To provide the Committee (OSC) with an update on the Shared Services programme and to seek its views on the proposals.

(Councillor PJ Edwards declared a personal interest.)

The Committee considered an update on the Shared Services programme (SSP) and was invited to submit its views on the proposals.

The Interim Assistant Chief Executive – Legal and Democratic gave a presentation.  This covered the overall ambition for Herefordshire Public Services; the original statement of the drivers for the development of shared services and their most recent description; and the objectives of the programme (cost savings, speedy benefit realisation; promotion and regeneration of Herefordshire; protecting employment in the County and presenting a cost-effective solution for the public sector).  It outlined changes in terms of the national and local context, their bearing on the SSP; and the priority drivers suggested by the Business Transformation Board on 2 September in response to these changes.  The savings identified in the business case for shared services were also reported, noting that these were under review. 

A supplementary paper had been circulated on the 9 potential organisational models for delivery of shared services. The presentation commented on the criteria used to evaluate these models.  The four models considered viable were described in the agenda papers.  The Interim Assistant Chief Executive remarked on the emerging view that one model might not suit all services within the shared services programme and a range of models may therefore need to be developed. She also noted that establishing delivery models locally would be more likely to secure the objective of retaining employment within the County.

In discussion the following principal points were made:

·         The challenge of building on the work by the Council and the Primary Care Trust (PCT) to integrate health and social care services to incorporate Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust (HHT) in the delivery of a shared services programme for the three organisations was discussed.  The Interim Assistant Chief Executive commented that HHT had been involved in the programme from the outset.  She noted that the PCT currently provided HHT with financial services and it would be more costly to HHT if it were not involved in the SSP. 

·         Concern was expressed about the time the shared services programme had taken to develop and that the changes now proposed in the recent Health White Paper, in particular GP Commissioning, would mean that the programme would be overtaken by events.

The Cabinet Member (Corporate and Customer Services and Human Resources) commented on the progress that had been made in integrating health and social care services.  She emphasised the importance of delivering savings quickly, to protect service delivery in the face of demographic pressures on budgets locally allied to the imminent national budget reductions.  She also expressed the wish to protect Hereford Hospital and to protect jobs within the County, recognising the difficulty, given communication routes and other factors, in finding alternative work compared with some other parts of the Country.

·         The Chairman of the PCT Board commented that the PCT would not be able to prescribe what GP consortia chose to do.  However, the PCT was working with GPs and believed there was a shared vision with support for coterminosity of commissioners and providers.

·         Members supported the objective of protecting employment within the County.  The Interim Assistant Chief Executive observed that there were a range of potential clients for services, for example Voluntary Sector organisations that did not have national support services.

·         The consensus was that the proposed changes must lead to improved efficiency and  cost savings, be simple, with no overlapping layers of bureaucracy and be easy to deliver.

The Interim Assistant Chief Executive commented that the importance of streamlining governance arrangements and keeping them simple was recognised.

·         Members emphasised the importance of the contract with the eventual service provider(s) being robust and ensuring that as commissioners of services the Council and its partners had control of costs to avoid the possibility that new arrangements ended up being more expensive than the current ones.

·         There was support for the idea that, to maintain flexibility, different models might be appropriate for different services within the SSP. It was suggested that for the Committee to able to express a firm view on the proposals a matrix needed to be produced setting out the pros and cons of each model for each service within the scope of the SSP.  Further detail was also required on the costs of each option, recognising that one of the key objectives was to deliver savings. The Committee received assurance that this would be done as part of the appraisal process and reported fully in due course.

·         Asked to comment on the timescale for delivering the SSP the Assistant Chief Executive said that agreements would need to be negotiated and signed by the Partners.  However, in her experience these processes could be completed more swiftly when the groundwork had been done in advance, which she believed to be the case in Herefordshire.  The aim was to have a shadow company in place by the end of December, becoming operational by April 2011.

RESOLVED:

That (a)     it be noted that the business case for Shared Services is being               reviewed;

(b)         it be noted that a number of options were being considered as models for delivering shared services in Herefordshire and that Cabinet would be deciding in October on the options available; and

(c)         a further report be made to the Committee in advance of the report to Cabinet in October, taking into account the comments made by the Committee as outlined above.