A massive restructuring of Aberdeen City Council has been narrowly approved – but council bosses would not rule out any front-line job cuts in the future.
The local authority is facing cuts of around £126million in the next five years.
Chief executive Angela Scott yesterday pleaded with councillors to back her new “target operating model” – warning budgets could be “salami sliced” if the shake-up was not approved.
The changes, which will save more than £280,000 per annum, will move the council to a more corporate model, with the directorates replaced by directors of “customer”, “commissioning”, “operations” and “resource management”.
But the opposition SNP and Liberal Democrat groups rounded on the plan, saying it could lead to a “democratic deficit” with powers stripped away from elected members and handed to civil servants.
They also said the report presented did not give detail of how the £125million would be saved and left the workforce “in the dark”.
Speaking to the report, Ms Scott answered questions from councillors on the plans for the future of the organisation with many savings expected to be made through moving services to new technology.
She warned without implementing the model, it would be difficult to balance the budget and that services could have to be stopped entirely.
After a series of questions on whether there would be staff cuts, she said: “We are committed to a fiscally sustainable council now and in the future.
“Bluntly, we need to have a reduced workforce and we are shrinking the management side of that as well.
“The council has a no compulsory redundancy policy… But I know this will be a stressful period for staff as we try to figure out the next steps.
“I can’t comment on the head count. There isn’t the head count now to cope with the level of service we are committed to.
“We can do a salami slice budget if that’s what (members) want … But some of the areas we work in need fundamental reform.”
Council head of finance Steve Whyte added: “If we continue as we are then we are looking at stopping services and only keeping what is statutory.
“We are hopeful that if the model is approved today we can make significant inroads.”
The council has long had a policy of not sacking workers, but has been carrying out a large-scale voluntary redundancy programme which has shed 170 staff.
Making his motion to reject the proposals, SNP group leader Stephen Flynn said: “We have more than 8,000 staff waiting on tenterhooks to find out their future.
“We know there will be job losses but we don’t know how many. We can’t approve this with this level of detail.”
Liberal Democrat Martin Greig added: “There is a real chance here that we will end up with turmoil among staff and more inefficiency.”
But council co-leader Douglas Lumsden said the current systems used an “outdated approach”. He added: “There is an unprecedented need for change from the council. We need to work towards savings that will help us prosper now and into the future.”
Aberdeen City Council chief executive Angela Scott said: “Over the last 12 months, we have repeatedly stressed the need for this organisation to change in order to meet the many challenges we face.
“While there are many challenges, there are also many opportunities to embrace a modern way of working and to focus on outcomes that meet the needs of our customers as well as the wider economic region.
“Our duty as public servants is to ensure we can protect the people and place of Aberdeen from harm and to enable people to prosper.
“The framework is the first milestone on our journey of transformation and sets out a vision which we will now strive to achieve.
“This new operating model will ensure that our customers receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place through one single function. It will remove time-consuming working practices thereby releasing time for our staff to care for our customers. And it will ensure the financial sustainability of the council.
“Services will be commissioned in a more formal way ensuring transparency of the outcomes we are seeking to contribute to, thereby ensuring the city council’s contribution to the Community Planning Partnership Local Outcome Improvement Plan.”