Issue - meetings

To update the Committee on the development and implementation of the Shared Services Preferred Partnership with London Borough of Waltham Forest.

The Corporate Committee received an update on the development and implementation of the Shared Services Preferred partnership with the London Borough of Waltham Forest . A Memorandum of Understanding had been agreed between the two boroughs in December 2010. Members of the Committee were pointed to paragraph 7.2.1 of the report which set out the criteria being followed to assess whether a service was suitable for the two boroughs to share.  Paragraph 7.3.1 outlined the services actively being assessed as viable for a shared service . Finally paragraph 7.71 listed the resultant employment  issues to be addressed.  These were pertinent to the remit of this committee as these issues  would eventually culminate  into  proposed ways of working  for this committee to consider.

 The committee a number  of questions  and  the Assistant Chief Executive agreed to provide a written response on the following points:

1. The direct cost of facilitating the  shared service project, in terms of officer time , in comparison to the savings to be made .  Information sought on the in- house cost of the project team (In the main, council project management staff were undertaking this work with expert advice sought when needed.  However further clarification on the costs in response to this point would be provided.)

2. If the Council had identified an independent arbitrator.

3. If written notice was received for terminating the MOU, what was the timeframe for implementing this ?

4. More clarity  on the governance arrangements and how decisions are made on which services to share.

5. More information on the business case analysis on sharing of communications and legal services  which had shown that these two services were not suitable  as a fully shared service. This conclusion did not rule out  sharing elements of the service.  

6. Information on  existing joint  ventures with Waltham Forest on the  commissioning of goods and services.

There were questions about the choice of areas to enter into partnership with Waltham Forest and why bigger cost areas  were not being investigated as  these would have bigger financial savings for both boroughs. The Assistant Chief Executive explained the approach partnership working being taken. This  was to initially prove that the concept of working together as two boroughs can work . This was  through looking at how management will work together  and developing internal working relationships before then  tackling bigger issues as a partnership. In response to questions about the commitment of both councils to shared working when a clause was included to terminate the MOU  at the time of the local elections in 2014,  the committee noted that the overall aim was to have a long term partnership agreement . The two councils  would be seeking to share services that were broadly aligned  as set out in paragraph  7.2.1 . The MOU had the exit clauses to accommodate any eventuality  but the MOU also included the flexiability  for the partnership working to continue in the long term . Both councils were committed to only sharing services which had a cost benefit to both  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24