Given the current focus on government spending, forthcoming cuts and public perception of the whole situation, Budget Simulator has received a lot of attention over the last few months. We recently hit the milestone of our 40th new client, and we’re closing in on 1 in 10 UK councils having used Budget Simulator to run their budget consultation at one time or another over the past 4 years.
A lot of authorities have similar questions about Budget Simulator, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to provide answers:
How can I justify paying for budget consultation when cuts are being made at the authority?
Although cuts need to be made across authorities in the UK, this doesn’t mean that residents should lose their ability to make their priorities known for budget setting. If anything, this makes it even more important for you to engage with the public on your budget in a clear, engaging and informative way. Budget Simulator provides the opportunity to engage with hundreds of residents of all ages in an involving and professional way.
See our case study of how Wycombe District Council used the Budget Simulator to consult on the cuts they faced last year.
We, like other authorities, are facing cuts. How can we ask people for their budget priorities whilst remaining clear about the spending limitations we face?
Our new cuts-focused Simulator requires residents to achieve a savings-target before allowing them to submit their budget. This is a very popular new feature as it ensures that 100% of the responses you receive are relevant to your situation and can feed into decision-making.
Here’s an example of Exeter’s Budget Simulator. They needed to consult on how they should achieve a -5% decrease in their overall spend.
Does it cost anything for me to obtain our results from the consultation?
No. You can download an xls or csv file of your results at any point during your consultation which contains all the info you require for each response.
We’ve recently introduced a results dashboard to the Budget Simulator that provides the authority with real-time key indicators for your consultation in the admin area. This acts as a great help to the person running the consultation as they can update members and colleagues as required with statistics such as: Average total spend, most frequent area to increase / decrease / maintain spend, number of comments collected and more.
If you’d like to view the results dashboard and any other of the tool’s features, please watch our Budget Simulator features video.
The new Budget Simulator results dashboard
The Simulator needs to match our corporate colours/design, can this be done?
Yes, with a small customisation charge based on your requirements, we’re happy to edit Simulator designs into your corporate colours. We’ve recently designed such examples for:
- Gloucestershire County Council
- Oldham Council
- Wycombe District Council
- Greater Manchester Police Authority
- Barnet Council
Here’s an example of Gloucestershire’s branded Budget Simulator .
The great thing about Budget Simulator is that for every council who uses us, we’re able to learn more about our product and how its design and use can be improved to provide benefit to authorities and citizens. We’ve recently made updates to the Simulator making it more appropriate for running a detailed consultation, allowing for cuts-specific consultation, whilst at the same time providing authorities with more refined best-practice advice on how to run a successful budget consultation online.
I’m glad to say that the evidence suggests that authorities are taking the opportunity to include residents in the tough climate being faced; Budget Simulator has more clients than ever using our tool to engage thousands of UK residents on spending.
If you’ve not put together plans for budget consultation this year or if you’d just like to have a chat about how other authorities have used Budget Simulator in the last year, please get in touch – adam.cardew@delib.co.uk
