Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader

The Mayor invited Members to consider suspending standing orders to enable the Leader to speak for longer than the 10 minutes laid down in the Council Procedure Rules. Upon a vote this was agreed.

The Leader started by thanking Members and Officers across the council for their contribution in enabling him to bring this report today in support of what was a very key decision for this Council.

He began by responding to the question of why he was recommending to Council that they enter into the 2020 Vision parternership structure (2020). 

The first reason was financial and with the ongoing financial pressures on local government budgets it was necessary to look at alternative solutions in order to avoid future cuts in services. The 2020 report detailed the significant projected savings over the period of the MTFS with potential additional savings from the formation of a local authority company.

The second reason was that this council had a track record of sharing services and with the success of GO and ICT shared services it was the logical step to build on these existing arrangements in 2020.

He acknowledged that there were concerns about the potential political and cultural differences across the four councils and also that Cheltenham was an urban authority going into partnership with three rural authorities. However he could reassure members that services that were special or unique to Cheltenham, in particular those delivered by REST and the Cheltenham Trust, were not going into the 2020 arrangements.

Customer services, revenues and benefits and property services had been identified within the project as the next services to be considered for sharing. He added that this detailed work would begin shortly with a report being brought to Cabinet at some stage in the New Year. He highlighted that members would be involved in this process.

He emphasised that before any future services were moved into 2020 there would need to be a full report to Cabinet, including a business case and alternative options, which would have to be agreed before any future transfer of services takes place. The recommendation agreed by Cabinet stated that Cabinet would receive and have to approve further business case briefings and proposed Service Level Agreements for these services under consideration.

There was the potential for staff to be transferred into a Local Authority company which would assist with the pensions’ deficit and a further business case for this would be brought back next year.

He stressed the importance of Cheltenham maintaining its own democratic governance in the new arrangements.

He explained that 2020 would be governed by a Joint Committee with two members represented from each authority. Cabinet proposed that the current Cabinet Member Corporate Services, Councillor Walklett, undertake one of these roles. He was the current council representative on the member governance board and the CBC representative on the Joint Monitoring and Liaison Group for GOSS. The Leader highlighted the suggestion from Overview and Scrutiny Committee that the second member on the Joint Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8

Report of the Leader

RESOLVED THAT

1.    the Authority enter into the shared services partnership structure described in Appendix 2.

2.    the consequential revised senior management structure for this Authority be endorsed as set out in section 7.

3.    the 2020 Vision Business Case at Appendix 3 be approved.

4.    the Commissioning Strategy at Appendix 5 be adopted.

5.    the 2020 Vision Joint Committee be established in accordance with Sections 101 and 102 of the Local Government Act 1972, and the Local Authorities (Arrangement for the Discharge of Functions) (England) Regulations 2012 made under Section 9EA, 9EB and 105 of the Local Government Act 2000, with draft Constitution at Appendix 6 including a protocol which requires the Joint Committee to defer any item relating to changes to employment terms and conditions where it is unlikely to be passed by unanimous decision in order to seek a resolution to the matter.

6.    authority be delegated to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader, the Section 151 Officer and the Borough Solicitor to finalise and complete the Inter Authority Agreement (including the Constitution) and other documentation on terms to be approved by the Borough Solicitor and to take all necessary steps to create the 2020 Vision Joint Committee by April 2016.

7.    it be agreed that the existing 2020 Vision Member Governance Board arrangements will continue until the 2020 Vision Joint Committee is created.

8.    Upon establishment of the 2020 Vision Joint Committee

8.1          To authorise the delegation to the 2020 Vision Joint Committee those functions of the Authority as described in the draft Constitution for the 2020 Vision Joint Committee, subject to retained decisions as set out in section 10 of this report

8.2          To agree to appoint Forest of Dean District Council as Administering Authority to provide administration support to the Joint Committee

8.3          To agree to appoint Cotswold District Council as the Accountable Body to provide financial support to the Joint Committee and enter into any contracts required on behalf of the Joint Committee

8.4          To agree to appoint the following councils to provide the following functions of the Joint Committee;

Forest of Dean District Council – Monitoring Officer

Cotswold District Council – S151 Finance Officer

Forest of Dean District Council – Clerk to the Joint Committee

9.    to confirm the appointment of David Neudegg as Partnership Managing Director.

10.  to agree to make available such of this Authority’s staff as are necessary for the 2020 Vision Joint Committee to fulfil the functions which the Authority delegates to it

11.  Council be recommended to appoint Councillor Walklett as the Cabinet Member representative on the 2020 Vision Joint Committee.

12.  further business case briefings and proposed Service Level Agreements be received and approved providing reassurance on the benefits, costs and savings to the Authority of the services outlined in section 14.4 of this report, and demonstrating that other sharing options have been considered, prior to delegation of those services to the 2020 Vision Joint Committee

13.  a report and business case be received  ...  view the full decision text for item 6

The Leader introduced the report and explained that 2020 Vision had been a challenging and ambitious process and represented an opportunity for the council to make savings without cutting services. He referred to the success the council had experienced with sharing services with GO Shared Services and ICT.

The Leader referred Cabinet to the amended recommendations from the published report as circulated and highlighted the following points :

·         Customer services, revenues and benefits and property services had been identified within the project as the next services to be considered for sharing. The amended recommendation 2 stated that Cabinet would receive and have to approve further business case briefings and proposed Service Level Agreements for these services under consideration. He added that this detailed work would begin shortly with a report being brought to Cabinet at some stage in the New Year. He highlighted that members would be involved in this process.

·         2020 would be governed by a Joint Committee with two members represented from each authority. Cabinet would nominate one member and it was proposed that the current Cabinet Member Corporate Services undertake this role. He was the current council representative on the member governance board and the CBC representative on the Joint Monitoring and Liaison Group for GOSS.

·         The Joint Committee would be responsible for overall financial policies and potential HR policies. The Leader referred members to the amended recommendation 5 which now included the introduction of a protocol which would require the Joint Committee to defer any item relating to changes to employment terms and conditions where it was unlikely to be passed by unanimous decision in order to seek a resolution to the matter.  The Leader added that whilst rationalisation of HR terms and conditions would be useful, to have a mechanism in place to deal with any issues was a sensible approach. He also made reference to the deletion of the last sentence of Section 10.4 in the report.

·         The Leader reported that the post of Managing Director of the Partnership had been ringfenced to the Chief Executives of Cheltenham and Cotswolds/West Oxfordshire councils. He explained that the current Chief Executive of Cheltenham had not expressed an interest in being considered for this position. The position of CEX would be deleted at the council but the post of Head of Paid Service was a legal requirement. The recruitment of this post would be a process for the council’s Appointments Committee.

·         The existing shared service arrangements for GO Shared Services and ICT Shared Services would be undertaken by the Joint Partnership Structure from April 2016.

The Cabinet Member Finance referred to the fact that existing shared services with Ubico and GOSS made the council an annual saving of £2.7 m annually. With Government core funding reduced from £8.8 m to £4.6 m between 2009 and 2015 and likely to be further cut between 25 % and 40 % over the next 4 years, further radical efficiency savings needed to be made without cutting services. With evidence that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6