A total saving of £96 million has been achieved since Dorset Council was created in 2019 through Local Government Reorganisation, which brought together 5 former district and borough councils and the county council into one new unitary council. The savings were achieved by bringing together similar services, reducing duplication and costs, increasing efficiency, and reducing the number of councillors and senior officer roles.
The savings made to date have been reinvested into essential frontline services, protecting them from cuts, and focussing on sustainable local services over the longer-term. This includes children’s social care, road maintenance, libraries, housing, planning and adult social services.
This has been achieved in a climate of increased financial pressures on councils, including inflation, a growing need for housing services due to the cost-of-living crisis, and increasing demand for adult social care due to our ageing population.
Many of the savings have been driven by the council’s transformation programme which has been redesigning services with the aim of providing a better experience for residents and more efficient operations with lower costs. Savings of £13.6 million have been successfully delivered over the last two years, with a further £17.4 million projected over the next three years.
To deliver the council plan it is key that the council continues to evolve, to ensure that services are designed around people’s needs, access to information is as clear and simple as possible and that the council focusses on delivering services in a sustainable way.
A report detailing the outcomes of the second year of Dorset Council’s transformation programme has been published today. Here are some examples of projects undertaken as part of the programme:
- A new care company was set up by Dorset Council in October 2022, and adult care services were transferred from Tricuro to Care Dorset. They offer residential services, day opportunities, reablement services and supported living services. The new company is helping the council to provide the right support, in the right place, now and the future.
- The first two Family Hubs in Tricketts Cross (Ferndown) and Wareham have been opened. Family Hubs make council and partner services easily available, providing a complete experience for families where different services can work together to deliver the right help at the right time.
- The customer account went live on the council’s website in April 2023 and enables customers to register and access local information personalised to them.
- In October 2022, a new approach to the council’s out of hours service went live. This involved using the existing customer services team to provide this service in a more efficient and cost-effective way. In the first 3 months, 100% of out of hours calls were being answered, an increase of 31% on previous arrangements.
Cllr Jill Haynes, Dorset Council Portfolio Holder for Corporate Development & Transformation, said:
“Our transformation programme has allowed us to change the way we do things, putting people first and designing services around their needs. Through this work, we are not only providing better outcomes for residents, in many cases we are able to do so while making savings. This means we are ensuring the services we provide to residents are sustainable for the long term, and, unlike many other councils across the country, we’ve been able to protect our essential frontline services from cuts.”
The report will go to Cabinet on Tuesday 20 June 2023. You can read the report and find a link to watch the Cabinet meeting here.
