Meeting the Challenge - proposals for consultation

Gloucestershire County Council has a £108 million budget challenge over the next four years.

Proposals have now been published on how we will meet this challenge, through service changes and back office reductions.

The council launched the Meeting the Challenge programme in August 2010 in response to planned cuts in funding from central government. Initially, we were expecting to make savings of £120million but following the government's spending review and its decision to invest extra money into social care, the shortfall is now £108million over four years.

During September, approximately 5,000 people took part in roadshows and surveys asking them which services they would protect, reduce or stop altogether.Overwhelmingly, people voted in favour of protecting services for older and vulnerable people; child protection and Fire & Rescue. The most popular choices to stop or reduce included parking, school transport, archives and libraries.

We outlined three main principles for our decision-making;  we will live within our means; provide the basics and help communities to help themselves.

Cabinet approved a package of proposals for consultation on 18^th November, the most significant being plans to overhaul library and youth support, as well as transferring buildings back to the community for local use. The report included a commitment to maintain levels of funding to adult social care, absorbing inflation costs.

• Agenda - Cabinet Meeting 18 November 2010 
• Open the Cabinet Report for Meeting the Challenge

For details of the proposed changes in each service area follow the link below.

	Consultation Feedback Council Strategy and 2011/2012 Budget Consultation report and updates on service specific consultations		Let's talk report As part of the Meeting the Challenge programme, we spent a month talking to local people about their priorities for spending. The results have now been published.
	Council Strategy and 2011/2012 Budget Consultation The Council Strategy for 2011-2015 sets out the overall strategic direction of the Council and our plans to make savings of up to £114million		Big Community Offer Making services more local, allowing communities to get involved in providing their own library service or youth activity from an existing community building, or funding more local highways or wider environmental services.
	Rationalisation of buildings and land Over the next 4 years the County Council estimates it will need to find savings of around £108m because of national debt, spending pressures and government cuts.		Libraries The Library service in Gloucestershire has been undergoing change for some time to reflect the changing way people access information and books and more recently the reality of approximately 30% budget reductions.
	Records storage facility for archives Gloucestershire County Council is not going ahead with a new £5.7million records storage facility. There had been plans to build a large new facility at Gloucestershire Archives' Alvin Street site to house county council records.		Highways We will get less funding from government for highways improvements in the future, so from now on we will be focussing on maintaining the roads, filling pot holes and emptying gulleys.
	Young People's Services We are proposing a fundamental change to the way we run our services for young people - across youth work, information, advice and guidance and more specialist services. Our focus in the future will be on teenagers at risk and most in need		The future for Transport A fundamental review of council-run bus services in Gloucestershire is being carried out in a bid to save £2million.
	Home to School Transport We are proposing to help those most in need as we look to reducespending on home to school transport and create a clearer, fairer system.		Getting our own house in order Find out how Gloucestershire County Council is getting its own house in order as part of Meeting the Challenge.
	Extra Police Gloucestershire County Council currently funds 63 police officers based across the county. This contract will run until 2013.		Older and vulnerable people and day centres Gloucestershire County Council is protecting its spending on older and vulnerable people, but some service changes will be made to meet the cost of rising demand.