Issue - meetings

To consider the strategic director’s report. 

Cabinet considered the strategic director’s report on the future delivery of corporate services.  Since Cabinet’s last meeting, the council’s consultant had informally tested the market and consulted our other council partners to assess which services should be market tested in 2015.  The report sought Cabinet’s approval to confirm the services that should be market tested in 2015, confirm those that should not, approve two service package procurements; delegate authority to approve the procurement strategy and delegate authority to negotiate an agreement with the other partner councils. 

Cabinet members had received a letter from UNISON expressing its concerns about the proposals.  The strategic director acknowledged that this was a time of uncertainty for staff affected by the proposals but outlined the steps being taken to communicate with staff to keep them fully informed and to support them.  He confirmed that any request from UNISON to discuss the proposals at a public committee meeting would be welcomed although he suggested that a private meeting between UNISON officials and cabinet members would probably be more appropriate as it would allow open discussion of sensitive and confidential information.

Cabinet agreed the recommendations, believing that this presented an opportunity for the council to achieve efficiency savings, improved resilience, and improved service quality. 

RESOLVED: to

(a)       confirm the following services should be jointly market-tested in 2015:  revenues, benefits and associated financial services in the current contract; accountancy, internal audit, land charges, licensing, debt recovery legal activity, car park administration, data capture, human resources, street naming and numbering, IT applications support, IT helpdesk, IT infrastructure support, IT security, facilities management, procurement, engineering and property services;

(b)       confirm that the following services should not be jointly market tested in 2015, but included in the procurement as potential future contract additions: canteen, democratic services, professional legal services, mobile home parks management, CCTV operations, public conveniences cleaning and treasury management;

(c)        approve two service package procurements, being one package comprising ‘citizen, corporate, support services’, and, one package comprising ‘technical, asset and location-based services’; 

(d)       authorise the Strategic Director in consultation with the leaders to approve the details of the joint procurement strategy; and

(e)       authorise the Strategic Director in consultation with the leaders to negotiate an agreement with other council partners and to approve it.