A COUNCIL has said it expects to keep redundancies to a minimum as it grapples with a funding shortfall.
A senior officer said any redundancies should be “countable on the fingers of two hands” but staffing budgets are still being reduced and vacancies left unfilled to manage costs.
Conservative councillor Rachel Buckler said she had understood “no redundancies was a headline of the budget”, but questioned if that would change if further reductions were made to frontline services to fill the £2.86 million gap in Monmouthshire council’s draft spending and savings plans.
Councillor Ben Callard, the Labour cabinet member responsible for finance, said: “That’s not a headline I’ve come out with and I’m not sure we are avoiding redundancies with this budget.”
Matt Gatehouse, Monmouthshire County Council’s chief officer for people, said: “We can’t be explicit at this point around no redundancies. I will say in terms of all the modelling to date the number of any potential redundancies will be very low, certainly below the threshold of 20 that would signal the expectation of collective consultation under the Trade Unions and Labour relations act.
“I think the numbers we are looking at would certainly be countable on the fingers of two hands but there’s work to be done on that.”
Mr Gatehouse said over the past five to seven months the council has sought to use “natural turnover” to manage costs to help reduce in-year spending and keeping vacancies open to “minimise or take out the need for any compulsory redundancies.”
Among job reductions included in the budget, which includes leaving roles such in adult social care unfilled to save £125,000, is a £100,000 saving by keeping the head of public protection role vacant following the retirement of the current post holder. A review will decide on the long term position with an interim management arrangement in place.
Cllr Buckler, who represents the Devauden ward, also asked if redundancies in schools would be avoided.
Llanfoist and Govilon member Cllr Callard said the budget is proposing an additional £1m for school but acknowledged “pressure on their budgets”.
But he said the council is fully funding teachers’ pay awards, pension costs and National Insurance contributions for schools and additional funding is intended to help them bring attendance back up and “provide the best education they can”.
Mr Gatehouse said while the council sets the education budget decisions on staffing are made by individual governing bodies and said “it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to comment or second guess them.”
Monmouthshire is proposing to increase council tax, by 7.8 per cent, to raise an extra £5.9m and is cutting spending by £5.1m but is hopeful some additional Welsh Government funding will be provided towards a £2.86m gap in its draft budget. That could then avoid the need for further cuts or an even higher council tax rise.
