To approve payments to Hoople for services as specified in the Hoople service level agreement for 2018/19. The cost to the council of services provided by Hoople for 2018/19 is expected to be £5.184m which represents a cost reduction of 6.5% on the previous year (£5.545m).

That:

(a)  the assistant director environment and place be authorised to finalise and sign the Hoople Service Level Agreement (SLA) for 2018/19 attached at Appendix 1; and,

(b)  the assistant director environment and place be authorised to approve payments to Hoople in line with the SLA for 2018/19 within the approved annual budget of £5.184m.

1.         The council’s lead commissioners have considered reducing the level of services commissioned from Hoople and allocating resource differently across the services. The provision of back office services (Revenues and Benefits, Finance, HR, ICT and Training) are essential to the running of the organisation. The level of service agreed in the SLA is considered to be optimum by the commissioners given the availability of resources and the needs of front line services. 

2.         Hoople, in cooperation with the council, have put in place efficiency savings which are reflected in the cost of service provision defined in the council’s SLA. This includes an 8% reduction in the cost of delivery of the services. Hoople will incur the costs associated with the provision of these services during the period and it is appropriate for the council to make these payments under the Shared Services Agreement.