Issue - meetings

Referring to minute 143 of 9 February 2016, to consider a report on progress to date, and to agree to the development of full detailed business cases and implementation plans for shared service provision of Revenues and Benefits, ICT, Customer Services, HR & Payroll, Legal, and Internal Audit, and to contribute £25,000 towards the cost of a project manager for this purpose.

RESOLVED

(1)  That detailed business cases and implementation plans be developed for all of the six service proposals.

(2)  That a contribution of £25,000 from reserves be made towards the cost of a Project Manager and project support to develop the detailed business cases and implementation plan.

Referring to minute 143 of 9 February 2016, the Cabinet considered the report circulated with the agenda (copy attached to the official minutes).

Mr Finch introduced the report and thanked Mrs Dodsworth and Mrs Shepherd for their energy and leadership of this joint project. He personally was a champion of the shared services model, believing it was the best way to deliver and modernise support services for the benefit of residents and the career prospects of staff.

He reminded the Cabinet of their previous agreement to investigate the business case for shared services of Revenues and Benefits, ICT, Customer Services, HR & Payroll, Legal, Internal Audit and transactional Financial Services with Arun and Horsham District Councils. He and the Chief Executive had been members of the overseeing Steering Group. The detailed work had been undertaken by a Project Board with project leads/directors, project assurance officers and chief financial officers of the three councils. The work had been supported by consultants to provide challenge. All workstreams had worked well, which boded well for the future of partnership working.

An early decision had been taken not to pursue a shared transactional finance service, but outline business cases for the other six services suggested that across all three councils savings of around £2m a year could be achieved. Although it was not clear yet how these would fall for individual councils, Chichester could benefit by about £400,000 a year. It was now proposed to progress to a detailed business case and project implementation plan for an integrated model of all six services being shared, as described in Section 6 of the report. This required a contribution of £25,000 each from all three councils.

Mrs Dodsworth endorsed Mr Finch’s comments and added that regular meetings were held with the local branch of Unison. The Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered a report at their meeting on 5 July and supported the recommendation.

RESOLVED

(1)  That detailed business cases and implementation plans be developed for all of the six service proposals.

(2)  That a contribution of £25,000 from reserves be made towards the cost of a Project Manager and project support to develop the detailed business cases and implementation plan.

The committee is requested to consider the efficiencies, benefits and indicative savings identified in the outline business cases for shared services with Arun and Horsham District Councils and to make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate on whether to progress all or some of the work streams to a detailed business case.

Mrs Dodsworth explained that a final report on Shared Services will go to Cabinet in February. There are six services being considered:

·       Audit

·       Customer Services

·       HR

·       IT

·       Legal

·       Revenues and Benefits

The three authorities involved are Chichester, Arun and Horsham although Horsham already has shared arrangements in some of the service areas.

The key principles of the projects are:

·       One employer.

·       One system.

·       One manager.

·       Innovation in service design.

·       A consistent or improved service for the customer.

·       Learning from best practice.

If Shared Services are progressed high level business cases will be established which will require some initial investment. A Joint Board will also be created as part of the governance arrangements. At this stage it appears that savings can be made. There are already examples of some CDC services working with Arun such as Estates, Procurement and Printing. Shared services would retain an element of control over services being provided for CDC regardless of whether it remained the employing authority.

Mrs Dodsworth explained that all affected staff and Union representatives have been briefed.

Mrs Shepherd explained that she had been attending Steering Boards with relevant Cabinet members from all authorities and the other Chief Executives.

Mr Mildred explained one of the key reasons for undertaking the project is to establish ways to continue to provide good service in difficult economic times.

Members asked the following questions:

·       Would the savings be for Chichester or split with the other authorities? Savings will be split fairly between the three authorities. The detailed business case will finalise the method of recharges to each authority.

·       Are the three local authorities the right local authorities and should more be included to maximise savings? Specialist consultants confirmed that three is the advised maximum. The project started with Arun and Chichester. Horsham later showed interest. Adur and Worthing already have shared working and East Hants is part of bigger partnerships.

·       Has outsourcing (in a similar way to printing) been considered? The printing service agreement with Arun is not a tendered outsourcing contract it is based on a service level agreement and Chichester pays for what it uses. How successful has Census been and has it provided other authorities with savings? Horsham is part of Census and has arrangements with IT and Revenues and Benefits. It is important to have a robust business and good governance in place are two of the key lessons to be taken from the Census partnership.

·       Due diligence is key when will this be apparent to members? Due diligence will be at the next stage of the project.

·       Consideration needs to be given to where a manager and service will be located. If the upfront costs out way a possible return then Shared Services will not go ahead. One employer and one set of accommodation for a service should provide rental potential for spare accommodation.

·       The greatest costs are staff costs, are the figures credible? A model will be built based upon the workloads now and in the future. Time recording takes place  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97