This page gives an overview of planned spending for the next financial year (2012/13) for Corporate Services and highlights major budget proposals from this department.
Overall and planned expenditure by division
Corporate Services’ overall planned spend (net budget) for 2012/13 is £84.5million – down 3.64% from last year.
Corporate Services spending - planned expenditure by division
| Name of division | Planned net spend in 2012/13 (£million) |
|---|---|
| Finance, Internal Audit, Corporate Property N.B. Finance, Internal Audit and Corporate Property have a net expenditure of (£1.2m) as this area includes £11.3m of external income, largely from the commercial property estate |
(-1.2) |
| Strategic HR and Shared Transactional Services, including Facilities Management N.B. £16.3m of net spend is on buildings (rent, rates, heating lighting etc) and fleet |
35.4 |
| Legal, Democratic and Statutory Services | 7.2 |
| Information, Communications & Technology (ICT) and Changing Bristol | 17.2 |
| Communications & Marketing, Arts, Festivals and Events | 4.4 |
| Integrated Customer Services | 12.2 |
| Strategic Commissioning and Procurement | 1.1 |
| Bristol Futures | 4.0 |
| Strategic Directors and Partnerships | 1.6 |
| Corporate Expenses (includes Members’ Allowances £1.4 million, asbestos removal £0.5 million, corporate subscriptions £300k) | 2.6 |
| Total | 84.5 |
Proposals to save money in 2012/13
These key areas of savings are further explained below:
Integrated Customer Services – £777,000 saving
Savings will be made by: internal reorganisation so that less money is spent on managers and more on the front line; putting benefits forms on line so we need fewer staff to manage paper forms; merging customer service points with libraries to cut down on building and staff costs; working on new processes for benefits claims so that we deal with customers more quickly and spend less time and money on processing.
Facilities Management – £600,000 saving
Further service redesign, to include exploring different ways of delivering the Council’s fleet and security services, and looking at better management of mail and conference facilities.
Finance – £591,000 saving
We will be modernising and streamlining the way we deliver the Finance function, to include having a new financial system and introducing more self-service by managers, which will allow us to operate with less finance staff.
Shared Transactional Services – £555,000 savings
Savings achieved by realising full benefits from earlier stages of STS phase 1 improvements (£464k). An additional £91k will be achieved by improving the take-up of electronic invoicing from the current 20% to 50%.
Communications and Marketing, Arts, Festivals and Events – £538,000 saving
Savings will be achieved by making Our City available only online (i.e. ceasing to produce as a paper publication), internal team restructuring, and substantially reducing cross-Council expenditure on design and print.
Legal Services and Democratic Services – £536,000 saving
Review of how we deliver Legal Services, to increase income and decrease expenditure on external legal support (saving £423k). Democratic Services will also be reviewed to create a more focused, efficient and flexible team with less staff (saving £113k).
ICT – £515,000 saving
Further benefits from rationalising the ICT service and IT estate, which will reduce the costs of purchasing and running our hardware and software.
Corporate Revenue Income Project – £495,000 saving
We are looking at making more of our assets and increasing income to the Council. For example: from site licensing, such as letting out Ashton Court for an additional major commercial festival; by bringing our charges for Highway Permits (skips, scaffolding, hoardings etc) into line with our local authority neighbours.
Corporate Senior Management Restructuring – £400,000 saving
Restructuring of the senior management team with deletion of three posts (Deputy Chief Executive, Strategic Director City Development, and Partnerships Director).
View the complete set of budget proposals for 2012/13
The equalities impact assessments are accessible from the complete set of budget proposals
