Insider Media Limited

Unison West Midlands has condemned plans by Worcestershire County Council to axe about 800 full-time posts ahead of this month’s spending review. Charlie Sarell, the union's regional organiser, said he was “appalled” at the extent of the cuts. The council said its budget would be axed by £43.5m, and that the “provisional” job cuts would be staged over the next three years.

However, the council denied that as many as 1,000 jobs were for the axe, as suggested by the trade union.

Unison also claimed that that a further £22m “may be demanded by the coalition government” in the Comprehensive Spending Review, to be announced later this month.

Sarrell said: “In many cases these cuts mean the loss of front line staff such as homecare staff who look after vulnerable elderly in their own homes. But what is even more worrying is that the Comprehensive Spending Review will likely demand the council to make even more cuts leaving Worcestershire public services in tatters.”

However, the council said that it had launched its Better Outcomes Lean Delivery (BOLD) programme last year to prepare for the cuts demanded by the government. In response to accusations about homecare cuts, the council said that “around 70 posts would be affected”.

Philip Gretton, cabinet member for adult and community services, said: "Our proposal is to commission more externally provided Homecare on behalf the county council, rather than it be provided directly by county council staff.

"It is therefore anticipated that fewer homecare staff will be needed in the coming years if we do indeed move to externally provided homecare.”

He added that consultation with homecare staff was currently underway, and staff were aware of the potential cuts.

Gretton said: "The county council will remain the direct provider of around 20 per cent of Worcestershire's homecare requirements, in the areas of our Promoting Independence scheme and dementia care. Therefore, the county council will remain the direct employer of some homecare staff.”

The council also said that its BOLD programme meant that it had prepared for the anticipated cuts.

Councillor Adrian Hardman, Worcestershire County Council's cabinet member for finance, said: "In response to anticipated budget reductions, we launched the BOLD programme over 12 months ago to ensure that we could make decisions in a planned way rather than making reactive and ill informed decisions.

"We anticipate that we will be able to maximise the amount of savings we will be able to make through efficiencies and reforms and minimise the need to make cuts, with around half of the £43.5m identified savings coming from efficiency reforms.

"The number of full time equivalent (FTE) positions affected by these plans are only provisional figures at this stage and are around 750-800 FTE positions over a three year period. For the past year we have looked to natural turnover, have not replaced posts and are using vacancy management as a means of minimising compulsory redundancies and we will continue to do so."

Hardman added that until the spending review on 20 October, the council “would not know how much” it would need to save. He said: “The projects identified so far are a good start and work is taking place to prepare us if further savings are needed. We have consulted with local residents to find out what their priorities are to inform any decisions we may make and further consultation will take place.”