Agenda item

To receive a report on the Shared Service Business Plans and the Terms of Reference for the Joint Group.

The Panel received a report on the 2016/17 Business Plans for Building Control, Legal and ICT Shared Services and the Terms of Reference for the Joint Group, a Member board established to provide strategic direction and leadership to the shared services. The Executive Member for Commercial Activities explained that shared services are one of the main activity streams intended to deliver the savings planned in the Council’s budget. The business plans are live documents so will be updated throughout the year.

The three new shared services commenced in October and the business plans set out details of the services they will deliver, expected savings and planned efficiency measures. The plans are live documents so will be updated throughout the year. They each include an overview of staffing, an operational plan and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Performance against these indicators will be reported to the Panel on a quarterly basis.

The Panel was informed that the building control services at Cambridge City and Huntingdonshire both had the same ISO 9001:2008 accreditation but that they were currently registered separately with a different organisation. It was confirmed that the intention was to secure a single ISO accreditation to cover the whole Building Control service. A business process re-engineering resource has already been allocated to help improve processes and achieve the accreditation with a target validation date of March 2017.

A Member was concerned that local authorities will stop providing Building Control services and asked if there was a plan for dealing with increased competition from the private sector. The Panel was told that options such as setting up a trading company had been considered initially but it was decided to proceed with a shared service instead. Local authorities are required to provide certain statutory services that wouldn’t be provided by private sector. The Building Control Shared Service should be more resilient than three separate services and the business plan takes the market into account. A risk register is being maintained to identify and manage risks.

Members were informed that the business plan for the ICT Shared Service includes standardisation and adoption of common systems. For example, a new financial management system is being procured to underpin everything that all three councils do. There has already been a lot of progress made in improving systems to allow staff to work more flexibly and remotely.

(At 7.21pm, during the discussion of this item, Councillor T Alban joined the meeting).

A Member asked whether the plans considered the demand for information by people unable or unwilling to use computers. In response, the Panel was informed that the ICT Shared Service’s main focus is on supporting Council services to be more efficient and effective and this includes supporting a move to greater self-service and digital service delivery. It was also pointed out that increasingly the public are accessing services not from computers but from their smartphones. The Council’s Customer Service Strategy recognises the need to understand customer needs and provide information and services in accessible ways and the shared service will aim to support various service delivery channels including telephony and face to face service delivery.

A Member commended the three councils for being bold in trialling shared services as a way of saving money through an increasingly business-like approach.

In discussing the business plan for the Legal Shared Service, a Member asked if legal services provided by LGSS were being used by the Council. It was confirmed that a call off contract for legal support and advice available to the shared service does include LGSS, but that LGSS were not a partner in the shared service.

The Terms of Reference for the Joint Group are part of the governance structure setting out the delivery aims for the three shared services. Scrutiny responsibilities are explained and individual Members will have the opportunity to ask questions. When asked if their questions will be answered, the Corporate Director (Services) explained that the Terms of Reference set out a standard protocol for asking questions and that performance against the clearly defined KPIs for each service will be reported to Scrutiny and Cabinet so the services can be properly held to account. The Business plans and budget proposals for shared services will also be reported to Scrutiny and Cabinet annually. There are significant savings to be delivered and these will also be reported to Members.