CORDIA HAS TO MAKE £3M BUDGET SAVINGS

The next financial year (2010/2011) which has just started sees us having to make very large budget savings. These savings total approximately £3M. Savings will come from across the whole organisation.

Approximately £380,000 will be saved by implementing service efficiencies. These include a potential saving of £81,000 from a renegotiated contract with our landlords for our Blair Court HQ in Port Dundas. This deal could see our HQ remaining in Port Dundas for the next 5-10 years. A review of staffing in Encore Hospitality Services will save £66,000 and these savings will come from a general re-organisation and the non-filling of vacancies. A review of our use of mobile technologies such as phones and BlackBerry smartphones, as well as a review of fixed line phones will save £130,000.

Reforming our services and the way we provide them will also return major savings. In schools catering, there will be £600,000 of savings by changing the food preparation method and closing up to 60 food production kitchens with meals being provided by super-export kitchens who will deliver to those units where there is no longer a full production kitchen. Within home care and Encore, we are currently considering changing the way we take public holidays, making these more flexible and less costly to cover. This could give staff the flexibility to take these extra days across the year, and returns a saving of £375,000 by helping reduce the cost of providing cover on existing holidays- this way of working is widely adopted in other areas of the public sector. In home care, we will reduce the number of coordinators from the current 231 to a much lower number. As part of this change in numbers, coordinators will relinquish their hands-on role and become full time coordinators. A projected saving of £600,000 is predicted in year 2010/2011 with a further £600,000 in 2011/2012. Attendance at work and absence management is a critical issue for Cordia. It is vitally important that absence levels are kept low. To aid this, a specialist team will be set up in Blair Court to tackle absence in a pro-active and direct way and this will help achieve savings of £400,000.

Attracting new business is a fantastic way to help us keep savings and efficiencies lower in other areas of our business. Over £450,000 of new profit is expected in the areas of Encore, EquipU, training and ICT. Many new contracts are being provided to a wider audience and out with Glasgow and this widens our scope, gaining us a reputation that can be built upon to generate more business in the future.