What this consultation is about
We’re working hard to balance our books and it’s an all year challenge as we continue to face unprecedented pressures on our budget.
Greater demands on adult social care and services for vulnerable children, reduced Government grants, inflation and meeting the National Living Wage all present challenges.
Over the next five years, we must make a further £70m of savings which will take the total we've saved between 2010-2022 to £327m.
For the coming year, the savings target is forecast to be up to £18.5m. Some, but not all of the areas where we’ll be saving this money, have been identified, subject to consulting with those potentially affected.
We want to make sure the decisions we make when setting next year’s budget are the right ones – and we need your help.
Before next year’s budget is set we want you to tell us which services you’d prioritise when it comes to spending the budget, and which services are less important to you.
As well as looking at the budget as a whole, we also want to know what you think about the level of council tax you pay.
This year we are proposing to increase the council tax by either 3.99% or 4.99%.
A rise of 3.99% would consist of 2% to fund adult care services and the remaining 1.99% could be used to fund other council priorities including children’s services (costing an average council tax payer in a band B property an extra 76p per week/£40 per year).
A rise of 4.99% would consist of 2% to fund adult care services and the remaining 2.99% could be used to help fund other council priorities including children’s services (costing an average council tax payer in a band B property an extra 95p per week/£49 per year).
The proposed 2% rise to fund adult care services is the last year of a three year agreement with Government to increase council tax for this purpose.
You can give us your views by taking our quick survey.
You’ll be asked to prioritise the services and areas of our work that are important to you, and those that are less important, to indicate where you’d spend the budget if you were in charge.
If you took part last year, we’d be interested to hear if your priorities have changed.
We listened to the views you gave last year and they were used to shape our approach to achieving annual savings, which has reduced the cost of management to protect frontline services and prioritised some services over others. We continue to respond to what you have told us and this approach will be key to future savings.
No decisions will be made on our budget until our Cabinet has considered the responses to this consultation, alongside any legal and contractual reasons why we must continue to provide particular services. We will also be looking carefully at how any proposed savings would affect the needs of different groups of people in the community.
Our Cabinet will consider firm budget proposals in January 2019. Further consultation will then be held and Derbyshire residents will again get the chance to have their say about some individual proposals before final decisions are made.
By taking our survey you could win £100 of gift vouchers.
All questionnaires should be returned by Sunday 16 December.
This consultation is now closed. A report was presented to Cabinet 24 January 2019, agenda item 5.