by Trevor Bevins, Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Spending of more than £12million has been agreed to transform the way Dorset Council works in the future – largely through the use of technology.
Most of that money will come from the council’s reserves.
Almost £8million will be spent in the next six months, the remaining £4.5m in the next financial year.
If all goes to plan it will see more automation in the council’s ‘customer hub’ and will also update and improve systems for finance, HR, payroll and procurement – replacing a system which will no longer be supported beyond 2027.
Thursday evening’s Cabinet meeting heard that the changes were largely going to plan, including more than 300 planned redundancies at a cost of around £2.5million as a result of the reorganisation.
Said Cabinet member for finance, Chickerell councillor Simon Clifford: “I have absolute confidence the benefits will be delivered… this is an exciting programme, it’s a very hard and challenging programme; it’s extremely difficult and complex. It will result in a better council for our staff, a better council for our residents and a sustainable and modernised council.”
He said that year on year projected savings from the programme of £18.8million by 2028 was the target – which he described as not a ceiling figure, but one which could be bettered.
The Cabinet meeting heard that what was described as “the investment envelope” for transformation work had gone down from £48m to £34m, representing better value for money than earlier estimates.
Chief Executive Dr Catherine Howe told councillors that the authority would be working to become more reliant on its own staff as the transformation programme moved forward, rather than on highly paid outside experts.
Cllr Ben Wilson who is leading on the programme said that staff and councillors were learning as the programme progressed, with occasional changes or slight delays.
“The model is changing as we are learning but ultimately the direction remains the same,” he said… “We will increase our capabilities and lessen third party investment as we go through the next year.”
Cllr Simon Clifford, middle, and Cllr Ben Wilson, front