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Is local government still looking at having 20,000 fewer jobs in the next five years?

To go back to the point about early intervention, how do we better get the message across to the Government that more money being spent on local government will give savings later? Is there any way at all of quantifying that?

When we see a reconciliation of £817 million, we would think that something is going wrong somewhere.

Maybe some of that work has not been done yet, but, as you say, it will have to be done before any programme is embarked on.

Are they doing that to provide additionality or to keep the lights on and provide the statutory services that councils have to provide?

Kirsty Flanagan, do you have anything to add?

Kirsty Flanagan, you spoke about early intervention and prevention. I completely agree that more money being spent at a local level probably means less money being spent, eventually, on health and justice, for example. How can you better make the case to the Scottish Government? How do you quantify what you can save later for the health or the justice budget?

Based on that, I assume that, unless there is quick digitalisation to replace people, there will be an impact on the services that local government provides.

The examples that the Government gave about how you could reform were: digitalisation, maximisation of revenue through public sector innovation, reform of the public sector estate, reform of the public body landscape and improving public procurement. Have you not already been doing those things for the past five years?

On digital transformation in local government, I imagine that there must be a patchwork, in that some local authorities have transformed quite a lot already. Therefore, some of the savings that the Government thinks are there might not be. Is that right?