By Lucy Phillips
26 January 2011
Local government finance jobs have
been thrust into the spotlight as councils prepare their budgets and reorganise
services in the shadow of a finance settlement that was tougher than many
expected.
Early indications suggest that the finance function will not be immune from the
squeeze on services and staff. Plans from Birmingham City Council, for example,
show it is hoping to achieve above-average savings from its corporate resources
department between 2011/12 and 2014/15, cutting 518 full-time equivalent posts
out of a 1,365-strong directorate.
London’s Hammersmith and Fulham Council is currently considering sharing its
finance function with neighbouring Westminster or Kensington & Chelsea. A
spokesman said the council was doing everything possible to protect frontline
staff.
‘There are likely to be in the range of 700 job losses, and they will be
back-office, management and administration rather than people on the front
line,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Norfolk County Council has scrapped the post of director of
corporate resources altogether in an attempt to save £200,000 a year.
Oversight
of the role will be covered by the council’s chief executive, and the head of
finance remains in his job.
Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group, told Public Finance that
finance departments were going to ‘come under a great deal of pressure’ as
councils attempted to protect frontline services in the face of a push from
Whitehall to cut staff and merge departments.
Unions agreed that this, along with demands to outsource to other sectors,
would inevitably lead to finance job losses.
Research from CIPFA confirms the trend more widely. The institute’s annual
budget and council tax survey revealed that almost four in ten (38%) councils
would be making more than 30 staff redundant in back-office functions,
including finance. Sixteen per cent said they would be reducing their
back-office staff by more than 100.
Finance, along with HR and IT, was among the council services deemed most at
risk of budget cuts, with over three-quarters (76%) of finance directors saying
their own function was quite or most vulnerable. Only public libraries, arts
and museums were judged to be more at risk.
The survey, answered by 166 finance directors across Britain, was conducted
shortly before December’s local government finance settlement.
Alison Scott, CIPFA’s assistant director for local government, said it was inevitable the initial focus would be on back-office efficiency. ‘Councils need to balance financial management needs against the requirement to cut,’ she added.