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Key items for discussion with your teams this week

Friday 20 October 2023.

Guidance for budget holders on essential spending

During September, executive directors agreed with the director of finance that spending should be restricted to essential items only and savings found against budgets wherever possible to address a projected overspend of £15million against directorate budgets in the current year. 

Due to the diversity of the council’s services, we cannot provide an absolute definition of essential / non-essential spending that can be applied to all of these different services. 

However, we have identified some guiding principles and questions that budget holders should consider when making spending decisions, as follows: 

• What will the spending achieve? Does it impact on the delivery of priority service outcomes? Has the relative important of those service outcomes been considered across the directorate and agreed by the executive director? 
• Does the spend represent value for money? Is it the cheapest way to achieve the desired outcomes? Does it accord with local authorities’ Duty of Best Value? 
• Is the spend necessary for the council to fulfil its statutory duties to the recognised minimum standard? 
• What are the risks if the money is not spent? Would it compromise priority outcomes or statutory duties? Could it result in legal liabilities? Would it breach contractual commitments? 
• What is the potential reputational impact of the spending decision? Would you be comfortable in justifying it as essential in the public domain? 
• Is the spending necessary to develop or maintain opportunities for cost savings or income generation? 
• Can the spend be deferred? If so, what are the consequences? 
• Will a reduction to spending result in additional costs for other service areas within the council or for partner organisations? If so, have they been consulted? 
• Will a reduction to spending have negative impact on the council’s regulatory compliance, e.g. Health & Safety at Work Act, Public Sector Equality Duty. If so, can this be sufficiently mitigated? 

Overall, it is important that you review your operations and give clear messages to your staff on what action you are taking to achieve budget savings. The way services are delivered may need to change to deliver savings, including taking opportunities to use cheaper suppliers, reducing quality where outcomes can still be achieved to a safe and acceptable standard, and for staff to participate remotely where possible rather than incur travel costs. 

Total Pay and Reward update

Our Total Pay and Reward individual illustrations are now being created. These will be posted out to home addresses on Friday 3 November and should arrive with all staff by Thursday 9 November.

There is more information about this in The Loop (emailed out 18/10/23) and in the printed loop for non-networked staff.

We are currently working on an intranet page which will launch at the same time as the illustrations go out, with frequently asked questions and an line by line explanation of the illustration. 

Please can you remind all staff to ensure their home addresses are up-to-date on iTrent.

If you have staff who are non-networked please can you share the animation below with them which was in The Loop and explains the illustration and the next steps.

Devolution update

On Monday, 9 November, we held a Facebook Live session for residents to hear about devolution and have their questions answered. Councillor Anne Handley, leader of the council, and cabinet member Councillor Leo Hammond, answered a number of questions on a range of devolution topics.

This event followed Teams events for staff, councillors and town and parish councillors, all of which were well attended. 

Our devolution deal is currently being drafted. When we reach the next stage, we will be running further Teams meetings and information sessions.

Remind your staff not to miss out on £350 this autumn

Do you have staff earning less than £33,000? If so, they could get £350 to help face soaring bills this autumn.

The government's Household Support Fund has increased. Now, anyone with a household income below £33,000 (up from £31,000) or (£28,000 for a single person, up from £26,000), could be eligible to apply.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council has been awarded £4.1m in this latest round of funding. And we don’t want eligible staff to miss out. So, we’re urging managers to cascade this information to anyone who may qualify.

Tell your staff to hurry, though, because applications close on Tuesday, 31 October.

Our cost-of-living intranet page has further advice on how to ease financial pressures.

Free suicide prevention training in East Riding open to staff

Public health would like to raise awareness of the following training opportunity. 

On behalf of the council, UK charity PAPYRUS (Prevention of Young Suicide) is delivering free training sessions for those living or working in East Riding this autumn. 

Raising awareness for colleagues in support of World Menopause Day

As part of an ongoing awareness month and in light of World Menopause Day, which was on Wednesday, 18 October, the council is keen to highlight opportunities for all staff to engage and build their understanding of menopause.  

Council staff are able to book on regular free online menopause awareness sessions. The next one, Understanding the Menopause, takes place on Thursday, 9 November, via MS Teams. Further dates can be found on the staff course booking system.

Throughout October and November, the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership are hosting a range of menopause-themed sessions, which you may also find useful. Simply book via the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Course Booking System.

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For more information on any of the items included within this email, please contact internalcomms@eastriding.gov.uk