COUNCIL staff in Dorset may be facing uncertainty as millions of pounds in ‘transformational savings’ are sought out across a wide range of budgets.

The ‘whole council change’ being called for could result in many vacancies not being filled and some job losses.

For customers contact with a computer will become more common when calling for help with IT 'self-help' expected to drive much of the savings.

With only 34% believing now that the council provides value for money and just 54% of customers reporting that they trust the council it will be interesting to see if the satisfaction figures improve over the next 4-5 years.

Dorset councillors are being told that they face little choice over making changes if the council is to maintain core services with demand on children's and adult social services continuing to rise.

A consultant’s report says that staff will feel uncertain about the changes to the way they work with many needing to re-train and adopt new attitudes and behaviours.

Portfolio holder for transformation and change Cllr Ben Wilson (South East Purbeck), who has just taken on the role after the resignation of the previous post-holder, says the council will need to accelerate its transformation programme to achieve savings as quickly as possible, with a firm plan expected in January.

He said it will be based around improving services, delivering value for money and effectiveness and being financial resilient and sustainable.

Consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers, brought in for a £520,000 fee, say the council ought to be aiming for savings of between £8.6 and £29.2million each year from changing services and service delivery.

Chalk Valleys councillor Jill Haynes (Con) who had been involved in budget savings under the previous, Tory, administration, warned that for two years the council had struggled “to get traction” on changes: “there was always something else to do”, she said.

She questioned the use of consultants: “Why are we are not taking advantage of the very good people we have in the council who are capable of making these changes… this has stalled for a year and I’m concerned it could stall for another year. We need to see timelines to hold people to account,” she told a Cabinet meeting.

A report to the meeting spoke of “a relentless focus on cost-efficiency ensuring that every decision and action contributes to delivering good services at a reduced cost”.

Hinting at the technology yet to be introduced, the report says: “ Through simple, well-designed, and easy-to-access services, we will drive sustainable change. This approach will enable our customers, who are able, to self-serve at a time and place convenient to them, while we maintain our commitment to supporting our most vulnerable, ensuring that assistance is available when they need it most.”

“Our ambition is to create a streamlined, digital, and unified customer and employee experience that delivers better outcomes at a lower cost, ensuring we can meet our financial sustainability challenge.”

Councillors have already been told that, despite planned savings of £34million already underway, the authority will need to reduce service delivery costs by £50.8 million by 2028/29.

On the potential loss of jobs the report concludes: “Our transformation will reshape the council’s structure, size, and role... We aim to minimise redundancies through vacancy management, natural turnover, redeployment, and skill development, but we must also prepare for unavoidable redundancies. The full business case will include a proposed capital fund for these costs.”

The proposed changes will also have a knock-on effect for those who provide goods and services to the council with the report saying the authority should aim for a “reduction in third party spend of between £1.1m and £5.7million.”