County Council leader considers job cuts while facing ‘hard choices’ as part of efficiency plans

Derbyshire County Council’s leader has told how the authority is facing ‘hard choices’ and having to consider job cuts to get what he believes is an over-staffed council running more efficiently for residents.

The Reform-UK led authority is considering reviewing and restructuring staffing as part of an efficiency strategy after confirming its latest budget position for the current financial year at a Cabinet meeting on September 11th.

But after the council stressed reducing the number of staff on permanent contracts would only be considered after options including improving priority service areas, deleting vacant posts and reducing agency staff have been exhausted, Council Leader Alan Graves confirmed job cuts would be a last resort.

Cllr Graves said: “Our priority is to move agency staff and that is the first priority. Obviously, after that if there are still efficiencies [needed] we need to look where else we can make these efficiencies.

“We don’t want to cut jobs, we just want to make the council more efficient and if that means cutting jobs that is something we have to consider seriously.”

Cllr Graves explained all the council’s departments are looking at how they can make efficiencies but at the moment it is not clear exactly where any needed cuts may lie.

The new Reform UK administration took control of the council following the May elections after the former cash-strapped Conservative administration had been forced to make around £29 million of savings with dramatic cuts during 2024-2025 and it targeted a further £18.6 million of savings as part of an approved budget for 2025-2026 to close a previously identified gap.

With the increased savings from 2024-2025 and savings identified in the 2025-2026 budget under the new Reform UK administration the council is forecasting that £37.5 million will now be saved during 2025-2026.

While the council says the budget position is much-improved its latest report for the first quarter of 2025-26 states it is important to recognise that by the end of the year there is expected to be an estimated overspend forecast on children’s social care of £25.9 million and the forecast underspend across the council’s corporate budgets of £23.2 million with other minor variances will leave an overall forecast overspend of £1.3 million.

Cllr Graves said Derbyshire County nearly went bankrupt and if that had happened the cost to taxpayers would have been ‘enormous' and now it is the new administration’s job to make sure the council becomes more efficient and part of that process is to consider job cuts.

He added: “At the end of the day this was reported in a Cabinet report and the unions are very well aware of it and we are working through that to see where the cuts are and the priority is to cut agency staff because we are oversubscribed for agency staff.”

Cllr Graves said he believes previous administrations have not taken the need for efficiencies seriously and have placed the current Reform UK administration in this difficult position where they have to make tough decisions and that any job reductions would be a last resort.

He added:  

Cllr Graves said the former Conservative administration realised they had to do something about the authority’s predicament and the current Reform UK administration is now having to go ‘that bit further’ to make sure the council can balance its budget so it can continue to provide services for residents.

The council has previously said that the authority is scrutinising all its services to ensure they give value for money and it is making sure there is no wasteful spending on any projects or schemes, and it is making changes to the strategic objectives in the Council Plan.

Among the council’s financial pressures, it has put the overspend in children’s social care services down to continued inflationary high costs and demand pressures which it says also continue to affect adult social care services.

It has previously explained the council has identified significant challenges across its services driven by high costs and increased service demand, particularly with Adult Social Care, and it has noted that it employs more people than comparative authorities with Cllr Graves claiming it is overstaffed by 20 per cent.

The council has also noted that for several years its spending has been in excess of budget with an unsustainable reliance on reserves with £132.431 million used over the past three years between 2022-23 to 2024-25.

But the council has contracted finance consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers to undertake a review of the council’s operating model and identify efficiencies with an estimated £45.9m of possible savings per year.

Work is ongoing, according to the council, to assess the PwC findings against the council’s Change Portfolio and to identify a plan to implement the recommendations while it initiates an efficiency review.

The council says its operating model is more expensive than ‘comparator councils’ with higher costs than income, and a larger than average workforce and it has recognised the need to become more efficient and effective through the centralisation of support functions, digital improvement, a Finance Improvement Programme, and changes to the council’s Charging Policy in Adult Social Care and Health.

Cabinet Member for Council Efficiency, Cllr John Lawson, has said the scale of efficiency the council could achieve is in the region of £45m of savings per year and some of these savings have already been factored into the council’s budgets at somewhere in the region of £20m.

He has also stated that some savings have already been factored in by looking at procurement and efforts are going into centralisation of services and technological advances and the rationalisation of the council.

Cllr Lawson said the council is working to ensure savings stay on track while it looks across the council to identify where further savings and efficiencies can be made while ongoing challenges around social care costs and demand pressures continue.

A Derbyshire County Council has stated that a review found that the council employs more people and has higher operating costs when compared to other county councils.

A council spokesperson said: “Priority service areas, such as SEND and addressing potholes would be improved through efficiency, rather than staffing reductions. In other services, savings and efficiencies would be made by deleting vacant posts first and reducing agency staff second. The council would only consider whether it was necessary to reduce the numbers of staff on permanent contracts once these options had been exhausted.”

Derbyshire UNISON Branch Secretary Martin Porter argued some of the union’s members are struggling to keep vital services going with claims that Special Educational Needs and Disability assessors in the Children’s Department are running at 40 per cent of the staffing they need to support families.   

Mr Porter claims other social work teams are also reporting zero appointable applicants for vacant posts because the council pays significantly less than neighbouring authorities so agency staff are being used instead. 

He said: “The only way to improve efficiency is to improve pay and conditions and to ensure all teams are fully staffed and resourced to do their job. 

“Serving the public is a vital but challenging role, and Cllr Graves could make a start by trying to improve morale, rather than create more fear amongst staff who have already endured more than eight years of cuts and austerity.”