Decision details

To implement the new structure attached.

Background:
Over the past year a number of European Social Fund (ESF) contracts have come to an end. These have been worth some £300k annually. In addition there have been some funding reductions in other core contracts. This amounts to just over £60k. Alongside this there has been some increases in some areas, 24+ advanced learning loans, 16-18 Education Funding contract, and an increase in fee income for the service. The net result of this is the need for overall service reduction in costs of some £300k.
However, as some of the reductions have been anticipated for sometime, the service has been taking action, including not replacing staff when they leave in order to mitigate redundancy. Thus whilst the overall pay bill will reduce by some £300k this reduction has been managed over an 18 month period.
Following an extensive period of consultation savings of close to £300k have been identified. Many of these savings are coming from reduction in management posts, but there will also be some savings in direct service delivery, including reductions in some teaching staff, reductions in employability programmes and provision to support mental health issues. These reductions are going to have a serious affect on the service’s ability to support individuals seeking work and those who require help with recovering from mental health issues.

It is hoped that some of the above reductions will be mitigated if the service is successful in securing a European Structural Intervention Fund, (ESIF) contract. The proposed contracts would be targeting those people who have significant barriers to employment and are along way from the job market. The current structure would not support these contracts without increases in staffing.

The new structure will be fully implemented from 1st February 2016.

During the consultation period a number of different options were considered before a final structure was agreed. This followed a significant period of consultation with a number of changes following input from staff.