Agenda and minutes

To appoint a Chairman for the Shared Services Joint Committee for the 2017-18 Municipal Year

RESOLVED:

1.       That the appointment of Chairman be deferred until the next meeting.

2.       That Councillor D Armstrong be appointed Chairman for the meeting.

To appoint a Vice-Chairman for the Shared Services Joint Committee for the 2017-18 Municipal Year

DECIDED:

That Councillor David Armstrong be appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Shared Services Joint Committee for the ensuing 2017/18 Municipal Year.

Apologies were received from Councillor D Brown.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

No Declarations of Interest were made.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 24 March 2017

RESOLVED:

1        That the minutes of the meeting held on 24 March 2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman, subject to the addition of Councillor P Bates to the list of those present, and

2        in relation to Minutes 9, a report to be brought to the next meeting on the feasibility of webcasting the Joint Committee meetings.

Mr Smetham, Chairman of the Family History Society of Cheshire, asked about the content of the archives expected to be available in Chester and Crewe and what access would there be to digital content from the Crewe location, where paper archives cannot be reasonable shared.

In response Paul Newman, Archives and Local Study Manager, stated that it was too soon to be able to give a detailed response.  Archives would be available in Chester and Crewe. It was envisaged that the archives at Crewe would focus on, for example, railways, engineering and the development of Crewe, whilst Chester would focus on its role as County seat for administration, ecclesiastical records, Cheshire societies and organisations and would be the repository for the remaining archives.  There would be exhibitions and digital installations at both venues.  Consultation would be carried out with partners, such as the Family History Society, to develop activities and type of service to be provided.

The Chairman agreed to change the order of the agenda items so that the Archives Update was considered first.

To receive a progress update on the Archives Project

The Committee considered a report which provided an update on the Archives Project.

Consultants had been appointed to undertake site analyses in Chester and Crewe, with the recommendations expected in May and June respectively.  Following these recommendations, advice would be taken on the decision making process to allocate specific sites to the project and also on allocating the future capital receipt from the sale of the current Record Office to the project.

In order to progress the project, funding would need to be secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund and work was underway to write briefs for commissions which would support the development of the funding bid.  Cheshire West and Chester Council would lead the process in consultation with Cheshire East Council.

RESOLVED:

That the content of the report be noted.

To consider a report on the outturn position for the Shared Services arrangements between Cheshire East Council and Cheshire West and Chester Council

The Committee considered a report which set out a summary of the outturn position for the Shared Service arrangements. It included both indicative financial and non-financial performance over the period 2016-17.

There had been a general improvement in terms of both financial and  non-financial performance, with all Shared Services being rated as ‘Green’ in terms of their overall performance.  This represented an improvement to the position at mid-year.  For the fifth year running the aggregated Shared Services were reporting an underspend against budgets.  An overview of performance was detailed in Appendix 1 to the Report. 

Reference was made to the different financial arrangements between the two Councils, and specifically the fixed costs for Cheshire East for some services. It was asked if these costs could be reviewed to ensure the Council was not overpaying.

RESOLVED:

That the Shared Services Outturn Performance for 2016-17 be noted.

To receive an update on the development of the Transactional Service Centre

The Committee considered a report which provided an update on the development of the Transactional Service Centre. 

A new shared services agreement for transactional HR and Finance services, hosted by Cheshire West and Chester Council had been established.  On 1 April 2016, the Council had inherited an approximate £0.5m funding gap form CoSocius Ltd in relation to HR and Finance services.  The outturn position for 2016/17 showed a small underspend of £3k, which represented a significant performance achievement for the service.  This had largely been achieved through vacancy management and by addressing some non-pay areas such as the roll out of e-payslips; file storage, and a reduction in the school subsidy.

A management restructure of Transactional Service Centre had been undertaken with the recruitment to the Management Team positions being completed.  A Strategic Business Plan to 2019 was being developed and would set out the core vision, goals and objectives, non-financial Performance Management Framework, overall and operational governance, risk and opportunities, financial information and a high level Exit Strategy. 

RESOLVED:

That the progress made by the Service in delivering its key objectives be noted and endorsed.

To receive a progress update on the ICT Shared Services, focussing on the Transformation Phase of the service

The Committee considered a report which provided an update on ICT Shared Services, focusing on the Transformation Phase of the service.

An overview of performance in the five key areas of Cost Mode; ICT Services Transformation Phase and outline 5 year Infrastructure Investment Programme; Independent review of ICT; ICT Service Portfolio; and Contractual Checkpoints, was detailed in the report.

It was noted that the financial outturn position for 2016/17 was an underspend of £358k, which had been transferred back to both Councils on a 50/50 basis.  The main reason for the underspend in ICT Service Delivery was a one off refund from Vodafone of £470k due to overcharging in previous financial years. 

Reference was made to the recent email ransomware attacks.  Work was being undertaken by the ICT team to ensure that defences were in place to protect the Councils’ ICT systems. Training and awareness for staff of the issues was being provided and business continuity plans were being developed to respond to a cyber attach.  

RESOLVED:

That the content of the report be noted.