Derbyshire County Council’s new Reform UK administration which has been put under pressure to outline its progress after only six months in power has compiled a portfolio of its latest achievements with Leader Alan Graves claiming these are set to deliver over £53million in savings.
Cllr Graves hosted an unprecedented meeting on November 10, at County Hall, in Matlock, with an invitation for the media to meet the authority’s Cabinet members who all gave updates and answered questions on their respective portfolios since being elected after a landslide Reform UK victory in May toppled the previous Conservative administration.
The Reform UK-controlled council claims in its Portfolio of Aligned Achievements it is moving in the right direction to deliver over £53m in savings since May.
It claims Adult Social Care is on track to deliver £10.6m of savings, Health and Communities over £2m, highways and transport over £4.2m, Net Zero and Environment just under £1m, Children and Families up to £480,000 alongside a general council efficiency Revenue Budget saving of £35m so far.
Cllr Graves said: “I think it’s the first time ever a political party has been put under such pressure to produce evidence of where we are going and what we are doing, however, here we are.”
He added: “We have not just come in and taken over from where the last party were. We have made significant changes within the council and we are changing the way they are thinking and we think it’s working.”
Cabinet Member for Council Efficiency, Cllr John Lawson, recently said the council’s financial situation is much better after the council had originally been looking at a £46m overspend two years ago, and at something in the region of a £20m overspend last year so facing a current overspend of just over £1.3m is a ‘vast improvement’.
The new Reform UK administration’s 2025-26 Revenue Budget includes savings targets totalling £37.499m with the total savings, against other pressures, forecast to be delivered at £35.077m the vast majority of which, Cllr Lawson says, the council is on target to deliver with other departments developing their own saving proposals.
The Children’s Services and Safeguarding and Education portfolio incurred a significant overspend of £27.333m, according to the councils 2024-25 end-of-year report, with an outturn overspend at the fourth quarter of the last year for Adult Social Care of £21.127m, but Cllr Lawson added this has been offset by the corporate budget’s 33m underspend.
During his presentation, Cllr Lawson said: “My remit was first to understand – after never being in Government before – how we got where we are and it was a serious predicament.”
Cllr Lawson claimed that the previous administration ‘burned through’ tens of millions of pounds worth of reserves over three financial years which he says left the current administration with a minimum amount of reserves.
He said: “The first four months of that six months has been a steep learning curve about how the council operates. One thing we have achieved in the first six months we have recognised we need to transform the engine.
“It’s a real transformation project. We have got an organisation, I would not say in crisis, but it’s under-performing in many respects and we need a significant restructuring of the organisation to make it fit for the future.
“If you think of it like some kind of vehicle like a bus. It’s been around since the ’70s with a few tweaks over the years with some maintenance but essentially it’s the same gearbox that has been there all along.
“We have essentially got to change the gearbox. When the bus was designed for that job at that time – the landscape has changed completely. We really need to change a fundamental fact of the vehicle to make sure it can operate going into the future.”
Cllr Lawson said that to avoid making a ‘pig’s ear’ of any major change the council will be bringing in external expert support with the aim of eventually achieving between £14m to £20m of savings a year.
Under its Business Services, the council aims to continue with the rationalisation of council properties which it claims is so far generating capital receipts of £19,130,500 while plans for the sale of County Hall are still expected to bring in over £50m with a boost for the economy and plans to let space aim to generate nearly £500,000 in extra income.
It also claims to have saved £56,755 in allowances by reducing Cabinet and Civic roles and is boasting an improved sickness absence record, a reduced agency spend, a new apprenticeship strategy, a reduced contracted five-year cost relating to human resources accounting by £2.7m, and new digital changes saving tens of thousands of pounds.
Cllr Stephen Reed, Cabinet Member for Business Services, who stressed it is the first time at Derbyshire County Council when all the members of the newly-elected administration have all been new to the authority, said the council is focussing on rationalising assets and improving democratic services.
Cabinet Member for Children and Families, Cllr Sam Redfern, told how various strategic measures are delivering financial efficiencies and better outcomes for children allowing for more investment in preventative support.
Cllr Redfern said the council has been addressing issues with workforce stability and efficiency and he claims vacancy rates have been reduced for front-line social workers to 21.9per cent saving approximately £80,000 over six months while the number of agency social workers has been reduced with more direct employment improving continuity.
He added that 30 fostering assessments are underway to avoid between £200,000 and £500,000 in future annual costs and that 93.6per cent of foster places have been filled avoiding £100,000 to £200,000 in costs over six months.
Cllr Redfern said a Kinship Care and Special Guardians team has also avoided an estimated £50,000 to £200,000 in costs over six months.
He said he wants to see children given a stable home in a family setting and not having to be placed in care.
Cllr Redfern told the meeting: “The previous administration had to make drastic cuts to the bone and I do not want to get the hacksaw out.”
Cabinet Member for SEND and Education, Cllr Simon Mabbott, explained that £7m of council funding alongside the Department for Education SEND Capital Grant will support specialist places in mainstream schools.
Cllr Mabbott said expanding specialist provision into 20 schools, which are being considered for feasibility, also aims to reduce reliance on expensive independent schools and that Brackenfield Special School has created 70 new places since it opened in September and the Cabinet approved Hunloke Centre will provide 100 more alternative placements.
He added: “Expanding specialist provision into 20 schools is massive and we will reduce reliance on independent schools which is really expensive.”
Cllr Mabbott told the meeting that Education, Health and Care Plans have seen improved coordination reducing unnecessary referrals with an improved attendance strategy and inclusion framework reducing exclusions and suspensions.
He said there has been increased engagement with the Early Years SEN team and an increase in Early Years Inclusion Funding and school-based nursery capital funding has allowed three schools to expand nursery provision.
Cllr Mabbott added that a £647,950 Childcare Expansion Capital Grant has supported ten providers and allowed for 201 new early years places to be created and National Wraparound Childcare Funding has helped create 636 places in six months with 30 schools expanding provision.
He said: “My focus is on the future to see the things I want to do to create better communication with parents and children to let them know every step of the way what is happening.”
Cllr Mabbott added that he is eager to bring in new ideas because he believes that for the last few years the system has been failing but he is determined to turn that around.
Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, Cllr Robert Reaney, told how a number of programmes have been confirmed to boost growth and investment with a feasibility study for A61 improvements and a Market Towns Programme which is being rolled out.
He said Markham Vale enterprise site is expanding and the Staveley Basin site development is expected to generate £90,000 a year.
Cllr Reaney said: “Markham Vale off Junction 29a [of the M1 motorway]. That was put there to replace the old mine and for the first time it employs more people than when the colliery was there.”
A Business Start Up Scheme has also helped 235 potential entrepreneurs, according to Cllr Reaney, and a partnership with the Chesterfield Neighbourhoods Board aims to improve town centre connectivity.
The council has also used £80,000 from EMCCA to launch three investment campaigns and a Youth Employment Support programme has helped 310 young people.
Cllr Carol Wood, Cabinet Member for Net Zero and Environment, said the Derbyshire Heartwood Community Forest Plan has secured £2.2m in Defra funding to deliver 70 hectares of tree planting in 2025/26 and the council supports an East Midlands Combined Counties Retrofit Strategy to upgrade homes to provide warmer and more efficient properties.
She added that hundreds of thousands of pounds has been saved across renegotiated waste disposal contracts and optimised waste delivery points while £290,000 has been invested in capital works to improve household waste recycling centres and plans are underway for free weekly food waste collections while incoming waste from non-residents has been reduced by 4,663 tonnes.
The council is also promoting active and sustainable travel with feasibility studies for new routes to investment zones, prioritising alternative vehicle fuels including hydrogen while continuing to deliver Electric Vehicle charging points with Government-funded programmes and progressing the Little Eaton branch line on the Derby to Ripley Active Travel Route while developing Active travel Masterplans.
Cllr Wood also confirmed the council’s determination to keep supporting communities with improved digital connectivity after the council recently agreed to invest £900,000 of funding to help those in hard-to-reach and rural areas.
Cabinet Member for Potholes, Highways and Transport, Cllr Charlotte Hill, told how the council has invested £1.85m in traffic signal junction upgrades, bus priority measures, resurfacing and improved pedestrian crossings, £143,000 in real-time technology for bus route disruptions, and provided discount travel to 19,600 young people.
It has also offered independent travel advice to 1,700 people through the Bus Champions scheme, according to Cllr Hill, and nearly doubled Demand Responsive Transport passenger numbers compared to last year.
Cllr Hill said there has been an 80 per cent reduction in the pothole repair backlog, a 72per cent year-on-year decrease in insurance claims and the council has implemented a £2.4m pavement resurfacing programme and a £3.6m surface dressing programme while major road resurfacing schemes are planned for next year with support from a £70m investment in the county’s roads.
Cabinet Member for Health and Communities, Cllr Dawn Abbott, told how the Derbyshire Discretionary Fund has saved £1,099,000 by digitising processes and by using the Household Support Fund for payments and £150,000 has been secured by funding all eligible services through the Public Health grant.
She added that the council is continuing to deliver improvements to libraries while continuing to maintain a target saving of £900,000 by 2028/29 by delivering a £250,000 a year saving from reduced hours, £30,000 a year from decommissioning reserve mobile libraries and £10,000 a year from ordering smaller mobiles.
The council has also secured £77,000 Arts Council funding for an interim museum at Buxton, according to Cllr Abbot, and it has submitted a £440,000 funding bid for library upgrades.
Cllr Joss Barnes, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, said the council has achieved improvements to its short-term service for ASC to help more than 500 people annually with nearly 600 extra-enabled people to live at home while 2,104 people have used home-based enablement.
He said there has been a reduction in agency social worker spending by £533,000 and a prevention strategy grant funding review achieved £1,033,000 of savings while 1,992 more people have been supported to live independently.
Cllr Barnes said Morewood Centre has been remodelled for those with learning disabilities and Waverley House has been opened for young adults with high care needs and the rationalisation of short breaks and day services for people with learning disabilities has delivered £1,888,000 in savings while a new community charging policy has delivered £1,021,900 in savings.
He added: “I think this is one of the most rewarding roles and every week I receive messages back about the positive impact we are having on people’s lives.”
Cllr Barnes also said that the council is working to rebuild its relationship with the charity sector to help improve people’s lives.
Council Leader, Cllr Graves, said since May the council has saved just over £53m and while it has been working on Local Government Reorganisation plans with a proposal for just one single unitary council for the whole of Derbyshire Cllr Graves believes this will save another £144m over six years.
He said: “Everyone brings experience to their roles. We are not just people who have been sitting at home and said let’s go and do this job. We bring value and we are not political animals in that respect, we are experienced people who have experienced lives.
“Where people think Reform councils are not doing well I think we are doing exceptional but perhaps we do not shout about things as others do.”
He added that he feels the council has previously been going at a slower pace and what the new Reform administration wants to do is quicken that pace up and it does need to ‘change gear’.
Cllr Graves said the council is fixing potholes, it is working hard to improve SEND and he thinks the council is making a ‘massive difference’.
He added: “We have squeezed the sponge and brought out all the savings and efficiencies and got the best bang for the buck.”
Derbyshire County Council’s former Conservative administration before the May election had claimed it was on track to achieve over £31m of savings by the end of the 2024-25 financial year with cutbacks and changes to manage a previously forecast budget deficit of over £39m for the 2024-25 financial year while identifying £18.6m of further necessary budget savings for the 2025-26 financial year to set a balanced budget.
It is arguable that many of the dramatic cuts and changes implemented by the former Conservative administration may have paved the way for a more financially healthy county council moving forward.
Cllr Stephen Reed pointed out that despite previous criticism from the council’s opposition Conservative Group that there have been no signs of promised efficiencies under the new Reform UK administration it has had to work from the previous administration’s finances, its last budget and under its Council Plan.
Council Leader, Cllr Graves, has also previously stated that the authority is still facing some ‘hard choices’ and having to consider job cuts to get what he believes is an over-staffed council running more efficiently for residents.
