Agenda and draft minutes

Election of Chair/Vice-Chair

Councillor Alistair Bradley was appointed as Chair.  Councillor Matthew Tomlinson was appointed as Vice-Chair.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Aniela Bylinski Gelder, Margaret France and Ian Watkinson.  Councillor Hasina Khan substituted for Councillor Margaret France.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday, 9January 2024.

That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Shared Services Joint Committee held on Tuesday, 9 January 2024 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chair.

A report requesting that the Joint Committee agree the Terms of Reference.

Caroline Wolfenden, Director of Change and Delivery presented the report requesting that the Committee consider and agree the proposed refresh to the Joint Committee Terms of Reference a copy of which was appended to the report at Appendix A.

Caroline referred to the previous meeting of the Committee in which Members had requested a review of the Terms of Reference to reflect the changes to the Committee as there was less development of new shared services proposals, and to ensure that the Committee was not replicating the work of the separate sovereign Councils. 

The refresh looked to change the frequency of meetings to bi-annual to reflect the reduction in new shared services activity now that a large number of services were shared.

The Committee was advised that the main purpose of the Joint Committee would be to oversee existing shared services and to consider potential opportunities for new shared services.  It was proposed that the Committee be presented with a report at each meeting to include:

·         Risk Register for the Shared Services Partnership

·         Progress update on existing shared services

·         Performance Information

·         Forward Plan/opportunities for future development of new sharing arrangements

The Committee was further advised that reference within the existing Terms of Reference to managing the resourcing and additional funding request for shared services had been removed as this was considered by the organisations Shared Senior Management Team in the first instance and then Members for each of the sovereign Councils.

Details of the Committee’s functions and responsibilities were also set out within the Shared Services Agreement.  It was suggested that this also be updated to reflect the new Terms of Reference. 

A discussion took place around the refreshed Terms of Reference and proposal for bi-annual meetings in which it was clarified that the Scrutiny function was undertaken within each individual sovereign Council and was not the role of the Shared Services Joint Committee.

Resolved:

1.   That the Shared Services Joint Committee approve the refreshed Terms of Reference as attached to the report at page 11, subject to the following amendment:

a.    Paragraph 7 of the Refreshed Terms of Reference to be amended to: “Observer Councillors will be permitted to attend meetings of the Committee and speak at the discretion of the Chair”; and

b.    That the Committee reserves the right to call an extraordinary meeting of the Committee if/when considered necessary; and

2.    That the meetings of the Committee scheduled on Wednesday, 4 September 2024 and Wednesday, 5 March 2025 be cancelled.

To receive and consider the report of the Director of Change and Transformation.

Caroline Wolfenden, Director of Change and Delivery presented the report which provided an update on the shared services arrangement between Chorley Council and South Ribble Council against the following areas:

·         Shared Services Dashboard

·         Risk Register for the Share Services Partnership

·         Opportunities for future development of new sharing arrangements

Details of services that were currently shared across the Councils were outlined within the report.  The Committee was advised that most services operated on a 50/50 basis with exceptions, which were also outlined within the report, reflecting the specific needs of either Authority.

The Committee was further advised that, unlike the rest of Shared Services, within Customer Services, ICT, Property and Assets and Building Control, there was no specific host Council.  The posts were employed and shared across both Councils and recharged on a 50:50 basis or according to the relevant exceptions. 

It was reported that a review of the split of costs for posts across the two Councils which were not split 50:50 had been carried out with Directors and Heads of Services.  This had found that the split of cost for the teams remained representative of the needs of each service.  It was suggested that the split of costs for the events, historical sites and ICT teams were reviewed in more detail ahead of 2025/26 budget setting. 

Details of Service Development Actions for shared services and identified actions to help deliver a single operating model and support continued improvement across the shared services were detailed in Appendix 1 which was appended to the report. 

Details of key progress that had been made over recent months relating to Phases 1 and 2 were outlined within the report along with progress in other service areas. 

A draft dashboard and performance information for Chorley Council and South Ribble Council displaying different performance measures for the Councils based on customer, governance, finance, and people was appended to the report at Appendix B.  Members were requested to consider the draft dashboard and advise of any further information or data they would like to see in the dashboard moving forwards.

The Committee was advised that overall, performance was good across shared services with the following areas highlighted:

·         Customer, Governance, Finance and People.

Five risks were identified as medium-risk in relation to impact and likelihood, and one risk was identified as low-risk.  Since the last review of the register, R2 ‘staff uncertainty and impact on employee wellbeing’ had been reduced from a matrix score of 9 to 6.  Significant progress had also been made to the recruitment to the ICT service, with all posts now recruited to within the structure which would help to support the performance of the service moving forward. Risks remained stable across shared services with work progressing to support the delivery of actions including interventions to help support staff wellbeing and development across both Councils.  Risks continued to be monitored and any changes in risk would be reported to the Committee.

The Committee welcomed the report commenting on the good level of detail  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5a

To consider the exclusion of the press and public for the following items of business on the ground that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 4 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

By Virtue of Paragraph 4: Information relating to any consultations or negotiations, or contemplated consultations or negotiations, in connection with any labour relations matter arising between the authority or a Minister of the Crown and employees of, or office holders under the authority.

Condition:

Information is exempt to the extent that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Information is not exempt if it relates to proposed development for which the local planning authority may grant itself planning permission pursuant to Regulation 3 of the Town & Country Planning General Regulations 1992(a).

Decision: To exclude the public and press for the following item of business on the grounds they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 and 3 Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972. 

A report requesting consideration of the proposals for the shared management of the Streetscene and Waste Service. 

 Asim Khan, Director of Customer and Digital presented the report which requested consideration of the following recommendations:

a.    The new shared Streetscene and Waste management roles, including the permanent establishment of the shared Head of Streetscene and Waste post.

b.    For the administrative and procurement team to be shared across the Councils to support the efficiencies of shared procurement across the function.

c.    Animal welfare be aligned across the two Councils to the Environmental Health service along with the resource. 

Grounds for the recommendations were that the proposals aimed to develop greater resilience and management capacity within the service by creating shared manager roles and a shared administrative and procurement support team across the Councils.  This would help to enable efficiencies for the service and reduce duplication by aligning work such as procurement exercises, service transformation and other management tasks.

Details of the current structure were outlined within the report along with details of the proposed structure.  The current and proposed management budgets were also outlined within the report which demonstrated the achievement of savings. 

The Committee was advised that formal consultation relating to the proposals was currently being carried out with staff and was due to close on Friday, 14 June.  Feedback from the formal consultation would be included with the final reports for decision.

A discussion took place around the proposals in which Members made reference to the decision at the meeting on 9 January 2024 which had been for a temporary period of twelve months.  Asim advised the Committee that there had been challenges recruiting to temporary positions and that the approval of the recruitment to permanent positions should address the challenges.

Resolved: That the Shared Services Joint Committee recommend the following:     

1.    Approval of the new shared Streetscene and Waste Management roles including the permanent establishment of the shared Head of Streetscene and waste post (subject to the outcome of the formal staff consultation); and

2.    For the administrative and procurement team to be shared across the Councils to support the efficiencies of shared procurement across the function; and

3.    Animal welfare be aligned across the two Councils to the Environmental Health service along with the resource.

4.That Committee Members request that details of other potential benefits be circulated to the Committee via email.