IDENTIFYING savings and planning for the issues ahead are part of the day job. We don't want to get caught out and we don't like surprises.
But – like all councils across the country – we are facing up to some really tough financial choices. They can't be left for another day.
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/tough-decisions-come-save-pound-125m/…
Over the next five years, the council needs to reduce its spending by £125m – that's on top of the £45m it's already saved since 2010.
More than 2,000 jobs will go, largely through voluntary redundancy, early retirement and vacancy control.
We are doing our best to protect front-line services and we are constantly looking for better and cheaper ways of working.
We're cutting out waste, selling off surplus buildings and land, working more efficiently and continuing to put a stop to red tape.
And we're cutting significantly more from our back-office budgets, too.
Our policy is to cut costs and not services as far as we are able.
Just like people at home, we have to live within our means. We can't spend what we can't afford. And, because we know times are hard for everyone, we've frozen our share of council tax for the last two years as we don't want to add to already hard-pressed household budgets.
We've had to take some tough decisions about where to reduce our spending and there are more to come.
Many people – including the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government – are calling on councils to protect services by spending their cash reserves.
But Derbyshire County Council is not sitting on a vast pot of money.
Yes, we have cash put by. Some of it is not ours and belongs to our schools. The rest is earmarked to meet the cost of expensive bills such as insurance excesses, equal pay liabilities and redundancy costs.
We have just £30 million available for emergencies – the amount recommended as good accounting practice. It may sound a lot but it would keep the council going for just 15 days.
As well as the revenue budget, which pays for day-to-day running costs, the council borrows money for new schools, adult care centres, road schemes and other major developments.
As reported in the Derby Telegraph, the council pays out £27 million in interest payments.
Some £21m of that is on loans totalling £389 million.
A further £6m is paid in interest on Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes but the council receives a special grant from the Government to meet all of this cost.
Our debt is like a mortgage is to homeowners.
It is a lot of money but we are a billion-pound-plus organisation and our repayments are around just 3.5% of our total spending.
Our policy is to repay the debt – inherited from the previous administration – as fast as possible and not increase our level of borrowing.
It's also worth noting our assets are valued at £1,630 million – four times what we owe.
The fact is, if we didn't borrow the money, local people wouldn't be enjoying the benefits of the council's investment in new schools, roads and other developments.
I believe we are managing our shrinking budget well but local people don't have to take our word for it.
Our external auditors – who have scrutinised our accounts – confirm we've put in place "proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources".
We're working hard on a new budget for the coming financial year – one that isn't going to make local people dig deeper into their pockets.
In the meantime, please be assured that we will continue to keep a tight grip on our spending, offer good value for money and deliver services fairly across the county.
Local people have until December 21 to see how difficult it is to balance the council's books by visiting www.derbyshire.gov.uk/budget and having a go at setting it themselves.
The online budget calculator shows how your decisions on one service will impact on another.
The results of your choices will be taken into account by the council before it sets its budget in February.
FINANCE FACTS AND FIGURES
Derbyshire County Council's annual budget is £1,200 million – 23% comes from council tax
It serves a population of around 764,000 people
It spends an average of £2m each working day – excluding schools
It employs 36,000 staff, including school (20,000 full-time equivalent)
It has 419 schools, with 108,000 pupils, taught by 7,000 teachers
It provides foster homes for almost 700 children and has 54 children's centres
It makes 27,000 home care visits each week
It looks after around 3,000 miles of roads, 2,600 miles of pavements, 87,000 street lights and, in bad weather, grits 1,555 miles of roads
It runs 45 libraries and 11 mobiles and stocks almost a million books including eBooks
It provides nine household waste recycling centres.
It has frozen council tax for two years and its average council tax bill is around £100 cheaper per household than in most other counties.
Where the council's money comes from
£588.7m – Government grant
£280.4m – council tax
£192.9m – business rates
£73m – sales, fees, charges
£60m – income/funding for specific projects
£5m – interest received
Total: £1,200 million
Where the money goes
The total spending on services for every Derbyshire resident in 2012/13 equals £696, excluding schools
This year, from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013, the county council is spending per resident:
£176 on children (£183 last year)
£268 on adult care (£269)
£51 on highways (£56)
£26 on public transport (£27)
£3 on planning (£3)
£43 on refuse disposal (£40)
£3 on trading standards (£3)
£14 on cultural and community services (£15)
£81 on other services (£78)
£3 on contingency (£1)
£8 on internal financing and interest receipts (£7)
£20 on capital accounting adjustments (£20).
Debt
The council has assets valued at £1,669 million – including loans to other authorities, schools, roads, libraries, children's centres, country parks, vehicles, plant and equipment.
It has borrowed £389 million – almost all from the Government – to pay for new schools, roads, libraries and adult care homes and centres.
It costs £21 million a year in interest – 1.8% of the council's total spending.
Loans vary in length but average 25 years and interest rates average 5.1%.
A further £6 million interest is paid on Private Finance Initiatives but this is paid with a special grant from the Government.
The council aims to take on less new debt each year so that it can reduce its outstanding debt.