A NUMBER of staffing changes are being planned by the council as part of its efforts to make savings in the coming year. 

Draft budget papers published by Bracknell Forest Council revealed plans for departmental restructures, the deletion of vacant posts, position replacements and more. 

READ MORE: How you can have your say on Bracknell Forest's budget plans

Saving proposals include: 

  • Chief Executive’s Office – removal of personal assistant staffing budget resulting from 2 PAs moving onto part-time hours (£32,000 saving)
  • The deletion of the Revenues Billing Manager post, to be replaced with a Senior Revenues Assistant post at a lower grade (£14,000 saving)
  • The creation of a part-time Economic Development Project officer post, following the reconfiguration of the Town Centre Regeneration Manager post and Economic Development Manager post. (£29,000 saving)
  • The replacement of an Urban Traffic Management Control (UTMC) Engineer post replaced with an apprentice (£25,000 saving)
  • The deletion of a Planning Assistant post. (£29,000 saving)
  • The deletion of two vacant posts in ICT (£71,000 saving)
  • The deletion of two vacant posts in Libraries (£47,000 saving)
  • Staffing restructure in construction and maintenance to remove a vacant post and to create a new post at a lower grade (£39,000 saving)

A spokesperson for Bracknell Forest Council explained why the savings were being proposed. 

They said: “The 2021/22 budget proposals include various suggestions to reduce staffing costs by changing structures as posts have become vacant, but this year do not include any redundancies.

“Like all local authorities, we need to make savings each year to balance the additional cost pressures we face to deliver services.  

READ MORE: Bracknell Forest Council planning to make £3.3 million of savings next year

“With a large part of the council’s costs being staff-related, inevitably some of these savings may impact on posts.”

The savings come against plans to spend on staffing in some areas, however. 

This includes: 

  • The creation of a senior auditor post (£46,000 spend)
  • The creation of a quality assurance officer post (£40,000)
  • BFC could fork out on a portion of a £330,000 cost for three staff supporting the Family Safeguarding Model, but “continuation of funding for relevant posts will need careful consideration if an agreement in resourcing is not achieved with partners”). 

These changes were revealed as part of draft budget proposals published in December.

The papers showed Bracknell Forest Council bosses are planning to spend £89.4 million on their revenue budget in the 2021/2022 financial year. 

With £83.2 million in income expected for this period, the authority revealed a potential funding gap of £6.2 million. 

READ MORE: Bracknell Forest Council plans commercial depot demolition as part of budget proposals

However, this projection may change in the coming weeks following December’s disclosure of the government’s provisional local government finance settlement, which outlines how cash will be distributed to councils. 

When asked about the impact of this settlement, the BFC spokesperson added: “The full implications of the finance settlement are still being assessed, but at this stage, it appears that the settlement is slightly more generous overall than expected.  

“This is due to the allocation of additional funding for Covid-19 being based on a different methodology than was indicated by Government officials at the end of November, which has benefited Bracknell Forest.

“Work is ongoing to assess whether this will be offset by higher service costs due to the impact of the new national lockdown.”

Residents can have their say on the budget plans by heading to the council’s consultation page, which can be found here.

The consultation closes on Wednesday, January 27. Following this, revised budget plans will be published and voted on by the council in February.