Issue - meetings

To receive a report on progress to date (Copy attached).

Consideration was given to a report updating the Panel in respect of the shared back office service.  It was reported that the Cheshire East Cabinet, at its meeting on 7 October, had approved in principle, a shared service with Cheshire West and Chester for transactional finance, procure to pay, transactional HR and ICT services (except strategic function).

In considering the report Members of the Panel raised the following issues:

(i)      It was noted that concern had been expressed at meetings of the ICT Working Group that it was envisaged that Cheshire West and Chester would have ultimate responsibility for the shared back office service.  It was stressed that there would be joint Governance and that the service would be a true partnership, however, there had to be an accountable body.

(ii)     It was considered that the shared back office should be staffed from across the County. It was noted that there were a number of services which would need to operate after 1 April and were not situated in Chester. It would be necessary to retain and motivate existing staff to run these services. Concern had been expressed that the shared back office would be led by Chester West and Cheshire and it was felt that it should be stressed that the existing District Council staff should be safeguarded.

(iii)    It was queried in the event that the Cheshire East Authority wished to carry out additional services to provide income generation, would there be an opportunity for this.  It was noted that this would be possible.

(iv)   Reference was made to the Oracle IT system.  It was noted that there were several other systems being used in the existing Authorities and it was queried what would happen to them.  It was noted that it had been agreed that the Oracle system would underpin the Finance and Payroll systems, however, at some point existing systems would need to be aggregated.

(v)     It was felt that the report appeared to suggest that IT hardware would  primarily be based in Chester.  It was noted that this would depend on the system and would develop over time, to ensure that the correct equipment was available at the right time and it would be necessary to carry out a detailed modelling exercise in respect of this.