Members considered a report on the options for future delivery of ICT, HR and Finance services currently delivered through a shared service with Cheshire West and Chester Council.
The report proposed that a Teckal compliant separate legal entity (SLE) be established as a continuation of the drive to bring cultural change, service improvement and future commercialisation to the three service areas ICT, HR, finance. It set out the drivers for change, the opportunities for future commercialisation, the risks of each potential future option and made a recommendation, on the balance of the possible options. The recommended option had been scrutinised in detail by the Shared Services Joint Committee over an extended period, and had been subject to external advice from PWC, a number of key commercial experts and analysis of a full range of alternative solutions.
RESOLVED
That
(1) Cabinet approves the setting up of a Teckal compliant Separate Legal Entity for the services currently delivered through the ICT and HR/finance shared services, the company to be owned and controlled by Cheshire East, Cheshire West and, depending on timing, a further local authority partner;
(2) Cabinet approves on-going work by officers and Joint Committee members which is actively seeking an additional partner to deliver the current services ICT/Finance/HR;
(3) the Separate Legal Entity be developed on a phased basis:
Phase 1: Change programme
Phase 2: Commercialisation
(4) finance be approved for the establishment of the Separate Legal Entity as detailed in Section 7 of the report, that is, one-off set-up costs of £198k for Cheshire East and up to an additional on-going running cost for the half year of 2013/14 of £125k, the costs being contained within the budget for 2013/14. This is to be a phased approach with the appointment to each position (except the lead officer) clearly agreed by the Joint Committee subject to progress against the programme plan. Once the lead officer is appointed the additional costs will be reviewed and further staffing appointments will be subject to further discussion and analysis of progress; and
(5) the decisions relating to the detailed setting up of the Separate Legal Entity be delegated to the Section 151 officers of each authority in consultation with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Joint Committee and the Resources Portfolio Holder, and Cabinet receive a further report on the agreed governance arrangements.