Background
Government now requires all public sector organisations, to
publish expenditures that are over £500.
As a council, all our financial information and budget setting
has always been publicly available here, and decisions on our
budget setting are made in public meetings.
However, the Government wants to improve transparency so the aim
of publishing each 'spend' over £500 is to make it easy for you to
see more specifically how we spend money.
South Somerset District Council is participating in the
Spotlight on Spend website, which breaks down spending data into
set categories so you can easily compare our spending data with
other council's data. The link to this data is at the bottom of
this page.
This scheme does not include grant aid or cases where some of
our funds are transferred to another council such as Somerset
County Council to deliver part of a partnership service as it would
be misleading to publish these in this format as a separate
'spend', but SSDC would be more than happy to go through this with
you if you are interested.
How to use the Spotlight on Spend website
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Column 1: - is a fairly self-explanatory. (If you hover
over the symbols a full explanation appears, to aid
understanding)
Column 2: - is the actual number coming from our spend data.
Column 3: - is how we compare to other district councils in
England that are on the system so far. Apart from the 2 and 3rd row
all indicators are in the minus meaning we are better than the
average by that amount. So these are good indicators.
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The 2 and 3rd rows show scores in the positive which I believe
is good given that they are indicating we spend more with SME and
spend more locally, both gaols local councils seek to support
whilst having regard to the European Procurement rules.
On the far right are some more tabs, the most interesting being
the second one "View Spend by Category" you can drill down via
these by clicking on the blue headings. Spend is classified using a
UK based system so that all spending is recorded in a like for like
manner across all councils in the country.
The system currently uses Pro-Class a UK recognized procurement
classification system.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Detailed below are some spend areas that require a little more
explanation, we have attempted to cover most of the significant
areas that look interesting, however as with such a big amount of
data its inevitable that some other areas could exist that on the
face of the spending data look " worthy of more explanation"
- Under Utilities, heading "Other" Windmills and Wind power
equipment value £32,550.00.
Explanation, whilst this shows as a spend
against the councils a large proportion of the cost was recouped
from Grants from Central Government and a major Energy supplier the
actual cost to the councils was less than £15K.
- Under Utilities, Water Companies a very large spend of
£154,247.00 shows in the data.
Explanation, the number is distorted compared
to other district councils, primarily due to the council owning and
running its own swimming pool and this has a high cost in terms of
water and effluent charges.
- Facilities management, Security, Security Services, large spend
of £142,827.00
Explanation, due to the categorisation our cash
collection spends has been lumped in with Security Services. A
large proportion of this spend is on our cash collection contract
which covers collection and delivery of cash from all council
offices ands more importantly all public car parks.
- Arts and Leisure Services has a collective very large spend of
£606,732.00.
Explanation, this council has a well-regarded
local Theatre and this spend reflects the investment in this valued
local services.
- Catering, Food and Beverages, Brewers with a substantial spend
of £21,198.00
Explanation, we have a theatre with a bar and
the spend with St, Austell Brewery is for bar stocks sold to the
public
- Furniture and soft Furnishings, Office furniture and equipment,
has a large spend of £62K.
Explanation, although listed as furniture,
includes all the office suppliers that the council has used
including paper etc.
We have provided explanations to the most obvious and largest
spend areas undoubtedly others small spend areas may look
interesting, the council will be more than happy to answer such
questions as they arise.
Why we use Spotlightonspend
What this means in practice continues to evolve as the Public
Sector Transparency Board defines open data standards and
oversees the publication of detailed guidance. What is however
already clear is that the policy has cost, complexity and risk
implications at a time when the public sector's priority is
addressing the maintenance of front-line services in the light of
significant budget cuts. This council has therfore used
spotlightonspend which cuts costs, eliminates complexity and
reduces risk, spotlightonspend is a managed service that is
comprised of everything necessary to cost-effectively facilitate
publication of the spend and related information we have elected to
make available to the general public.
Spotlightonspend is designed to: cut costs by removing the need
to add to the workload of our current staff or increase
headcount, eliminate the complexity of becoming and staying
compliant with policy, reduce the risk of inadvertent breach
of the Data Protection Legislation, enhance the information we
publish to improve its accessibility, relevance and value for the
intended audience - the general public.
Go to the Spotlight On
Spend pages...
Central Government
Central Government's Transparency Agenda also allows you
to see a whole range of information and publications. For more
information, visit the Cabinet Office Transparency page
online.