Council Decisions

In February 2010, Cabinet considered and approved the Outline Business Case for Local Government Shared Services (LGSS). Cabinet requested that a Detailed Business Case was produced with supporting information that would allow a decision to be recommended to Council in July.

This report discharges that request and provides all necessary information and detail to allow a recommendation on LGSS to be made to Council in July.

 

It is recommended that Cabinet:-

A. Note the content of the Detailed Business Case and confirms its support and agreement for the establishment of a shared service arrangement between Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) and Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) under the auspices of a joint committee.

B. Note that the Detailed Business Case will deliver the shared service savings assumed in the Integrated Plan and that the investment required to deliver these savings can be accommodated within the existing repayable Invest to Transform Loan (see 4.11).

C. Confirm its agreement to the arrangements for the discharge, by the Joint Committee, of functions and responsibilities and for the avoidance of doubt, confirm agreement to the delegation of the Executive functions and responsibilities as detailed in Schedule 2 of the draft Delegation and Joint Committee Agreement attached as Appendix 3.

D. Delegate authority to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of Council, to agree the terms of and complete the Delegation and Joint Committee Agreement between CCC and NCC.

E. Recommend to Full Council that it;-

i) appoint a Joint Committee constituted in accordance with Schedule 1 of the Delegation and Joint Committee Agreement, and

ii) make arrangements for the Joint Committee to discharge the functions as detailed in Schedule 2 of the Agreement, and

iii) make any consequential changes to the Constitution and Officer structures and responsibilities, in order to reflect the above and implement the LGSS.

The above to be contingent upon the completion of the Delegation and Joint Committee Agreement and subject to appropriate consultation amongst affected employees.

F. To delegate authority to the Cabinet Member for Resources and Performance, in consultation with the Corporate Director of Finance and the Head of Legal Services  to make any necessary adjustments and improvements to the paper following Cabinet discussion and prior to submission to Council.

 

The Local Government Shared Services Programme is driven by the requirement to provide cost effective and quality corporate services for a given and reducing level of resource.
The changes envisaged by the Local Government Shared Services Programme (LGSS) through reductions in costs, improvements in effectiveness and through prioritisation of effort will support the delivery of the Strategic Objectives of the Authority.

As a very similar report had been presented to the June Cabinet meeting the main area of difference highlighted was in respect of paragraph 4.11 providing updated financial details explaining that expected project costs had reduced and that there was currently no requirement for additional transitional funding and that greater savings could be accrued at an earlier stage than reported previously.  

The final version of the report for the Council meeting would be revised following the Cabinet meeting to take into account some of the changes suggested by the Scrutiny Committee review.