Issue - meetings

To review the progress made by both Mole Valley District Council and Spelthorne Borough Council in progressing the proposed partnership.

The Committee agreed that work on the proposed partnership proceed in accordance with the process set out in the officer’s report, subject to:

1.    The proposed date of operation being as soon as reasonably practicable, to enable sufficient time to develop strong proposals.

2.    The final proposal, once formulated by the Collaborative Opportunities Working Group, being considered by the Corporate Resources and Policy Committee.

It was hoped that the shared service would provide resilience, particularly in the context of a challenging recruitment environment.  The lessons learnt from previous attempts to share services with other authorities would be applied to this workstream.  The project had also been divided into phases to ensure that either authority could withdraw if it was found that the arrangement was not working for them.

It was noted that the shared service would require some initial investment but that it also had the potential to deliver significant early savings on software costs.  A new, more cost effective management structure likely to follow once the service had been established, although this was contingent on the first phase of the project being successful.

The Committee agreed that work on the proposed partnership proceed in accordance with the process set out in the officer’s report, subject to:

1.    The proposed date of operation being as soon as reasonably practicable, to enable sufficient time to develop strong proposals.

2.    The final proposal, once formulated by the Collaborative Opportunities Working Group, being considered by the Corporate Resources and Policy Committee.

To review the progress made by Spelthorne Borough Council and Mole Valley District Council.

This item has been withdrawn from the agenda.

This item was withdrawn from the agenda.

An update on the proposed transactional financial service partnership with Mole Valley District Council.

The chair has agreed to this item being added to the agenda in accordance with Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 for the following reasons:

This report seeks to progress the proposed agreement with Mole Valley District Council as soon as possible. Delaying the agreement will impact on service resilience, the councils’ ability to recruit and retain staff, and limit any efficiencies that can potentially be made.

The chair agreed to this item being added to the agenda in accordance with Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972 for the following reasons:

This report seeks to progress the proposed agreement with Mole Valley District Council as soon as possible. Delaying the agreement will impact on service resilience, the councils’ ability to recruit and retain staff, and limit any efficiencies that can potentially be made.

Spelthorne and Mole Valley both utilised the same finance systems which removed some of the complexity around sharing resources.  Some officers were also familiar with the local arrangements of both councils.

It was hoped that the Committee would agree to enter into a memorandum of understanding, with various safeguards and clear exit arrangements for each council.  There was the potential for the shared service to accept other partners once it was established.

The intended benefits of the shared service were mentioned, including resilience and economies of scale.  There were no planned redundancies in either finance team, with the proposals being cost neutral, and both councils being in a reasonably strong financial position.

The Committee questioned whether there had been any learning points identified when previous shared service arrangements had failed.  It was noted that there was a clear vision for the proposed partnership.

[The committee agreed that the meeting should continue for a maximum of 30 minutes, in accordance with standing order 38.2.]

There was a good level of buy in among officers in both teams, with a desire to share and implement best practice.  The location of staff was less of an issue, now that remote working had become commonplace.

It was noted that whilst the timescales for creating a shared service were demanding, officers were confident that it could be delivered in accordance with the planned timeline.

The committee noted the proposed partnership and requested that a full business case be presented at the meeting on 15 November 2021.