Agenda item

The Committee received a cover report and presentation on the progress of Digital Together, a cross-council cost cutting savings programme. The presentation was introduced by Cllr Chandwani, the Cabinet Member for  Customer Service, Welfare and the Public Realm. The following arose from the discussion of the presentation:

a.    The Panel noted that the cross-cutting savings programme included giving staff the opportunity to suggest areas of improvement or things that had been implemented in other authorities as a way of generating efficiency savings. The example of using new areas of technology to detect housing fraud cases was noted, by way of an example.

b.    It was noted that the programme had led to £260k savings this year and that these were all back office savings, so there was no impact on frontline services. The Cabinet Member highlighted the fact that the more savings that were made through Digital Together, the less savings would be needed from other areas of the Council.

c.    Officers advised that the starting point for the programme was that they received a range of savings proposals, with 150 identified initially and these were then assessed and particular consideration was given to whether the savings were being counted elsewhere in the MTFS. To date, 18 initial savings opportunities had been identified, which totalled £260k in savings. The programme was building and significant savings were anticipated as the momentum built.

d.    The Cabinet Member identified that she was seeking to ensure that Haringey was in-line with other authorities and that everything was being done to reduce wasted resources.

e.    The Committee raised concerns about possible impacts on residents and whether increasing digitisation of services would unduly impact some disadvantaged groups. In response, the Committee was advised that the programme was all about improving how the Council worked and that all the savings would come from back office functions, internally within the Council. The Committee was advised that this would not impact services to residents. The Cabinet Member emphasised the fact that Digital Together was not about closing down phone lines or shutting down customer service centres.

f.     In response to a question, the Committee was advised that the programme was limited to the Council at present and that schools would not be asked to contribute. It was hoped that schools may notice an improvement in terms of being able to contact the Council and getting to correct person more efficiently.

g.    The Committee sought clarification around the costs of the programme and how this related to the £260k savings to date. In response, the Committee was advised that there would be a one-off capital investment into the programme to support transformation savings. The programme would then make year on year savings to the Council’s revenue budget. The capital and revenue budgets were two separate things. The savings target was £3m and the Cabinet Member highlighted that having achieved nearly 10% of that already, before the programme was fully up and running, should be considered a reasonable success.

h.    The Chair raised concerns around problems that some other local authorities had encountered with Northgate systems and projects being over-budget. In response, officers advised that they were learning lessons from other authorities and where savings had not worked they would walk away. The Committee was advised that, to a degree, local authorities were at the mercy of  a small number of large suppliers of services to local government.

RESOLVED

Noted