Glasgow feels pain in hardest ever budget

THE scale of the £90 million-plus cuts facing Glasgow in the next two years is unveiled today in what the council’s leadership describe as “the hardest budget we have ever faced”.

Despite propping up most deprivation and school league tables, a massive £33.5m worth of possible cuts and savings have been identified within the education budget, with the council warning that the attack on core services could be worse depending on how much it receives from the Scottish Government next month.

However, with education being the council’s biggest spender, the department’s cuts are actually proportionately smaller than most other sectors.

The proposals have also raised the spectre of industrial action, with trade unions expressing concern that accelerating the pace of voluntary lay-offs could lead to compulsory redundancies.

The £2.5m breakfast service could be scrapped altogether from schools with low uptake; the Early Years Service and study centres spearheaded by Celtic and Rangers are under review; while a policy maximum class sizes of 20 for English and maths could be abandoned.

Cuts to support staff for children with additional learning needs and foreign language assistants are likely, while Glasgow is seeking to increase class time for teachers by an hour a week to save £6m, a move that will require national negotiations to deliver.

Despite the savage attack on education, the local authority insists that, proportionately, it has been protected as it will make up 24% of the cuts going forward, despite consuming one third of the overall budget.

Elsewhere, a saving of £13m has been earmarked through the controversial plan to have people with learning and physical disabilities arrange their own care budgets, while cuts to the voluntary sector are approaching £3m. Charities will be hit again through increasing the rent of properties leased from the council, while the entire £400,000 grant to VisitScotland is being axed.

Staff at Glasgow Life, the arms-length agency running civic museums, libraries and leisure centres, face an overhaul of their working arrangements just as a year-long dispute over terms and conditions appeared to be reaching an agreement, while prices at sports facilities face a hike.

The new transport museum and velodrome under construction in the East End will have to reduce running costs by about £4m.

Crucially, the council has claimed that although a number of controversial cuts proposals have been left off the table for now, they could re-emerge if it gets a cut from the Government of more than the 2.6% announced last week.

In this bracket falls the future of nurture classes, raising the cost of school meals, increasing class sizes and scrapping the Active Kids programme.

Ministers announce the settlements to individual authorities on December 8 and councillors will take a final decision on the budget early in the New Year.

Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson said: “This is the hardest budget we have ever faced. All I am asking the Scottish Government to do is be fair to Glasgow. They have promised a 2.6% cut for local government. They better not cut Glasgow’s money by a penny more than that. Today we are announcing a package of cuts which go as far as is possible towards protecting the administration’s priorities.

“Glasgow had the lowest increases in budgets when the Scottish Government had money to spend. They must not now hit the city with the biggest cuts.”

Ken Wimbor, of Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, said: “Across the country 3500 teaching jobs have already been lost. What we face is little more than a kick in the teeth because we have a number of proposals here which seek to hit the teaching profession and education particularly hard.”

City faces tough choices over savings

Glasgow City Council today publishes details of budget proposals aimed at cutting £45 million in the next financial year, rising to £90.4m by 2012/2013.

Education and social work, the two biggest spenders, take the lion’s share of the pain with cuts options of £33.5m and £26.5m respectively across the next two years.

Around 100 areas for cuts and savings have been identified.

And although some appear unpalatable, the authority has refused to rule them out until it sees how much it will receive from the Scottish Government next month.

The options include:

    * Acceleration of Workforce Planning Savings – Staff who have an agreed date to leave through early retirement will be given the option to leave at an earlier date, saving £5m across two years.
    * Review of terms and conditions – Subject to talks with the trade unions, savings will be made by altering staff terms and conditions. Being explored further.
    * Further review of grants to external projects – £2.7m by 2013.
    * Removal of Support to VisitScotland. £400,000.
    * Review of Breakfast Provision in primary schools. Being explored further.
    * Remove mobile creche facilities in Drumchapel, Greater Govan and Garnethill. £400,000.
    * Withdraw foreign language assistants from schools. £300,000.
    * Introduction of a common timetable for Highers and Advanced Highers across all 29 secondary schools. £650,000.
    * A review of services for children with additional support needs across the city. £700,000-plus.
    * Increase class contact time by one hour per week to 23.5 hours per week, to be implemented from August 2011 and in line with current proposal from Cosla. £6m.
    * No teacher pay award from April 2011. £4.8m over two years.
    * Removing all salary conservation for teachers. £2.4m
    * A standardised rate of pay for all supply teachers. £1.3m
    * All school-based staff to receive term-time rather than 52-week contracts. £300,000.
    * Bus Lane Camera Enforcement. £250,000.
    * Development of a ‘more flexible workforce’ that can operate across all Glasgow Life facilities/venues. £2.4m
    * Reduction in Glasgow Community Safety Services staff by 36 full-time posts.
    * The roll out of personalisation of care for 1800 services users with learning disabilities, 900 with physical disability, 3000 with children’s disability and 1950 with mental health services to save £13m.
    * A reduction in the number of care home placements. £3.5m
    * Amendments to terms and conditions of Cordia employees. £3m.