Derbyshire council says staff reductions will only be considered as a last resort during efficiency drive

Derbyshire County Council is considering reviewing and possibly restructuring its staffing situation but says it will only consider reducing staff on permanent contracts when all its options have been exhausted.

Council Leader, Cllr Alan Graves (pictured right - credit: LDR Jon Cooper), revealed the authority’s potential efficiency strategy just days before the Reform-controlled county council was set to confirm its latest budget position for the current financial year at a Cabinet meeting on September 11th.

Cllr Graves said: “The people of Derbyshire elected us for many reasons, one such reason was to ensure this council is as efficient as it can be and that every pound is accounted for and spent wisely – our top priority.

“We are scrutinising all our services to ensure they give value for money and are delivering for our residents, as well as making sure there is no wasteful spending on any projects or schemes, although we recognise there is a long way to go.

“We’ve also made some changes to the strategic objectives in the Council Plan to better reflect the direction of the council, and we’re planning to make more next year which we believe will benefit more residents and communities and better target our resources.”

In the council’s first quarterly budget report for the 2025-26 financial year, it is forecasting a net overspend of £1.3 million during the course of the current financial year, between April 2025 to April 2026.

The council’s former Conservative administration before Reform took control after the May election had claimed it was on track to achieve over £31m of savings by the end of the 2024-25 financial year with cutbacks to manage a previously forecast budget deficit of over £39m for 2024-25 while identifying £18.6m of further necessary budget savings for the 2025-26 financial year to set a balanced budget.

It saved around £29 million during 2024-2025 and the further £18.6 million of savings were identified as part of the budget approved in February for 2025-2026 to close a previously identified budget 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 on recent years, 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.

The council has stated the overspend in children’s social care services is the result of continued inflationary and demand pressures which also continue to affect adult social care services.

It has explained that the council has identified significant challenges across its service delivery 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.

The council has also noted that for several years, the council’s 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.

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 has taken steps to address that 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 (pictured right: credit: DCC), has said the assessed scale of efficiency that 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.

Cllr Lawson has said that before the change in leadership the council already had a programme of improvement and that is continuing.

He has also stated the current administration has put its ‘efforts and full force behind it’ and that some savings have already been factored in looking at procurement and the operating model in the context of previous ‘turbulent’ times with a ‘significant increase in expenditure’ and efforts are going into centralisation of services and technological advances and the rationalisation of the council.

Cllr Lawson said: “Our hard work continues to ensure the savings already identified stay on track, and we are looking across the council to identify where further savings and efficiencies can be made.

“The challenges faced in previous years, especially around social care costs and demand pressures, continue, so we are not out of the woods by any means.

“However, we are committed to ensuring we can continue to set a balanced budget over the medium-term, ensuring good financial management and a sustainable use of reserves, while continuing to deliver quality services to our residents.”

Cllr Stephen Reed, Cabinet Member for Business Services, has previously said no one wants to look at compulsory redundancies but he also does not want to make promises he cannot keep in terms of mitigations against staff redundancies.

A Derbyshire County Council spokesperson said: “The council continues to face significant financial pressures, driven by high costs – particularly in adult social care and health – and increasing demand for services.

“This prompted a review which found that the council employs more people and has higher operating costs when compared to other county councils.

“At a meeting in July, Cabinet members noted findings of the review which highlighted areas where the council could become more efficient and effective – such as reviewing and, where necessary, restructuring staffing to make sure it is fit for purpose.

“A further report setting out the costs, benefits and timeframe of implementing these recommendations will be considered by Cabinet in the next couple of months.

“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 union Branch Secretary Martin Porter has argued that some UNISON members are struggling to keep vital services going and 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.

Mr Porter suggested that Cllr Graves visits the Special Educational Needs and Disability assessors in the council’s Children’s Department who Mr Porter claims are running at 40 per cent of the staffing they need to support desperate families.

He said: “We do agree that there are too many agency staff in Derbyshire County Council. The hard-working Chesterfield child protection Social Workers would also agree.

“They are outnumbered two to one by agency staff and managers are contacting staff who are on leave or off sick to ask them to complete vital work.

“The reason for this state of affairs though is that nearly half the team are off sick with stress. Other Social Work teams report zero appointable applicants for vacant posts due to Derbyshire County Council paying significantly less than neighbouring authorities. Once again, agency staff are used instead.

“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.” 

Mr Porter added that serving the public is a vital but challenging role and he urged Cllr Graves to try and improve morale for staff who have already endured more than eight years of cuts and austerity.

The council is also introducing changes to its Council Plan for 2025-26 including: Altering its climate change objective to better reflect its focus on energy security, energy efficiency and clean energy; Changes in light of the relatively new East Midlands Combined County Authority; Action to review strategic highways policy; Changes around how it could further increase transformation and efficiency; And revisions relating to Local Government Reorganisation to reflect the council’s preferred option of two unitary authorities.

Progress against the 24 strategic objectives outlined in the Council Plan shows that 79 per cent have made good progress, with four 17 per cent needing review and one requiring action.

Derbyshire County Council says key achievements include: Work to improve the placement of children in care; The establishment of a dedicated multi-agency SEND quality assurance group to oversee SEND education, health and care planning; The successful planting of 47,000 trees as part of Derbyshire’s Heartwood Community Forest; Public health work to tackle health inequalities and the completion of more than 2,500 Live Life Better Derbyshire Health and Wellbeing MOTs.

The council added that there will be a particular focus on priority areas which include managing the continuing pressures on SEND assessment and work to improve Derbyshire’s roads.