A RADICAL overhaul of Oxfordshire County Council could lead to an end of ‘salami slicing’ services and annual savings of up to £58m, senior managers have said.

After being battered by cuts since 2010, the council has said it now wants to ensure staff ‘do things better in a more joined up way’.

A study – which will have cost £2.1m by the time it is finished in July – has found staff spend 15 per cent less time delivering services in comparison to similar councils and have to wade through more than 400 IT systems .

Peter Clark, the council’s chief executive, said: “We can’t keep adding money to the pot because there isn’t that money but we could reorganise the way we operate to use it better. It doesn’t mean cuts; it means managing it better.”

Since 2010 the council has had to cut more than £300m from its budget and shed 30 per cent of its staff, including 40 per cent of its managers. It has said it still needs to make £15m of cuts from 2018 until 2022 to deliver a balanced budget.

But Mr Clark said it was an exciting time for the county, especially because of its involvement in the £215m Oxfordshire Housing and Growth Deal. Other ‘massive’ issues include improves to the county’s care system and children’s services, he said.

He said the work with consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers has shown the council could still be ‘robust’ if it reshapes services.

As part of the report, the council concedes fees and charges could increase but no details of where they might fall are included.

The report says the council could save ‘at least’ £8m by reviewing procurement contracts. Moving to a new operating model could mean between £21m to £33m is ploughed back in too.

At the council’s audit and governance committee on Wednesday, Helen Evans, shadow member for finance, said she was worried the plan would be ‘risky’.

She said involvement in the Growth Deal would mean a ‘huge big change’ and said she worried the potential transformation would be ‘driven’ by PwC.

But assistant chief executive Maggie Scott said things had to change at the council while it deals with other challenges.

She said: “Doing nothing is not an option.

“There are other options. We could go about this in the way that we’ve gone about other decisions, salami slicing services.

“But it doesn’t feel right to me that that’s the way we should go.”

Others plans could mean the council looks at commercial ventures to ‘spread risk’.