Council’s ‘stricter’ controls for saving money

Nottinghamshire County Council has introduced new, stricter arrangements for managing vacant posts.

Budget forecasts show that the county council will need to save in the region of £133m over the next three years.

In response to the financial challenges facing the authority, the council has, as a priority, reviewed the way it manages vacancies.

This “Vacancy Control” process will ensure that robust and consistent consideration is given by managers across the whole council to the filling of any vacant posts.

The revised arrangements require it to be decided if a vacancy should be filled in the first instance. If a post is essential, normally it will only be advertised on a temporary, fixed-term basis. In the first instance, posts released for recruitment will only be available internally to existing staff, with priority given to those identified as needing to seek redeployment.

The new process will provide a framework for structured workforce planning to assist the council in managing and reducing the need for future staffing reductions as a result of budget savings. This will, in turn, minimise both the number and cost of redundancies arising and the impact on service delivery.

The new vacancy control measures were introduced on 3 June.

Counc Alan Rhodes, Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “We have stopped short of implementing a complete, blanket recruitment freeze because we recognise there may be a need to recruit to essential posts, in order to maintain frontline service delivery.

“Due to on-going reductions in central Government’s funding, the county council remains in a very challenging financial position, with a predicted £133m in savings required in the next three years.

“We are determined that any future post reductions can be proactively planned and achieved as fairly as possible for our workforce, reducing the need for any further redundancies as far as we can, while protecting frontline services to the most vulnerable.”

All current vacancies and information on working for Nottinghamshire County Council is available on the website at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/jobs