Liberal Democrats at County Hall have revealed that a report to the County Council Executive states that the authority is failing by almost £800k to meet its sickness absence targets for the first half of the year.

The latest quarterly report also admits that it is unlikely that the Conservative-dominated council will reduce sickness absence enough to meet the targets for the full year.

Also at today’s meeting of the Council’s Executive, Lib Dem Councillor Margaret-Ann de Courcey-Bayley asked a question about the expected savings from training staff using electronic learning.

The Council forecast savings based on 5000 members of staff doing health & safety e-learning courses this year. However, up to now only 800 have done so which raises questions about the effectiveness of the training package.

Failure to provide new computer resources for personnel services has reduced the potential for savings by a further £240,000.

Lib Dem County Councillor Margaret-Ann de Courcey-Bayley (Harrogate Starbeck), explains:

“The Tory figures are unrealistic, speculative and not based on well grounded data.”

“The Council has gone for non-cashable savings, which do not translate into real money saved. This will surely trip them up next year. Rule changes mean that savings will have to be in real money.”