Agenda item

This agenda item contains restricted information as defined in paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). Paragraph 3 relates to ‘information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).’.

The Interim Executive Director (Corporate Services) presented a report which sought the committee’s comments on the 2019/20 Business Plans for the Shared Services. Heads of Service for each of the shared services were present to answer questions.

3C ICT Business Plan

The 3C ICT Business Plan was discussed:

·         Members suggested the business plan lacked elements that would normally be included in a business plan.

·         The committee was informed that single points of failure had been managed out by technology. The latest version of VM ware provided high levels of resilience. The remaining point of failure was staffing resource, which was challenging and  being focussed on.

·         The cause of the ICT outage and mitigations that had been put in place were explained.

·         The committee suggested compensation from the suppliers be sought for the severing of the fibre cable which had contributed to the ICT outage, as the suppliers had not installed shield cable. The interim Chief Executive was asked to look into this.

·         The committee was informed of the server arrangements; there were two separate servers that mirrored each other which were located at Shire Hall and Pathfinder House. There would be no cost incurred for moving the server from Shire Hall when the County Council moved to Alconbury from Shire Hall.

·         Savings targets had not been achieved in years one and two during which there had been significant spend on interim staff and consultants, as it had been difficult to replace staff who had been lost through redundancy and retirement. It was requested that in future reports, the previous year’s figures be included for the purpose of comparison. A 13% saving was anticipated for the current year and 15% for the following year.

·         Due to the resilience that had been put in place, the data loss would only be for a couple of hours rather than days should another ICT outage occur.

·          It was clarified that ICT service desk support would continue across all councils and a presence would remain at South Cambridgeshire Hall.

·         Regarding IT security, the committee was informed that an IT security team was in place and systems were patched every month. New software would be put in place during the year to identify and predict vulnerability. It was recommended that this information be included in the business plan.

·         It was suggested that the details of resilience testing should be included in the business plan.

·         It was suggested that the council needed to review its ICT security policy internally.

·         It was suggested that an external party should carry out testing and develop a security policy. The committee’s Vice Chairman proposed and the committee supported that this be recommended to Cabinet. The committee requested that the interim Chief Executive raised this with the Chief Executives of the partner councils.

·         The committee was informed that plans were in place and these were tested and reviewed regularly. The council had its own Business Continuity Plan and ICT Security Policy. 3C ICT had its own Disaster Recovery Plan.

·         Concern was raised that information was being held separately by the three councils. Committee members felt that the minutes of 3C shared services board meetings should be shared with all of the partner councils.

·         It was pointed out that all the other shared services business plans included concerns about ICT.

Legal Shared Service Business Plan

The committee was informed that:

·         An overspend had occurred as there had been a need for greater consultant support to set the service up, which had incurred significant cost.

·         The lower success rate of litigation at South Cambridgeshire District Council related to the type of cases the council dealt with compared to the partner authorities. Despite this the committee was informed that SCDC had a healthy success rate. It was clarified that these cases did not relate to the five year land supply.

·         The service’s customer was the internal department within the council which had instructed the legal shared service.

·         Regarding the reference to loss of staff, the committee was informed that it was a difficult market in which to attract and retain staff due to the high cost of living and competing entities offering more competitive salaries, with which the council could not compete. The service was looking at other ways to attract staff within the service’s constraints, such as by offering flexible working arrangements and other incentives.

Building Control Shared Service Business Plan

The committee was informed that:

·         Competition in building control had brought benefits and the service had improved as a result.

·         Local authority building control was not driven by profit and was rigorous, undertaking more checks than private building control may carry out.

·         Developers could use cheaper private building control, but the risk of this was reputational damage.

·         Plans had been backed by the government to introduce a New Homes Ombudsman to resolve new homes disputes.

·         Local authority building control had no power to check that building control had been carried out properly by an independent provider.

Greater Cambridge Shared Waste Service Business Plan

·         The inclusion of the local media as a key external stakeholder was queried. The committee was informed that the service relied on the local media to broadcast its messages to the public.

·         The committee was informed that three bin crew members had been involved in a serious accident, the circumstances of which were being investigated by the Police. The committee asked that their best wishes for a speedy recovery be passed to those who had been involved in the accident.

·         The committee was informed that there was a recruitment and retention plan which was not explicitly mentioned in the business plan, as much work had been done on this in the previous year.

·         There was a rolling recruitment process in place for HGV drivers, which was proving to be beneficial.

·         Street cleansing was included in the shared service for South Cambridgeshire.

Internal Audit Shared Service Business Plan

The relationship between internal and external audit was explained; internal audit provided assurance that risk management, internal controls and governance was working well, while external audit reviewed the statement of accounts and financial reports.

Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service Business Plan

·         Concern was raised that residents may not know what was meant by Greater Cambridge. The committee was informed that work was being done regarding this.

·         It was queried whether skills and experience of staff could be rewarded without having to become a manager. It was confirmed that these opportunities were being provided with the creation of higher qualified roles.

·         The committee was informed that formal staff consultation had commenced and would continue until 26 April 2019.

·         The committee was informed that a new structure was being created where staff could enter the service as a trainee and progress to principal planning officer level within that role. The aim of this was to enrich roles and increase the length of time for which staff remained in post.

·         The council could not compete with private sector salaries. Due to this and the high cost of living in South Cambridgeshire, it was a difficult environment in which to recruit.

·         An inconsistency in role titles had been recognised and was being addressed. This had highlighted a mismatch between expectation and reality once in post.

·         Exit interviews had shown that there were many reasons for staff resigning from the service; these reasons rarely related to job title. More junior staff had been lost due to a lack of opportunity to progress within the organisation. Other staff had left for housing reasons. The Planning Portfolio Holder pointed out that some staff who had left, had later returned to the council.

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee voted on whether to recommend that Cabinet approved the 3C ICT Business Plan; 11 members voted AGAINST recommending its approval by Cabinet, 1 member (Councillor Cone) voted in favour of recommending its approval by Cabinet and 1 member abstained (Councillor Bradnam).

The Scrutiny and Overview Committee was supportive of the other business plans and RECOMMENDED to Cabinet that it approved the business plans for the  Planning, Waste, Building Control, Internal Audit and Legal Shared Services

The committee AGREED to recommend to Cabinet that an external party should be commissioned to develop an ICT Security Policy, and asked the Chief Executive to raise this with the other Chief Executives.