Swindon Borough Council has implemented a series of drastic cost-cutting measures in a bid to shore up its financial situation. 

This includes a freeze on recruitment and a ban on overtime, travel and accommodation expenses outside of the borough

There is also an immediate freeze on attending training or conferences that cost the authority money, staff at Euclid Street have been told.

Chief Executive of the authority Sam Mowbray told staff in a memo last week that there was a projected overspend of £10m on the council’s current revenue budget.

Now the Local Democracy Reporter has seen a copy of what a reliable source says was her follow-up - an outline of money-saving measures titled: Call to Action Guidance Note and dated September 2024.

There are nine specific actions listed:

An immediate recruitment freeze on all recruitment to all posts: "Any recruitment requests deemed critical should continue to be submitted to the Recruitment Panel setting out the critical nature of the role.”

The only new recruitment acceptable will be to deliver statutory or regulatory obligations – that means recruits will only be taken on in the fields of children’s services or adult’s social care or planning, licensing or environmental health and. even then, only if it is critical.

The recruitment freeze applies to both temporary and permanent roles.

A review of all existing temporary worker arrangements

All temporary jobs will be reviewed by management and “Those that are critical should be reviewed to move from temporary to permanent where it is more cost-effective to do so.”

There will be no extensions of temporary positions.

Overtime will not be paid unless it is critical.

No new contracts will be entered into without the permission of the relevant corporate director.

There is an immediate freeze on attendance at training, conferences or courses which incur a cost to the council.

While this does not include statutorily necessary training, the guidance says the minimum number of staff should attend, then disseminate the training wider among their colleagues.

“Travel and accommodation out of borough, funded by the council, is not permitted. The exceptions are where required for the council to fulfil its role as a corporate parent, to fulfil our obligation to keep older residents safe or are associated with in-person attendance that has been deemed essential and is not available virtually.”

There will be no internal hospitality or catering for meetings or events except in very limited circumstances. And even then, that will be restricted to tea and coffee.

Furniture and equipment will not be replaced unless it is dangerous not to do so, or the broken equipment is critical to performing duties.

There is an immediate freeze of any other spending outside those outlined.

The note says: “Really challenge yourself and your team around the essential nature of any spending decisions. If this was your household budget you would reduce your spend according to your financial position, we all must do the same with the council budgets.

Otherwise, staff are urged to think of other ways of either cutting costs or increasing the council’s revenue: “Bring forward opportunities to maximise income generation.

“Ensure that you are supporting income collection - make sure you know what debts are outstanding for your services area and that you have done everything necessary to ensure the income can be recovered.

“Identify where savings delivery can be accelerated.”

It is not unusual for a significant overspend to be forecast in the council’s revenue budget, which funds day-to-day spending on services, at this point in the budget cycle – but £10m is a larger o discrepancy than in recent years.

And the council has already had to slash nearly £70m from its budgets over the last decade as grants from central government have been drastically reduced.

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