1. Portfolio/Number/Name:A/C5 - Savings from non-staff costs/better
staff deployment |
2. Programme/Activity: Please
include a short description Savings in the administration budget of
the Scottish Executive through a reduction
in non-staff costs expenditure and better
staff deployment. |
3. Planned Savings | | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Cash (m) | 0.4 | 1 | 2 |
Time Releasing (m) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
4. Accountable Officer for
delivery | John Elvidge |
5. Project Manager | Nicola Fisher |
6. EGDG account manager | Iain Dewar |
7. Quality Impact | Describe any impact on the quality
of service delivery. Be specific and
explain if the expectation is positive,
negative or neutral. The quality impact of the savings on
the work of the Executive are not yet
known. |
8. Dependencies | Explain if your savings are
dependant on legislation or other
structural changes. Savings are dependent on consideration
departments are now giving to the scope for
efficiency savings in staff and non-staff
costs. |
9. Description of efficiency and
actions to be taken | 9.1 How will the saving be made? Be
specific about number/size of contracts,
staff, posts dates etc. The detail of how the savings will be
made will not be known until Departmental
efficiency illustrations have been
considered. |
9.2 What action is critically
needed to secure delivery of this saving?
Be specific, and name the key action
managers if they are outwith your immediate
management chain (e.g. in an
NDPB.) Each of the following departments have
been asked to complete an efficiency
savings illustration for the period up to
2007-08 by 31 March 2005: - Development
- Education
- Environment and Rural Affairs
- Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong
Learning
- Finance and Central Services
- Health
- Justice
- Legal and Parliamentary
Services
- Office of the Permanent
Secretary
It is unlikely that savings can be
confined entirely to overheads and
non-staff costs and so illustrations will
seek to achieve the best fit between work
priorities and the deployment of staff.
This will identify priorities across the
spending review period and outline how
staff can be best deployed to meet these.
Illustrations are to cover both cash and
time releasing savings. These illustrations will be considered
by Management Group with a view to
efficiencies at departmental level being
agreed by 29 April 2005. Following agreement on the level of the
efficiencies, a delivery plan will be drawn
up by 31 May 2005 setting out the
milestones towards delivery targets. |
10. Impact on Staffing to achieve the efficiency
gain | If there are to be any changes in
staff numbers (at activity level) to
achieve the efficiency gain, please
indicate how many full time equivalents and
how far you expect savings to be achieved
by natural wastage (show additions as + and
reductions as -). |
| 2005- 06 | 2006- 07 | 2007- 08 |
+ | | | |
- | | | |
Net | | | |
Explanation | The Executive has some 4,500 staff
(4,491 at November 2004). In general there
may need to be fewer posts in the Executive
as a whole in the future, after what has
been a period of very substantial growth.
The over 200 temporary agency staff
employed by the Executive affords some
flexibility. The specific impact on
staffing will be assessed as part of
departmental illustrations. |
11. Benefits | In general, the benefits of the
Scottish Executive Efficiency Plan are the
enhanced outputs from the resources
Ministers have been able to allocate in
SR04. But if there is a direct connection
between this efficiency saving and the
enhancement of a particular service please
describe it here. N/A |
12. Gross/Net Cash Savings | 12.1 Please set out the gross
recurring saving and any offsetting
recurring expenditure. The gross recurring saving will be 2m a
year by 2007-08 with no offsetting
recurring expenditure. |
12.2 Against what budget does this
expenditure and saving fall? The expenditure and savings fall to the
administration budget. |
12.3 Has this saving been built
into your budget? Yes. |
12.4 If so, what is the maximum
allowable expenditure against the budget
data, in each year, for that saving to be
delivered? The Scottish Executive's administration
operating budget for the years 2005-06 to
2007-08 is 235,285,000. |
12.5 If not, how do you propose to
invest the additional cash back into public
services? N/A |
12.6 What plans do you have to
exceed the required saving? Explain by how
much in each year. None |
13. Time - release savings | 13.1 Please explain any
time-releasing savings indicated at
question 3. See answer 9.2 |
13.2 Please describe the method you
plan to use to calculate the cash
equivalent of those time release
savings. This will depend on the nature of the
savings, but most likely the average staff
costs of the grades of staff time
released. |
14. Measurement and
Monitoring | 14.1 How are you proposing to
measure the expected efficiency benefits
(e.g. in terms of costs, level of output or
quality of service)? The efficiency benefits will be
measured by the success with which
Departments live within reduced
departmental allocations for administration
whilst continuing to provide an effective
service to Ministers. |
14.2 What monitoring &
reporting procedures will be put in place
to measure the efficiency savings (How
often will progress towards the target be
monitored? Who will have lead
responsibility for reporting progress and
what procedures will be in place?) Milestones towards the delivery of
savings will form part of the delivery plan
to be drawn up. Progress will be monitored
on a monthly basis and reported to
Management Group as part of the process of
monitoring the Administration budget. Lead
responsibility will fall to the Finance
Administration team. |
14.3 Monitoring Data: Sources,
validation and risks - What data will be used to measure
progress? Is all the required information
quantifiable and readily available? If not
what action will be taken to rectify
this?
Provisional departmental outturn
data, provided every month, will be used to
measure progress.
- What measures will be in place to
validate the accuracy of the data? Who will
take responsibility for this?
Final outturn data will form part of
the Scottish Executive accounts and will be
internally and externally audited to ensure
their accuracy.
- Are there any issues or risks
relating to how you plan to use the data?
(e.g. accuracy, difficulties in
collection)
No.
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