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EMBARGOED UNTIL 0001 HOURS ON MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY, 2016
Local Government Benchmarking Framework 2014-15 Press Release
The Local Government Benchmarking Framework now has five years data which allows key trends across the period to be identified. Across this period, local government grants have reduced in real terms which means councils have had to reduce their spending in real terms. Spending has been reduced by over 5% across all service areas (excluding social care), and, in some cases, services have seen reductions of 15% to 27%.
The data in this report shows that councils have protected priority areas such as education and social care, and have actively shifted resources to accommodate the care and support needs of an ageing population. Spend on social care has seen a 2.7% cash increase during this period.
The education budget has also been protected to some extent (cash reduction of 0.4%), but what is striking is the additional 10,000 pre-school places and 20,000 primary places delivered within this budget. At the same time, all the available measures of educational outcome have improved, including the performance of children from the most deprived areas of Scotland.
This has meant that some services have not been able to be prioritised and have faced budget reductions. But despite these budget reductions, across these areas we are seeing spectacular performance, e.g. in Culture & Leisure, despite a 15% real cut in council spending, attendances at leisure facilities, libraries and museums grew by more than 20% and the cost to councils per attendance came down by 30%.
Commenting on the data COSLA President Councillor David O'Neill said: "I think the benchmarking framework issued today shows a couple of things. Firstly the fact that we now have five years worth of data to use means that we can see meaningful and useful trends emerging.
"Secondly these trends show that even at a time of reducing resource Councils have continued to deliver as best they can and have protected communities to the very best of their ability. Sadly the latest cut looks like being a step too far however as always we will continue to do our very best for the communities we are elected to represent."
The national overview report and benchmarking data are available at the LGBF website:
http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/benchmarking/index.html
For further details, please contact:
Bernadette Malone
Chair of Local Government Benchmarking Board and Chief Executive of Perth & Kinross Council
Tel: 01738 475009
Bmalone@pkc.gov.uk
Emily Lynch
Programme Manager - Local Government Benchmarking Framework, Improvement Service
Emily.Lynch@improvementservice.org.uk
07747 711 310
David J Kennedy
Head of Media and Communications
COSLA, Verity House, 19 Haymarket Yards, Edinburgh EH12 5BH
t: 0131 474 9205
m: 07788 452710
e: davidk@cosla.gov.uk
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