Nottinghamshire County Council

Council Spending and Efficiency · drafted 2026-07-02 · accepted · 8 finding(s)

← council-level findings on this theme

Nottinghamshire County Council's Reform-led Cabinet formally commissioned an internal efficiency review of the Council's financial management, procurement and contract management arrangements at its 23 June 2025 meeting (RESOLVED 2025/014), as part of the budget-setting process; a Cabinet Working Group (members appointed by the Leader) was established to oversee it, and authority was delegated to the Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Leader, Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer, to agree the review's detailed scope and programme. [1][2]

By early 2026 the resulting Cabinet Efficiency Working Group reported initial outcomes to Overview Committee, citing an in-year saving of £3 million from reducing agency staff numbers and investing in training full-time employees, among other efficiencies; Overview Committee resolved (2026/006) that the Working Group's reports should keep coming back with figures and implementation dates included. [3][4]

The term 'DOGE' surfaces in the corpus only as an opposition councillor's rhetorical concern at the 18 September 2025 County Council meeting — that a community grants fund might be swept up in 'DOGE-like schemes' — not as any formal council decision to establish, invite in, or commission a DOGE-branded unit; no DOGE-named unit or scheme appears elsewhere in the corpus for this council. [5]

Nottinghamshire County Council's Overview Committee, reviewing the initial work of the Cabinet Efficiency Working Group (chaired by Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources Cllr Stuart Matthews), was told the Council had already achieved an in-year efficiency saving of £3 million by reducing the number of agency staff and investing more in training full-time employees; the Council separately confirmed savings from reduced agency staff use were also being identified via its 2025/26 budget monitoring report. [6][7]

At Full Council on 20 November 2025, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources (Cllr Stuart Matthews) told members the administration was on target to save £1.2 million gross over the following 12 months by reducing agency staff use, particularly in the social care sector, and that this had already roughly halved the number of agency children's school workers in 18 months. [8][9]

Nottinghamshire County Council's Reform administration (Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, Cllr Stuart Matthews) set out a three-year savings plan in its Cabinet report of 6 November 2025 underpinning the 2026/27 Medium-Term Financial Strategy: £18.3m in 2026/27, reducing to £15.5m in 2027/28 and £11.1m in 2028/29 (about £44.9m over three years), given in answer to a Full Council question from Cllr Stuart Bestwick on 20 November 2025 about the timing of the administration's savings. [10][11]

A subsequent Cabinet Financial Monitoring Report (Period 8, 2025/26) recorded the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources as confident that £44.2 million in savings identified in the 2026/27 Budget could be achieved, despite parts of the plan taking longer than anticipated to develop. [12]

Cabinet formally resolved (RESOLVED 2026/003) to recommend to Full Council an Annual Revenue Budget of £875.670 million for 2026/27 and approval of the principles underlying the Medium-Term Financial Strategy; a later Cabinet report approved an amended Annual Revenue Budget of £880.007 million for 2026/27 together with an amended Medium-Term Financial Strategy. [13][14]

References (14)
  1. Document “EFFICIENCY REVIEW OF THE COUNCIL’S FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, PROCUREMENT AND CONTRACT MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS RESOLVED 2025/014 1) That an efficiency review of the Council’s financial management , procurement and contract management arrangements be commenced as part of the Council’s budget setting process.”
  2. Document “2) That a Cabinet Working Group be established, members of which will be appointed by the Leader, to consider the work of the Efficiency Review and to report to Cabinet accordingly. 3) That authority be delegated to the Service Director – Finance, Infrastructure and Improvement (Section 151 Officer) in consultation with the Leader, the Chief Executive and Service Director Customers, Governance and Employees (Monitoring Officer) to agree the detailed scope and programme of the review.”
  3. Document “Councillor Stuart Matthews, Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, introduced the report which provided an update on the outcomes from the initial work of the Cabinet Efficiency Working Group.”
  4. Document “The C ouncil had already made in -year efficiencies by saving £3 million through reducing the number of agency staff and investing more in training full-time employees.”
  5. Document “There is uncertainty that the fund may get swept up in the DOGE -like schemes that seek to save money, despite the long-term impact it could have on our most vulnerable and desperate residents.”
  6. Document “The C ouncil had already made in -year efficiencies by saving £3 million through reducing the number of agency staff and investing more in training full-time employees.”
  7. Document “there had already been savings identified through the reduction in use of agency staff across the Council.”
  8. Document “we’re on target over the next 12 months to save £1.2 million gross on that, so that’s a good achievement.”
  9. Document “This has led to numbers of children’s school workers agency staff nearly halving in the last 18 months.”
  10. Document “The savings plan shows £18.3 million next year, reducing to £15.5 million the year after and £11.1 million in the third year.”
  11. Document “Let’s turn to the plan set out in my report to Cabinet on 6 th November.”
  12. Document “The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources was confident that the £44.2 million in savings that had been identified in the 2026/27 Budget could be achieved”
  13. Document “The Annual Revenue Budget for Nottinghamshire County Council be set at £875.670 million for 2026/27”
  14. Document “That the Annual Revenue Budget for Nottinghamshire County Council be set at £880.007 million for 2026/27, as set out in table 1 of the report, be approved”