Leader's Corner

Over the past week, you may have seen the news about our latest transformation and budget update. We are now halfway through this financial year and are forecasting an overall underspend of £13.2 million against our budget, including £7.3 million of transformation savings. This underspend helps us reduce the borrowing costs, of around £40 million which was needed to balance our budget this year.

Making savings alone is not enough to ensure we can still provide everyday services, following the significant drop in funding to local authorities over the past years. We have been looking at ways in which we can transform the way we work to meet this challenge.

Our adapt | grow | thrive transformation programme which launched in July will help us close the budget gap, this involves looking at the way we work across the whole council. We know other councils are managing to deliver their services at lower costs, and have been looking at what we can learn from them to provide you with good value, quality services.

This week, we published our Cabinet papers which show that this programme is starting to deliver results. We have identified almost £50 million of potential savings so far across the next five years and nearly £30 million of these savings have been included for the 2025/26 financial year.

However, reducing costs does mean that we will also reduce the number of people we employ. We estimate that we will have to make 67 to 99 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) redundancies over the next two years to deliver the savings we have identified so far. Losing valued colleagues is never easy, but those at risk of redundancy will be able to access redeployment opportunities where available and will be supported during the process.

While we are making good progress on planning and delivering change across the council, we recognise that the work needs to continue at pace and challenging choices need to be made to help us adapt to new ways of working.

We are determined to deliver the savings we need to deliver you value for money services, alongside this we are putting in place economic strategies that will benefit the residents and businesses of Southampton. There is a lot still to do, but I am confident that we are on the right track to make the council financially sustainable and able to deliver the ambitions we have to create a city of opportunity for everyone.

In the last few days Southampton’s Children’s Mayor, Freya Orendecki, welcomed Paddington Bear to the city. Many of us have a soft spot for this lovable, accident-prone bear who makes us laugh and cry, and can make us think about how we treat others. We can thank the Brown family, one of the most famous foster families in children’s literature for giving him a home and embracing him as their own. Paddington Bear is a wonderful children’s story, and the message of caring for someone in need is very relevant in real life.

Last weekend, we honoured our own foster carers at a Foster Carers’ Ball. The event, sponsored by Seatech Commercial Diving Services Limited, was a fantastic opportunity for our very own ‘local heroes’ to network and celebrate long service achievements. One of our newest MPs, Darren Paffey, joined the celebrations and remarked how our foster carers help to ‘break down barriers to opportunity’ for so many vulnerable children and young people. Councillor Alex Winning addressed the 200+ audience, thanking them for their care, compassion and true dedication to the City’s most vulnerable children. This week we launched ‘Everything’ the new fostering film together with an appeal to ask more people to join our community of foster carers.

As a city, we continually aim to become more child friendly. How we talk with, for and about our children and young people, especially those who are more vulnerable, is something we are actively working to change. And it starts with listening. We have worked with young people across the city to plan an event focused on their voices. Partners from education, health and the Police attended a safeguarding event hosted by the Southampton Safeguarding Children’s Partnership. The event, entitled ‘Let Our Voices Be Heard’, challenged the language we use, the agencies we connect with, and why our children and young people’s voices are so important in everything we do to protect and keep them safe.

In recent weeks, we launched the new Family Safeguarding approach to help keep families together when this is in their best interests. This included the planting of an apple tree at Itchen College. This tree symbolizes our commitment to our children and young people. It was planted with young people, was dedicated by our Children’s Mayor and will serve as a lasting reminder for decades to come.

Our team's lead Ranger collaborated with our Landscaping and Play Operations Manager and Sovereign Homes (SGN) to lead a successful bid with Veolia for nearly £75k to revamp the multi-use games area at Aldermoor Rec. The refurbishment includes new fencing, two goal ends, fresh court markings, and a small outdoor gym. Through a consultation process with residents in Lordshill, we gathered feedback on their preferences which have been incorporated into the project. We are delighted to bring these improvements to the community with the support of the funding early next year.

Near Bitterne Station, on Steuart Road the council will be delivering a major refurbishment this side of Christmas. We will install a new junior multi-unit, new toddler multi-unit, cradle and flat seat swing seats fitted to a double bay swing set, multi child Seesaw, springer and two spinners. In Hinkler Green, you will be excited to see new, similar kit also being installed this side of Christmas, making the parks so much better for all to enjoy!

If you live in or around Lordshill, I imagine you know a child or have a child at Fairisle Junior School, back in 2021, we asked the children what they liked playing on (as well as asking parents in newsletters) and have used those results to create play space on the mound soon. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for a whole host of fun play equipment including a double tower multi-play unit complete with spider's web and slide!

Lastly, in my own neighbourhood of Swaythling on Octavia Road, we presented our proposed play park enhancements to the residents, who were thrilled with the plans. As a result, we will be introducing a variety of new play equipment in the area before the year's end.

I hope that you and your little ones have the opportunity to make use of and enjoy these wonderful spaces across the city.