Over the coming five years, the Council will continue to face significant financial pressure with an anticipated reduction of 15 per cent in revenue budget – equating to £32 million over that period.
To improve services to communities, develop ideas for income generation and create efficiencies, a more inclusive approach involving engagement with residents and Council staff throughout the calendar year will get underway next year.
This will build on the Big Conversation which ran in 2018 as a pilot and the Your Stirling: You Decide initiative which is currently taking place.
Inspiring participation
At Thursday's(June 13) meeting of the Finance and Economy Committee, Councillors approved a multiple channel approach to budget planning for 2020/21 and a range of next steps.
Speaking after the Committee, Convener of Finance and Economy, Cllr Margaret Brisley, said: “I am delighted we have approved this new budgeting process which will enable citizens and staff to inform, influence and shape the future of their communities across Stirling and how services are delivered.
“While the Council continues to face financial challenges over the coming years, this process is also an exciting opportunity to inspire people to participate in local democracy and create more active and stronger communities.
“We have learned the lessons from the Big Conversation and this year’s Your Stirling: You Decide initiative, which will help us reach out to citizens in more effective ways, give them more of a direct say in how money is spent and ensure this proves a success.”
The new approach will encompass a range of elements. These include:
- A channel for residents to engage with the Council, which will include meetings with community organisations and other local groups such as sports and book clubs
- Maximising digital technology, including an increased use of the Council’s social media channels which has a current reach of over 40,000 people
- Creating a digital platform budget forecasting tool to create a budget scenario for consideration
- Ensuring the creative ideas from staff are supported and progressed
- Transforming the way services are delivered
- Re-visit ideas from previous budget planning exercises
- Engage with other public bodies to research and understand successes elsewhere
- Enhanced scrutiny of how the Council’s budget is spent
- A change in the governance arrangements at the Council to enable clear decision making and scrutiny
Voices will be heard
Vice Convener of the Committee, Cllr Alison Laurie said: “This new budget process is a radical move away from a top-down approach of Priority Based Budgeting. It will strengthen community-led democracy by changing the way the Council communicates, engages and works with residents and staff to deliver vital services.
“We want all our citizens to have their voices heard and this transformative approach will enable them to clearly express what is important to them, including those who have traditionally faced barriers to having their say.”
Among the next steps approved by the Committee are:
- A robust plan and calendar for public engagement to be presented at a future meeting of the Finance and Economy Committee
- Scoping a digital platform for discussion and ideas generation
- Creating a plan for how services are delivered in the future
- Assign a team to visit other public sector bodies to assess ideas and challenge internally.