(a)

VFM was the relationship between economy, efficiency and effectiveness;

(b)

in achieving better value for money the council were working towards National Indicator 179 – Efficiencies;

(c)

the three year efficiency target between 2008 – 2011 had been revised and now stood at £31m, meaning that the council had to find a further £21m between now and March 2011;

(d)

the forecast for the efficiencies the council would achieve by March 2011 was £29.1m rather than £21m and was set out by how much each department would save as follows –

·         

Community services - £10.2m;

·         

Corporate Support – £2.7m;

·         

Development - £6.6m;

·         

Chief Executives - £0.1m;

·         

Children & Young People - £9.4m;

(e)

the council had submitted their efficiency savings for 2008/09 which were £5.4m and 2009/10 which were £9.9m;

(f)

the savings achieved in 2008/09 and 2009/10 were on-going savings and the efficiency initiatives contained in the delivery plans for the departments fit the criteria of the NI179 performance indicator;

(g)

corporately there was a review of business administration focussing on four key processes – order to cash, purchase to pay, entry to exit and record to report. In addition to this there was a movement to standardise basic administration roles;

(h)

staff were being regularly consulted with on what VFM means to them, not just in terms of money savings but also in providing an effective and efficient service;

(i)

the council was reasonably confident in achieving the £31m efficiency target and that the final submission date for NI 179 was on 22 July 2011.

(j)

departmental programme boards had been created to scrutinise departmental delivery plans on efficiencies, spread VFM message across the council and reduce areas of duplication;

(k)

a member of the VFM team attended the departmental programme boards to ensure that in reviewing the departmental delivery plans the finance teams and lead business managers considered the service improvements alongside the financial evidence required by the NI179 criteria;

(l)

the information from the delivery plans were included in monthly and quarterly budget reports ensuring that members were being kept up to date;

(m)

a VFM visit programme had been developed and budget manager training was being updated to include more guidance on VFM and the NI179 criteria to encourage and reinforce VFM ethos across Council.

(n)

there had been many achievements in relation to the Environmental Policy 2009/2013, the Carbon Management Plan 2008/2013 and the Climate Change Action Plan 2009/2011 including, amongst others –

·         

an achieved reduction of 5.2% in 2009/10 carbon footprint against the rolling target of 4% per year;

·         

registration for the Carbon Reduction Commitment completed over a month in advance of the deadline;

·         

SALIX funding had been secured for projects to the value of £710,000;

·         

the lowest recorded Eco, Carbon and Greenhouse Gas footprints in the South West;

·         

a Climate Change Commission being fully established to begin work in October 2010;

(o)

as a result of the positive work achieved in sustainability the city had been awarded one of nine national pilot projects to establish and deliver a Local Carbon Framework.

(p)

all council’s were measured against achieving savings of 3% in 2008/09, 3% in 2009/10 and 4% in 2010/11, the baseline was 2007/08;

(q)

the reason for the large efficiency saving in Community Services was due to major changes within Adult Social Care as a result of an acknowledgement that the service delivery was outdated;

(r)

departmental delivery plans had created priorities and allocated resources to ensure that service delivery would not be compromised whilst efficiency savings were being delivered.