Agenda item

Cllr Peter Fleming introduced the report and invited Brian Reynolds to demonstrate the shared services map to the board. Brian then presented the website to the members demonstrating the current map and the one which would be going live in a few weeks’ time. He explained the services the map offered which included 329 councils with 383 shared services.

The board were updated on the One Public Estate Programme which was looking to fund a further 15 councils, with a combined budget of £2.2 million. Brian explained the LGA was currently in a discussion with the cabinet office over a transparent bidding process for this funding.

Siobhan Coughlan updated the board on the Public Sector Network (PSN) explaining there were 20 councils still left to comply but most had an agreed plan inn place and no councils were going to be cut off. However the process had been painful and it was important that the government learnt from this going forward, the LGA had been flagging up issues and had sent letters to the cabinet office. It was important that they were not in the same position in a years’ time.

The discussion was opened up to the board and the following points were raised:

·         The board thanked Siobhan for her hard work with the PSN and it was emphasised that that the LGA’s work to help councils needed to be demonstrated to the cabinet office along with case studies of problems that had only been avoided due to Siobhan’s work.   Members also outlined the need for the future meetings to be twin tracked with technical people and politicians.

·         A number of members mentioned problems with trying to build housing on land owned by the Ministry of Defence and it was suggested this be looked into. Brian told the Board that the LGA would be meeting with the MoD shortly and they were aware of the problem.

·         A member asked if there was a consistent way to measure the value of shared services, including in areas where they didn’t work. It was explained that they had looked into the biggest 5 shared services and the results stood up, however it was difficult to find information on failed shared services. It was argued however that the figures of more and more councils sharing services demonstrated that they must be working.

Decisions

i.              Members noted the updates to the productivity programme

ii.             Members noted the list of authorities in paragraph 20 for the extension of the learning disability services efficiency project.