By Alan Irving

Published at 11:11, Thursday, 09 August 2012

COPELAND Council says putting people first has meant fewer jobs being lost as a result of the government spending cuts.

Staff restructuring, which includes re-deployment to offset redundancies, has so far saved the borough council £481,766.

And while up to 29 employees were initially put at risk of losing their jobs, only 11 people have left the council under the programme. Seven have been through voluntary redundancy, another three compulsorily plus one resignation.

Pat Graham, director for people and places, told The Whitehaven News yesterday: “Careful management and making sure we put our staff first has enabled us to redeploy people into some vacant posts.”

Council leader Elaine Woodburn said: “Any decisions resulting in job losses are difficult to make but the government cuts are giving us very little option. We are doing all we can to protect the services provided to the most vulnerable within Copeland but to do this savings have to be made.

“We are very much a people-led organisation, so when services reduce or stop, people – both employees and customers – will be affected and unfortunately this will continue until we find the £4.5million of savings needed due to the government cuts.”

Copeland Council still has to save £2.5 million over the next three years.

A council statement said: “To find the level of savings necessary we have been restructuring over the last two years. This has included a restructure of the management and senior management team as well as a review of all major service areas.

“Through the process the council has been keen to make the maximum efficiencies with the minimum impact on staff numbers. We have adopted a vacancy management policy wherever possible so that, where appropriate, vacancies have either been filled from within or have been carried as a vacancy.”

Additional restructuring has led to several roles being changed to accommodate council priorities and help it deliver its statutory duties as efficiently as possible. Posts were deleted and created in the process.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk