More about Sam Crabb - County Councillor for Ilchester

Sam is one of those multi-talented members, who has a number of outside interests as well as being the Shadow Cabinet member for Resources. Each week he puts together the press releases from the county council as an information sheet for his parish councils and Lib Dem activists. Sam has also written the article below for the Local Government Chronicle, showcasing the county council's financial management.

Sam met up with Vince Cable MP at Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth

Sam & Vince show how the price of basic foods has risen

Sam gives film project £5000!

Sam gives a cheque for £5,000 to Somerset Film & Video, to raise awareness of obesity problems in young people

Efficiency Savings in Somerset

Since the introduction of the 'Efficiency Regime' in 2004/05 following the Gershon Review, Local Government has focused its attention on developing new and improved methods of delivering services to the public. Somerset County Council is leading the way.

The Government set a target over the 2004 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period of over £3 billion across local Councils, equivalent to 7.5% of 2004/05 baseline expenditure. However, collectively councils have delivered efficiency gains in excess of that target by the end of 2006/07 and are expected to top £4.25 billion by the end of the CSR period. Over the same period, Somerset County Council recorded savings of nearly £27 million, 20% above the authority's individual target.

Of Somerset's £27 million, £19 million is classified as cashable with no impact on service delivery. This itself is nearly 70% above the target set by Government. The authority's highest achieving services are:

§ Adult Social Care, contributing a third of the total savings - achieved mainly though procuring better contracts with suppliers;

§ Supporting People, contributing a 17% of the total savings, but a quarter of the cashable savings - again achieved though procuring better contracts with suppliers to offset the significant reduction in government grant; and

§ Waste, contributing a 12% of the total savings - achieved through the creation of the 'Somerset Waste Partnership' with the 5 District Authorities and the County Council.

These three services are experiencing the largest demographic and inflationary pressures both nationally and locally so the council is very proud of the excellent results it has achieved in these areas.

In addition, Somerset has significantly reduced its level of sickness absence through analysing sickness levels to determine the cause and implementing new processes to deal with sickness. The council has also rolled out the use of procurement cards across the authority, saving large amounts of officer time processing invoices. Both of these changes have provided considerable non-cashable savings.

Looking forward to the next three years, the efficiency agenda has raised its profile and its demands. All authorities will find it tough to meet the expectancy of 3% cashable savings, but will need to be successful if their books are to be balanced. Somerset County Council have pushed back the boundaries and have entered into a groundbreaking agreement forming a Joint Venture Company with Taunton Deane Borough Council, Avon & Somerset Police and IBM; called Southwest One.

This partnership will transform services to local residents that would not be affordable without delivering more efficiency savings. The partnership is expected to generate over £200 million of savings for the three authorities over its ten-year life.

Uniquely, a framework agreement is in place that entitles public sector organisations across the South West to join the partnership without the time, cost and risk of running their own procurement process. Negotiations are already under way with several of these authorities. As the partnership grows, the scope for achieving further efficiencies increases for all those involved, and every effort is being made to expand this revolutionary collaboration.

Supplementing the savings from Southwest One will be savings generated from further multi-tier cooperation. Pioneer Somerset is a joint project supported by the five District Councils and the County Council within the County of Somerset. It is challenged with radically changing strategic leadership, service delivery and generating further efficiency savings. Through this, Somerset will be recognised as a national leader, innovator, and pioneer in enhanced multi-tier working.

Somerset County Council believes it has taken action to secure the level of savings needed to contend with the increasing financial pressures all local authorities are facing. However, having identified innovative methods of securing savings, the Council cannot sit back and rest, but must ensure that the savings identified are delivered, and the quality of services is not reduced. Perhaps this is the greatest challenge of all.

Councillor Sam Crabb