Efficiency Statement
We are committed to constantly achieving efficiency savings in the cost of delivering services to citizens; a commitment that has featured as a formal strand of the Council’s financial strategy since 2005/06—although Services achieved efficiency savings well before that time. The recent introduction of the Scottish Government’s Efficient Government Agenda has strengthened the drive to achieve savings through efficiency and we are fully committed to supporting this drive right across the public sector.
Efficiency within the Scottish Government’s Efficient Government Agenda is defined as:
- Achieving the same or higher level of output on a lower input (cashable); or
- Achieving a higher level of output on the same input (non-cashable).
Our principal method of identifying and ensuring efficiency savings is through the annual budget process, whereby each Service is set (and has met) annual efficiency targets to reduce the cost of delivering services to citizens. For 2005/06 to 2007/08, these efficiency savings targets total £5.4m. One of the mechanisms we use to improve our services is our performance management and monitoring process, Stirling Stat—this process has allowed us to identify additional areas where we have achieved ‘greater outputs for the same input,’ or non-cashable efficiency gains.
In 2006/07, the value of cashable efficiency gains was £2,793,000, which is equivalent to 2% of our revenue budget. In addition, we identified sixteen non-cashable efficiency gains.
