Agenda item

To receive the Strategic Director’s report.

Councillor John Cotton and Steve Bishop, Strategic Director, attended the committee to present the report and answer questions.

An updated version of the report to be considered by South and the Vale Cabinets had been tabled and the strategic director outlined the changes made.

In response to questions, the following points were made:

·        The services that were not being recommended for market testing in 2015 had been included as potential future contract additions to give the Council the maximum flexibility over the 7-10 year timeframe of the contract.

·        The draft specifications of the services recommended for market testing would be further refined to separate out the elements which were repetitive and transactional and so suitable for outsourcing.

·        There was no evidence to date that the proposals were having any significant effect on recruitment.  All applicants for vacancies had been informed, when interviewed, of the possibility that services might be out sourced.

·        If all the services recommended for market testing were outsourced, this would affect 99 out of 416 staff.

·        The biggest danger to staff morale was uncertainty.  The Communications Team Manager was working with the project team to ensure good communication to staff and monthly staff briefings were being held.  The UNISON Branch Secretary was on the project team.

·        At this stage it was not known how many staff would be required to relocate. If and when staff moved, the use of council office space would be reviewed.

·        If bids for market-tested services were too expensive then the services would remain in-house.

·        South and the Vale Councils would be in a position to award contracts for financial services and other corporate services on 1 August 2016 whether or not they were working in partnership with other local authorities.  Partnership working with other councils reduced costs insofar as 3/5 of the costs could be recharged.  The initiative had also attracted £125,000 of government funding which would not have been available otherwise.

·        The government funding had been received and was not subject to any conditions.

·        The councils’ consultant was aware of the need to build mechanisms for responding to technological changes over the length of the contract.

·        Irrespective of the number of separate contracts, there was nothing to stop a contractor bidding for more than one contract.

The committee considered the proposals for the future delivery of corporate services and, in particular, the division of services recommended for market testing into two packages. It was the committee’s view that a balance needed to be struck between having too many distinct contracts, which would be difficult to manage; and too few, which would give too much power to the contractor.

A member expressed the view that the IT services should be packaged together but that not all other services needed to be outsourced in August 2016.

The committee expressed the view that, whichever services were outsourced, South Oxfordshire residents would still see the Council as the supplier of services. It was, therefore, imperative that any contracts were monitored closely.

The committee thanked the cabinet member and strategic director for their open and informative presentation and requested that the views expressed by the committee inform the cabinet decision.