Agenda and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence received.

Resolved (For: 6 Abstain: 4)

For: Councillors Bradley, Foster, Cullens, France, Walton and Wilson

Abstain: Councillors Bylinski-Gelder, Shaw, Smith and Snape

That the minutes of the meeting of the Shared Services Joint Committee held on Wednesday, 30 November 2022 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chair.

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.

None received.

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

Vicky Willett, Director of Change and Delivery presented the report which set out potential options for the future development of shared services.

The shared services programme has led to a shared workforce of around 50% for the two councils so far and generated savings on excess of £1.6m across the two councils. Following the implementation of phase 3 of shared services in February 2023, options for the future of sharing between the councils were considered by the Committee. Several key options for further shared services were outlined within report, considering the potential benefits and issues for each option.

Following discussion, Members proposed to pause further shared services until after summer whilst taking the opportunity to look into the options for sharing a smaller service, such as Environmental Health and exploring any external opportunities. It was anticipated that an update would be provided to the Committee at the meeting in June before bringing proposals for progression forward in September.

The Committee reaffirmed their commitment to progressing Shared Services but noted the positives of the above approach which included;

·         Providing an opportunity to pause and reflect whilst the elections take place in May

·         Addressing and resolving any issues faced so far

·         Making progress in transferring all staff on to the shared terms and conditions

·         Welcoming the new Heads of Service

·         Filling any current vacancies

It was agreed that the next meeting in March be cancelled to allow officers to undertake work as proposed, and should anything emerge in the meantime, Members would be updated.

Resolved (unanimously):

1.    To pause further delivery of new shared services until after summer whilst looking into the options of sharing smaller services.

2.    External opportunities - to consider other alternatives to sharing outside of Chorley and South Ribble councils, including different partnership arrangements with other councils and organisations.

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

Vicky Willett, Director of Change and Delivery presented the report which provided an update on the phase 1 and 2 shared services between Chorley Council and South Ribble Borough Council in relation to budgets, service development objectives, performance, staff satisfaction, and risk.

Phase 1 shared services including Transformation and Partnerships, Communications and Visitor Economy, and Governance services were implemented in April 2020, with the restructures for the services completed in November that year. The phase 2 shared services were implemented in November 2021 for ICT and March 2022 for Customer Services. Future reporting would also include the recently implemented phase 3 Property and Assets service which was implemented on the 1 February this year.

Overall, there has been in excess of £1.6m savings realised since commencing shared services with over £900k at CBC and over £700k at SRBC. Most services operate on a 50/50 basis with exceptions reflecting the specific needs of either authority.

Staff satisfaction within shared services has been measured through the Pulse Survey which is carried out every 6 months. 93 members of staff completed the survey at the beginning of 2023 which represents just under half of all shared services staff.

The Committee noted that the results show that whilst satisfaction has dropped slightly since the last survey in September 2022, it still remains higher than in June last year and an increase in relation to those services not part of shared services. Members raised slight concern at the drop in satisfaction but recognised this could be due to a drop in the number of people completing the survey. This would be monitored closely going forward and it was suggested that officers look at how we can engage with staff further.

It was noted that the results also highlighted that the Customer Service and IT Services required improvement and Members recognised that recruitment remained a challenge. The vacancies in IT were predominantly around the business development area of the service. This was a competitive area in the private sector and therefore officers would reconsider the recruitment process. Following queries, Members were advised that performance data for the IT Service would be provided in the next reporting period.

Resolved (unanimously): To consider the shared services monitoring report and note the current progress for phase 1 and 2 services.