Meeting documents

That the Council’s Operating Framework is agreed and comes into force on 1^st April 2015.

That any subsequent changes to the Operating Framework are either a key decision of Cabinet or the Leader in consultation with relevant Cabinet Members as appropriate. 

The Operating Framework is in the supplement appendix pack.

Cabinet received the report of the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources asking them to agree the Council’s Operating Framework with minor amendments detailed below:

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources explained that a new structure was being introduced in April 2015 with four Business Units.  The operating Framework will be agreed by Cabinet annually and it was considered that the framework will form the operation of a modern Council. 

One change to Shared Services will be that after 31 March 2016 the Business Units cannot go to outside sources for the provision of Shared Services without demonstrating that there is a business case that there is not a major adverse effect of the rest of on the organisation.  It will be necessary to ensure that a competitive service is provided for customers.  The Delivery Units will be required after 31 March 2016 to contract for a minimum of period 6 months.  The Shared Service Business Unit must be market competitive within a 2 year period.

The Overview and Scrutiny Team Leader explained that if agreed this will be a live document with staff and will provide a single document as a toolkit for managers to use in understanding what the key rules are.  The key audience will be members and staff and this will be published to maximise transparency.     

An explanation was requested of the Council Board and why there was no reference made to the HQ Management and who the members were.  Cabinet were informed that the Council Board replaced the Chief Officers Management Team (COMT).  The Council Board comprises the 4 Managing Directors of the Business Units, the Director of Assurance and the Director of Strategy and Policy. 

The Chief Executive added that Members sit on the Board of each of the Business Units.  The HQ Board comprises of the Chief Executive, the Director of Assurance, the Director of Strategy and Policy, the Managing Director of Business Enterprise and two Members who are the Leader and Deputy Leader.  The HQ Management Board will commission support services from Shared Services in the same way as other Business Units. The HQ Management Board will be responsible for Strategic Commissioning Plan.    Clarification was requested on use of the term ‘HQ Management Board’. 

During a discussion the following points were made:

·       The Framework was welcomed as an opportunity for the Business Units to be entrepreneurial.  It was noted that the Support Services will not be managed by the Business Units.

·       The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources explained that the objective was to make Shared Services Business Units provide a cost competitive service.

·       The Leader cautioned that he did not want Future Shape to result in the destruction of the County Council as an entity.  This is about providing better lower cost services to the residents and not about individual business units going off alone and acting in a way that is destructive to the rest of the County Council. He wanted to see costs being scrutinised and Business Units looking for opportunities to bring in new revenue but the County Council must not be destroyed.

·       The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources considered that the amendments safeguard the future of the Council.      

RESOLVED

1.     Cabinet agreed the Council’s Operating Framework with minor amendments which comes into effect on 1 April 2015.

2.     That any subsequent changes to the Operating Framework are either a key decision of Cabinet or the Leader in consultation with relevant Cabinet Members as appropriate.  

Key Changes Replacement Text to Chapter 6 Operating Framework V30

·       A new BU will provide Shared Services where there is a value for money proposition for council-wide delivery.

·       Those services will continue to be provided in-house and purchased by other BUs for an initial transition period up until 31 March 2016; providing time for transforming those  services to commercial standards (this is a 2-year ‘buy back’ starting from the date at which the Future Shape Business Plan was agreed in March 2014. See Appendix

1 for further details).*

*subject to a business case demonstrating the potential impact on the rest of the organisation and the formal agreement of the One Council Board and sign off by the Leader of the Council.