We are determined to make a difference 
Renfrewshire Council Plan 2008 - 2012 Renfrewshire’s budget prioritises support for young and elderly
Home > Services > Council and government > Council information, performance and statistics > News - release archive
The first council in Scotland to set its 2010-2011 budget has prioritised services for young and elderly people.
Extra spending on foster care and money to help elderly people move from hospital into care homes are among the highlights of Renfrewshire Council's programme.
Renfrewshire's £420million revenue budget and £123million three year capital programme also features:
- the latest phase of a multi-million pound investment in education, community and leisure facilities
- measures to combat the impact of the economic downturn
- progress on reducing class sizes ensuring that 30% of Primary 1 to 3 pupils will be in classes of less than 18
- free school meals service being rolled out to all P1 to P3 pupils at schools in the most deprived areas
- significant reductions in management costs starting with a £150,000 reduction in 2010-11 alone
- a council tax freeze, and
- a freeze on community alarm charges.
Renfrewshire Council Leader Derek Mackay said "The continued council tax freeze will particularly help those on fixed incomes. Since our first council tax freeze in 2007/08, each Band D-rated average household has had a total saving of £228 over three years."
"Although the financial environment in which we live has changed, our ambitions for Renfrewshire have not."
"Like all other public organisations, this council has to deal with a very difficult financial situation which will present us with major challenges for years to come. However, we are still delivering unprecedented investment in Renfrewshire's communities. And we have prioritised our spending to protect frontline services and services for young and elderly people."
An extra £2.5m is being spent on additional foster care. Renfrewshire now has over 700 young people each year receiving care and support from the council. Of those, over 300 require residential or foster care and that is happening at a younger age and for longer periods.
Councillor Mackay added: "By increasing the numbers of Renfrewshire's own foster carers, we will help young people and families in difficulty and lessen the need for young people to stay in residential units."
To help elderly people, the charge for the community alarm service has been frozen for the second year. The Renfrewshire Community Alarm service helps over 3,000, mainly elderly, people continue to live at home through access to on call staff and the use of sensor technology in people’s homes.
£312,000 which previously funded a senior citizens' voucher scheme is being redeployed to boost the number of older people able to move out of hospital and into care homes, taking the funding available for that to £356,000.
"We are targeting our resources at those in greatest need," said Councillor Mackay. "Moving into a care home protects those no longer able to live independently in the community.
"This isn't a budget saving. The money has been ringfenced to help elderly people. It makes sense to target help to those who need it most."
Continuing the council's support for vulnerable people, an extra £300,000 will be spent on transport for children with special needs. An additional £159,000 will help supported living for adults with particular needs.
"Once again we have made proportionately less savings from education than any other department," added Councillor Mackay. "Even though education has by far the biggest share of the council budget, it has taken half - 0.7% compared to 1.4% - of the average savings made in council departments.
"Indeed, because of further investment in education, the budgeted expenditure for education is set to remain unchanged at £160.7m per year. And the extra support for key areas of social work means that budgeted expenditure for social work in 2010-11 is £1.3m up on the current year."
"We will make tremendous progress in class sizes and free school meals with over £1.49 million investment. And we aim to get over 30% of P1-P3 school pupils in class sizes of 18 or fewer and roll out free school meals to all P1 to P3 pupils in schools in the most deprived communities."
"Combating the impact of the recession is also a major priority. Along with our community planning partners we are putting together a package to extend a number of debt advice services, support for community-based financial advice and out of hours advice services for a further year."
"The Renfrewshire Workforce Plus programme, involving the council and other agencies, will spend £4.5 million in 2010-2011 and continue its programme of aiming to bring over 3,000 people into employment, education or training and helping local firms to recruit employees and develop their business.
"It's worth pointing out that Renfrewshire Council’s £1/4billion investment programme in community, leisure and education facilities and the council housing modernisation programme will also provide employment opportunities."
Among the highlights of the investment programme are further work on Paisley, Johnstone and Renfrew town centres; pre 5 and primary education facilities in Renfrew; the construction of a new £33m high school in Erskine; and the completion of the £8m North Renfrew Flood Mitigation scheme.
£1.5m will be invested to take forward an energy efficiency programme in council buildings which will save money and help the environment.
The popular and successful Clean Renfrewshire programme will continue.
"The budget delivers investment, care and opportunity for people and communities across Renfrewshire," said Councillor Mackay.
"It also marks a milestone in how we approach the delivery of council and public services in Renfrewshire."
"As a council, we are taking forward a more strategic approach to the way we operate within the council and with partner organisations so that we maximise and target resources."
"Part of that process involves making significant reductions in management costs over three years and that will begin with a £150,000 reduction in 2010-2011.
£14,000 worth of reductions will also be made in civic costs, such as councillors' expenses and civic functions.
"People know that councils won't be able to go on providing exactly the same services in exactly the same way as before. What matters is that we make the best use of our resources and target those to services and people which require them most."
"Over the last few years, we have had to take tough decisions, which had we avoided would have meant significant budget difficulties for the council and its services. We'll see Renfrewshire through these challenging times.
"This budget represents not only a major investment in Renfrewshire's future. It's also a genuine attempt to address the public service and financial issues we face in a responsible, strategic and sustainable way."
Renfrewshire's council tax level 2010/2011
- Band A - £776.46
- Band B - £905.87
- Band C - £1,035.28
- Band D - £1,164.69
- Band E - £1,423.51
- Band F - £1,682.33
- Band G - £1,941.15
- Band H - £2,329.38
Press release: Monday 18 January 2010
