Delivering
for the
Future
2015 - 2018
Introduction from Joyce White, Chief Executive
Dear all,
Every Council in Scotland is facing significantly
reduced funding from the Government in the coming
years and needing to take difficult choices to balance
their budget. In West Dunbartonshire’s case we
have an estimated funding shortfall of around
£17million between 2015 and 2018. In recent
months the Council’s senior management team
has identified just under £9 million of internal
efficiencies which we will begin putting in place.
That still leaves us needing to find a further
£8.2 million of savings and this budget document
provides a summary of proposed savings that
have been identified to help meet that gap.
It is important to recognise that no decisions on
2015/18 savings proposals have been made.
The final decision will be made in February 2015
when Council agrees its budget for the forthcoming
three financial years. Elected Members will decide
when and how savings will be implemented, having
reflected on comments from local people, employees
and trade unions.
It is up to everyone to now read this document
and consider the effects of what is being proposed.
It is important to be clear that the scale of the budget
challenges is so large that simply scaling back activity
at the margins - so called salami slicing - is no
longer an option. Genuine service re-design is
necessary across the Council. This could mean
statutory services being scaled back to a lower
level, while non-statutory services will need to
operate in a different way.
Our priority throughout is to make changes that
improve and protect the most important services
to our residents, as well as protect our existing
workforce as much as possible. We want that
process to be open and transparent.
This list of savings proposals will not be the end
of the Council’s efforts to find efficiencies. We need
to be prepared for any future reductions in grant
funding from the Government, and ensure that
tax payers money is being spent efficiently.
As a result we will continue to consider additional
proposals that may arise from ongoing service
redesigns and reviews of our internal processes,
management and administration arrangements
and national developments.
Best wishes,
Joyce White
Chief Executive
Please give your views on the budget options by filling in the
online survey on the Council’s website:
www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk/
Educational Services
Option 1
Change the primary school day
Teachers are contracted to do 22.5 hours of
class contact time (the time spent in some kind of
formal learning and teaching) per week but the
school week is currently 25 hours. Like a number of
Councils, West Dunbartonshire is proposing to
change this so that the school week matches the
teacher contact time. This could mean a reduction
in each school day of half an hour, or perhaps pupils
being given one afternoon off each week. The
reduction would allow the Council to cover its school
week with a fewer number of teachers. This proposal
fully complies with the Council’s statutory duties.
Saving £1,057,000 (by year 4)
Option 2
Efficient timetabling at
S5 and S6 to reduce staffing
requirements
West Dunbartonshire Council currently runs
duplicate and often under-capacity subject courses
across its schools at S5 & S6. By streamlining
timetabling it would be possible for pupils to attend
subject classes at nearby secondary schools to
ensure classes were better subscribed. Pupils would
still benefit from the same high-quality teaching, and
the Council would provide one busy subject class
instead of two half-empty sessions. This would be an
extension to the existing “consortium” arrangements
for some Advanced Higher courses.
Saving £80,000
Option 3
Close Dalreoch Primary School
Dalreoch Primary School is a small school with
just 65 pupils being taught in a large old and poor
quality building with significant under-occupancy.
The pupils would move to Braehead Primary School
which is less than two miles away and offers the
potential of a better educational environment.
There is space for the new pupils and the Council
is confident they could provide a high-quality
learning environment that would benefit the children.
A full consultation process would be undertaken
with parents, staff and stakeholders if this option
was approved, and any approved closure would not
take place until summer 2016.
Saving: £300,000
Option 4
Close Carleith Primary School
Carleith Primary School is a small school with
just 89 pupils being taught in an old and poor
quality building. The pupils would move to Goldenhill
Primary School which is less than five years old,
just over a mile away and offers a much higher
standard of accommodation. There is space for the
new pupils and the Council is confident they could
provide a high-quality learning environment that
would benefit the children. A full consultation
process would be undertaken with parents, staff
and stakeholders if this option was approved and
any approved closure would not take place until
summer 2016.
Saving: £230,000
Educational Services
Option 5
Option 7
The Council currently has eight libraries covering
a small geographic area. This means that many
libraries are close to one another. For example,
Balloch and Alexandria Libraries are less than 2 miles
apart, while Clydebank, Dalmuir and Parkhall Libraries
are all within 2.5 miles of each other. The Council is
confident that it can reduce the number of libraries
it operates and maintain a high level of service
to the residents of West Dunbartonshire from
three well-resourced hub libraries at Alexandria,
Clydebank and Dumbarton together with an
enhanced mobile library service. The remaining
three hub libraries would be transferred to WD
Leisure generating a saving in Non-Domestic
Rates. A number of Councils already have
similar arrangements and service levels
would not be affected.
Saving £457,000
The Council has previously delivered a very wellresourced Instrumental Music Service including free
lessons for strings, woodwind, brass, guitar, drums
and percussion from Primary 4 through to the end of
the school. It also runs a variety of ensembles, bands
and orchestras within the schools and the authority.
The review would retain the quality but reduce the
scale of the service. All primary and secondary schools
would still receive instrumental tuition however options
would be limited. A re-design of the timetable should
help to minimise disruption. Dance delivery will continue
to be provided within schools by the Active Schools Team.
Saving £152,000
Review Library Services and
transfer to WD Leisure
Option 6
Ending the funding of the
Play After Learning Service
at Dalmuir
The Council currently funds charity ENABLE Scotland
to provide an out-of-school service for primary and
secondary aged pupils with significant additional
support needs. This is not a statutory service the
Council must provide, and we would look for the
charity and parents/carers to consider alternative
funding beyond June 2015. In its place, the Council
will provide a more limited in-house care service for
the pupils of Kilpatrick School and beyond.
Saving £59,000
Review of Music Teaching and
Dance Development
Option 8
Review of Special Needs Education
The introduction of The Children and Young
People’s Act (2014), in conjunction with the ongoing
developments in Curriculum for Excellence, means
the Council needs to re-examine how and where we
best support children and young people with additional
support needs. We need a new structure which
maintains increasing numbers of children within
Council provision, and is also supportive of Getting
it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC). In particular the
development of the senior phase should lead to an
increasing number of young people being able to be
supported by mainstream schools. The review will
identify both efficiency savings and how funding
should be channelled to achieve these goals.
Saving £300,000
Educational Services
Option 9
Close Garshake Nursery and review
Early Years Education
The Council will vacate its Garshake site in the
coming years and this proposal would see Garshake
Nursery close in 2015/16. There is adequate supply
of early years education in the Dumbarton area to
accommodate the children who currently use this
service. Beyond that, the current Early Learning
and Childcare (ELC) services model in West
Dunbartonshire has been in place for over ten years
and the time is right to review how it is organised.
This should allow the Council to align with the
recently introduced Children and Young People’s
Act (2014) and take account of the continuing
regeneration of the schools’ estate. The review
will include a redesign of where ELC Centres are
located; the range of services that they offer; and
how they are managed. By doing this we can
continue to ensure that places are available for
all those who are entitled to free ELC, and that the
distribution of places better meets the local
demand. It is anticipated that efficiency savings
can be made by undertaking such a review.
Saving £455,000
Option 10
Review Outdoor Educational
Services - Ardlui
Review the existing Outdoor Educational Services
at Ardlui with a view to reducing costs significantly.
This could involve continuing WDC Outdoor Education
Provision elsewhere in West Dunbartonshire or
sourcing outdoor education through a third-party
supplier. Pupils in West Dunbartonshire would
continue to receive outdoor learning activities.
Saving £110,000
Option 11
Increase qualifying distance for
home to school transport to 2 miles
for primary pupils and 3 miles for
secondary pupils
Local Councils have a statutory duty to provide
free home to school transport for children living
two miles from primary school and three miles from
secondary school. West Dunbartonshire Council
currently operates a qualifying distance of one mile
for primary school pupils and two miles for secondary
school pupils. The proposal would see West
Dunbartonshire fulfil its statutory duty.
Saving £300,000
Housing, Environmental & Economic Development
Option 12
Review of Roads Service
A review of the Road Service will create a more
efficient workforce model and generate savings
in a number of areas. This will include reducing
Christmas lighting and adapting the winter
maintenance service to the national average.
The Council has also previously delivered a road
safety service that significantly exceeds the levels
provided by other Scottish Councils. We propose to
reduce this service to the national average, including
removing school crossing patrollers from crossing
with traffic signals. This is in line with national
guidance which shows it can be confusing to
have both crossing aids for motorists.
Saving £130,000
Option 13
Transfer operation of
Clydebank Town Hall and
Council outdoor recreation to
WD Leisure
The Council would transfer operational management
of the Town Hall to West Dunbartonshire Leisure
Trust. This arrangement would be in line with existing
arrangements between the Council and WD Leisure
and is unlikely to lead to significant changes to
services provided. There would also be opportunities
for the Leisure Trust to improve/increase income.
Council would also review its outdoor recreation
services (golf course, sports pitches and pavilions)
with a view to transferring operation to WD Leisure.
This would save on Non Domestic Rates and offer
opportunity for more efficient working.
Saving £100,000
Option 14
Review of Grounds Maintenance &
Street Cleaning
This review of the service will involve reducing
the grass cutting, weeding, tree cutting and flower
bedding while introducing areas of biodiversity.
There will be changes to the Christmas tree
provision, a review of the graffiti removal service,
and charges introduced for maintenance of grass
areas on housing estates. There would also be a
reduced level of service for Council-owned bowling
greens, and removal of the toilet attendant
from Balloch public toilets. Support for
community events will also be reduced.
Saving £935,000
Option 15
Review of Building Cleaning
The Council currently delivers a very comprehensive
cleaning programme across its schools. The proposal
is to reduce cleaning of corridors, classrooms, staff
rooms and offices to alternate days with only toilet
areas and dining rooms being cleaned on a daily
basis. This would reduce the cleaning specification
to the same as that which currently operates in other
council office areas. In addition there would be a
drive to reduce waste and increase ‘self-help’ cleaning
options for staff across West Dunbartonshire Council.
Saving £500,000
Housing, Environmental & Economic Development
Option 16
Option 18
Like a number of Scottish Councils, West
Dunbartonshire is proposing to review the scale of
its waste collection service. This includes changing
the existing fortnightly waste collection service to a
three-weekly collection service as follows:
Proposal to no longer fund local events apart
from the Council fireworks. Events losing funding
would include the Pro Am Golf Competition, the
Clydebank Canal Festival, Loch Lomond Highland
Games, Old Kilpatrick Gala day and Christmas
Lights switch-on. The Council would also review
its bid for staging future Scottish Pipe Band
Championships, and this could affect the
chances of securing the renewed contract.
Saving £100,000
Review of Waste Management
= Week 1: landfill waste (grey/green bin)
= Week 2: dry recyclate (blue bin)
= Week 3: garden & food waste (brown bin)
There would also be an end to the collection service
for bulky household waste (special uplifts) and an
expectation that the community undertake recycling
without the existing level of guidance.
Saving £335,000
Option 17
Review of School Catering
The Council has traditionally gone well beyond its
statutory duty with regard to food provision in schools.
Under the proposal the Council would provide every
school child with a single 2 course meal option
including salad, fresh fruit, bread and water to drink.
This would significantly reduce wastage from the
existing choice of two hot main meals each day.
The Council also proposes to replace Friday’s hot
lunch service with a sandwich meal including
salad/fruit. This would generate savings by reducing
all catering staff to a 4 day week. We also propose
to provide children with water instead of milk four
days per week and diluting juice one day per week.
We would also end the practice of providing free
school meals to Council staff who supervise the
lunch service. Finally, more than a quarter of our
primary schools do not operate breakfast clubs and
we would propose to end the provision of breakfast
clubs in all our primary schools.
Saving £258,000
Reduce Events Budget
Option 19
Review of the Council’s Repairs and
Maintenance Service
This option will involve a review of the workforce
model including hours of work, terms and conditions
and structure. This will be underpinned with a review
of the future business model which will maximise the
housing /estates maintenance delivered internally by
the workforce, and the consider opportunities for our
workforce to deliver other building maintenance and
capital projects.
Saving £500,000
Community Health & Care Partnership
Option 20
Closure of 1 Children’s Unit
The Council has a number of Children’s Units
across West Dunbartonshire and would be able
to deliver the required service with one less unit.
Saving £251,000
Option 22
Provide at cost small equipment
to sensory impaired clients
This proposal would see those with sensory
impairments purchase their own small equipment
and aids at cost from the Council or from the supplier
of their choice in the same way that service users
with other impairments currently do.
Saving £32,000
Option 21
Reduction in respite care for
Children with Disabilities
The Council currently provides families with a
number of nights respite care to children spread
across the year. We propose to reduce the overall
budget for this resulting in a slight reduction in the
number of nights for each family. In addition we are
looking to provide more flexible respite in keeping
with the needs of families.
Saving £25,000
Option 23
Older People’s Day Care reduce provision by a further 25%
over projected reduction
This proposal would reduce by 25 the
total number of day care places available
across the area and redeploy staff to
vacancies as numbers fall.
Saving £153,000
Corporate Services
Option 24
Option 27
The Council is keen to explore the opportunities to
enter into shared services with other local authorities,
and other public sector organisations in order to meet
both the strategic objectives and local service delivery
needs of West Dunbartonshire Council.
Saving £1,000,000
Cancel affiliation of the Commonwealth Local
Government Forum (£980 p.a.); National Association
of Councillors (£423 p.a); Scottish Steering Committee
of Nuclear Free Local Authorities (£1265 p.a); and
Scottish Accident Prevention Council (£215). This
option is estimated to have a low strategic impact
and no impact on service delivery.
Saving £2,900
Shared services - general
Option 25
Review of workforce terms
and conditions
Council employees currently enjoy generous
benefits and terms and conditions. The proposal
here is to review those to ensure they incentivise
staff whilst remaining affordable to the Council.
Options being considered include:
= removing or reducing enhancement
payments for overtime, shift working
and public holiday working
= reducing the number of fixed public holidays
= redesigning hours of work and/or structures to
better reflect the needs of the service
Saving £1,000,000
Option 26
Changes to the printing, posting
and delivery of committee papers
This proposal essentially aims to reduce costs
associated with paper, postage and delivery of
Committee papers. It would involve:
= Political observers being directed to online
papers, in the same way as the general public
= Elected members only receiving printed copies
of report of committees they are members of
= Elected members collecting their papers or
accessing them online rather than having
them hand delivered.
Saving £5,500
Reduce affiliation fees
Option 28
Reduction in general grant
funding to the voluntary sector
Typically the funding grant to the West
Dunbartonshire Community Volunteer Service is
underspent by a significant sum. The Council is
proposing to reduce the grant more comparable
with the annual local demand.
Saving £50,000
Option 29
Elderly welfare grant funding reduce or remove
Currently every resident aged 60 or over in
West Dunbartonshire is eligible for a payment
of £15. The cost to administer the grant is
considerable and the long-term outcomes
are not significant.
Saving £185,000
Option 30
Review sales, fees and charges
The Council would proceed with a review of its
sales, fees and charges and increase where
appropriate and possible to at least recover
the cost of the service being delivered.
Saving: £250,000