer costs alone and that the reduction of 300 manager posts will save over £11 million per annum by 2013-14.
"There is also the potential for reduced costs arising from the integration of support functions currently operated within each directorate."
Have your say. Post a comment on this article.
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DBResident
27 posts
Feb 3, 10:18
Report commentAt last, a real cut in costs, finally someone from the top goes. Now FC lets see a few more go, together will all the support they have allocated themselves, free parking, pensions, expenses, swanky offices etc. Maybe just maybe the efforts could continue and reduce the top heavy expensive beaurocracy that achieves nothing but issuing dictacts to those trying to actually deliver a service to us.
There is a lot of waste to cut but this is a welcome start. I reckon a further 30% or more is feasible without impacting at all on the services.
We should ask ourselves however why we have sat back and alloed the council to waste our money so frivolously for so long.
Recommend?
Yes 28
No 6
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Scotbox
9 posts
Feb 3, 23:31
Report comment -
snowshovel
3 posts
Feb 4, 00:29
Report commentAbout time it hit the big guys.....so long as they don't spend it all on more traffic calming measures.
Recommend? Yes 9
No 2
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maclam
66 posts
Feb 4, 13:27
Report commentwhat have all these people being doing for years when suddenly it seems they were not really needed at all.
Recommend? Yes 15
No 0
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TheDEXExpress
32 posts
Feb 7, 00:15
Report commentThe Fife Direct website indicates that Mr Nichol and his five executive director' colleagues are on salaries of £111,000. I'm pleased to see the Press quoting total employment costs of £147,000, the balance of which will be made up mainly of pension congtributions. On that basis, the costs of Chief Executive Mr Ronnie Hinds (salary £149,000) will be around £200,000. It is good to see the Council looking to cut costs at the most senior level. I am, though, very surprised to see that the idea of inegrating support functions between directorates seems only now to be being considered.
As Mr Hinds' salary, at least, is negotiated nationally by CoSLA (according to Fife Direct) does that mean that the CEO of every Scottish Local authority is on £149K? If that is so, then one wonders why a country of 5 million people needs 28 local authorities, with 28 CEOs costing the public purse £5.6 million alone. Add in another £20 million or so for the senior management teams and a few million more for their support staff and it really starts to add up. Moving to a smaller number of unitary authorities based on the old regional councils would surely be worth considering. Fife is the third biggest local authority in Scotland, yet seems to be pretty good at accommodating local needs. If it's OK to abolish the various police forces and create a pan-Scotland one, why would moving to, say, 12 local authorities be a problem?
Recommend? Yes 18
No 0
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lydiapot1
30 posts
Feb 9, 12:20
Report commentIs it not an offence to say that a group of people are going to be 'axed' under SNP legislation?
After all, I could end up in prison if I buy a Stanley knife at B&Q and happen to be stopped by police on the way home!
Recommend? Yes 5
No 3
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vinoboy35
22 posts
Feb 10, 21:49
Report commentOne post is gone ,we now have 5 plus Chief Executive .Some smoke and mirrors here , the 300 "managers" will include frontline supervisors and "middle management" who manage the frontline , these posts are usually on £25K -£45k and keep the organisation going.At Glenrothes HQ there are a load of jobs not really related to frontline service delivery but support bureaucracy and serve central government bean counting and tick boxing approach.Gurantee ,the 5 under Hinds will be here this time next year and the frontline will suffer. Just watch .
Recommend? Yes 3
No 2
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