States shifts to 'priority‑based' budgeting

The States of Guernsey is in the process of implementing "priority-based budgeting" - a structured, critical review of expenditure from the bottom up - in an attempt to make savings.

Previously, it had adopted a "zero-based" approach, which required all costs to be set at zero as a starting point, which the Policy and Resources Committee (P&R) said was a "more labour-intensive" process.

P&R said it would initially focus on the States Property Unit, the Environment & Infrastructure Committee and Adult Disability Services.

It said it had prioritised these areas for initial review for a number of reasons, including that Adult Disability Services has had "budgetary challenges" and could benefit.

It said it also wanted one of the corporate services - the States Property Unit - to be part of the initial tranche of work because there was "a perception" the cost of these services had increased since they were centralised.

The Committee for the Environment & Infrastructure was "one of the smaller committee budgets", it said, which meant it was possible to tackle its services in one go, meaning there was a "real opportunity to identify savings, review services and assess relative priorities."

P&R said Health and Social Care (HSC) was "too large and complex" to be undertaken in one go.

The States said priority-based budgeting could be used to "rebalance budgets across different service areas to reflect current priorities."

It said, like zero-based budgeting, it could "challenge business-as-usual expenditure" and was "effective in delivering efficiencies, cost-savings and better value for money".

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