To consider the recommendations of the review of the Service Delivery Partnership with Amey and approve a preferred approach to future service delivery to enable formal negotiations to commence.

Cabinet considered a report which outlined recommendations of the Service Delivery Review of the Council’s Service Delivery Partnership with Amey, and their approval was sought to commence formal negotiations regarding a preferred model of future service delivery.  The Director of Environment and Culture informed the Cabinet that a Herefordshire Model of service delivery was the preferred model, and subject to successful negotiations, Amey would incorporate the relevant Council staff responsible for the relevant service areas under TUPE arrangements.  Members of the Council had been invited to comment on the draft report and their views were outlined in Appendix 2 of the report.

The Chairman of the Strategic Monitoring Committee advised Cabinet of the outcomes of the discussion held at SMC on 10 September, which agreed the following; that

(a)     the SMC broadly supports the recommendations being made to Cabinet on the Service Delivery Review of the Council’s Service Delivery Partnership with Amey;

(b)     the SMC noted that detailed negotiations will give rise to a further opportunity to scrutinise the methods being proposed to measure both quality and value for money of both individual projects as well as the contract as a whole;

(c)     further reassurance be sought on the employment matters and financial implications once firm proposals have been agreed by both parties;

(d)     the SMC be reconsulted once the asset management and property review is completed at the latest by March 2009;

(e)     regard be had by Cabinet to the Committee’s other principal observations as set out above.

The Chairman of the SMC informed the Cabinet of the principal points which were made during the course of discussion, which are attached as Appendix 1 to these minutes.

The Leader stated that whilst the cost of renegotiating the contract was estimated to be £200,000 (which would include consultancy fees for external legal and contract renegotiation advice), this cost should be considered in the context of the whole life of the contract.

Members praised both Council employees and Amey contractors for their joint working for the benefit of the people of Herefordshire in dealing with the serious damage inflicted on the County during the recent flooding.   The Cabinet Member  Highways and Transportation informed Members that word of thanks had been sent to staff by him and the Head of Service recognising the work undertaken during the recent floods.  The work of the rescue services was also acknowledged.

The Cabinet Member Corporate, Customer Services and Human Resources informed Cabinet that appropriate senior support would be provided by the Human Resources team and that the process would be closely monitored.  It was recognised that any change in the service delivery model would impact on staff and that it was important that advice and guidance was available. 

In discussion it was emphasised that an alternative model of service delivery would require a very strong client side responsible for ensuring agreed specification, value for money etc.  Assurance would be sought on the effectiveness of the partnership (client/contractor) and the mechanisms by which non compliance would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42