If you were running Nottinghamshire County Council, how would you do things differently if you had to save £77m from your annual budget over the next three years?

That’s what local people, businesses and organisations are being asked, as the County Council launches the first stage of its 2015/16 budget consultation.

The £77m budget gap is due to reductions in funding the Government provides to the Council to provide vital local services. Over the past three years alone, the grant funding has been reduced by 16% – equal to £43m.

At the same time, the Council continues to face increasing running costs due to inflation and a significant rise in demand for many of its social care services, especially as people live for longer with more complex needs.

Councillor Alan Rhodes, Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “It is absolutely vital that the people of Nottinghamshire get involved in this first phase of our ‘doing things differently’ consultation, which will set the whole agenda for the way their County Council operates in the years to come.

“In the first instance our approach is about doing things better, doing things more efficiently and being more creative. So rather than starting from a position of ‘how can we cut services’, we are instead asking ‘how can things be done differently’.

“Doing nothing is not an option. Despite already identifying savings of over £80m in budget cuts, we still need to find £77m by 2017/18 to balance the books. Only by doing things differently and making fundamental changes to the way we operate are we going to protect many of the vital services that some of the most vulnerable people in our communities rely upon.”

The ‘doing things differently’ consultation asks people to have their say on the approach the County Council should take to its £77m budget shortfall. The options include:

•delivering services indirectly through not-for-profit organisations
•helping people to stay independent and out of social care where possible
•using cash reserves in the short term, rather than cutting services, to allow planning and phased longer term change
•delivering more services online, so that residents can self-serve where appropriate.
•commissioning other organisations to deliver services on the Council’s behalf
Responding to the first part of the consultation involves just filling in a short questionnaire, which can be done:

•online at www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/budget
•by calling the Customer Service Centre on 0300 500 80 80
•by completing a comment card available from local libraries.
The complete list of the County Council’s budget proposals for 2015/16 will be published in early November and will be followed by a second stage of consultation on the options for change.

The consultation will run until 16 January.