5 days ago
Falkirk Council urged to be more 'transparent' over cost cutting changes
Council officials must keep councillors and public informed as work continues to transform services
Falkirk Council has been told it must be more 'transparent' about the efforts it is making to transform its services in a bid to save cash.
External auditors from Audit Scotland say the council is making progress with its transformation programme - known as Council of the Future - but it stresses that it has to do better at reporting publicly on results.
In the annual 'Best Value' report, auditors also say that reporting to elected members the results of transformation could also be improved, while engagement with communities in Falkirk should be more consistent.
Some of the previous Council of the Future (COTF) projects were welcomed as modernising and efficient - such as the move from analogue to digital telecare, developing an online school payment system and introducing an online health and safety system for reporting workplace incidents.
But others have been much more controversial and one of the biggest - the council's plans to change and shorten the learning week for pupils - was rejected by elected members after an outcry from parents.
Rejecting the plans to change the school week meant that that the council's plans to save £26 million from the COTF programme over the five-year period to 2028/29 have been revised to £14.7 million.
The Best Value report, which focuses on a different theme every year, was looking closely at how councils can transform operations to make savings without cutting essential services.
Audit Scotland is clear that similar financial problems are facing every council in Scotland, noting that they have "never faced such a challenging situation".
While demand for council services has continued to rise since the Covid-19 pandemic, funding has not kept pace.
The auditor's report says that in Falkirk, the transformation programme has achieved savings and they are happy with how these are reported to the Council of the Future Board.
However, it says there is a "lack of transparency as this information has not been published externally".
Despite the success of the projects, other cuts to department budgets and a 15.6 per cent rise in council tax, the council still faces a £58.5 million funding gap between 2025/26 and 2029/30.
According to the report, "the financial challenge remains significant and the council will need to be ambitious and radical to continue to respond to this challenge".
In particular, it says much more work must be done in partnership with other organisations to achieve transformation and says that this has been "very limited to date".
The Best Value report states: "The council therefore needs to be more ambitious and look at alternative ways to make more radical changes and generate further savings required to address the financial challenge."
But while the report says the COTF programme is "well resourced and frequently monitored", it highlights how difficult it has been to make significant changes.
In the 2025/26 budget, £10 million of recurring savings include savings from the Strategic Property Review and the closure of Blackness Primary School.
But a proposal to radically change school hours in Falkirk - which would have cut time in the classroom for pupils - was rejected by councillors after an outcry by parents.
Following on from that, February's budget paper included seven savings that were hastily introduced to help the council bridge its budget gap.
But of the cuts totalling £1.2 million to be considered, just one was approved by members, amounting to £0.06 million, with councillors complaining about the lack of consultation and feeling that they did not have enough information about the impact the cuts would have on communities.
Auditor Pauline Gillen told members that Audit Scotland recognised the difficulty councils, including Falkirk, are facing.
She said: "Falkirk seems to be in a similar position to other councils, recognising difficulty in identifying projects and programmes that are truly transformational, rather than just looking for simple financial efficiencies."
What is needed, she said, is projects that "shift the dial" and transform service delivery to make longer term savings.
But she admitted that it was difficult for councils to deliver radical projects while maintaining day to day services.
The Best Value report also highlighted uneven engagement with communities, noting: "The council engages with communities but it is not always clear how the engagement has influenced changes to service design."
The risk, the report says, is that the council "does not identify and mitigate against potentially negative impacts of its transformational activities on communities".
It recommends that: "The council should ensure community engagement is consistently factored into its decision-making processes where appropriate and should clearly document how engagement with communities has informed changes to services."
Falkirk Council's chief executive, Kenneth Lawrie, accepted the recommendations and said that a new Community Engagement strategy would help ensure consistency.
But he said there had been successes, in particular, with the council's Strategic Property Review, where he said the council has made "a really radical change" that has "engaged with communities and produced significant financial savings".
Several halls and facilities - including Polmont Snowsport Centre, Grangemouth Stadium and several community halls - are now in community ownership.
But the review also led to the controversial closure of Bo'ness Recreation Centre which was bitterly opposed by many in the community, despite the promise of new facilities being built in a new wing of Bo'ness Academy.
Mr Lawrie acknowledged there is much more to do to get to financial stability and he said officers considered the report to be "fair and balanced".
