Agenda item

A report to agree a programme of scrutiny for the municipal year, present the Annual Service Plan for 2019/20, and provide an update on the benchmarking.

Phil Scott - Head of Environment, Housing & Leisure, Mark Longstaff - Head of Commissioning and Asset Management, Colin Macdonald - Senior Manager Technical & Regulatory Services and Margie Burdis – Capita Partnership Director attended the meeting to update the Committee to a programme of continual engagement on the operation of the Capita partnership.

In January 2019 Cabinet provided its response to the recommendations of the Scrutiny study groups work into the Capita Partnership.

The study group recognised the governance arrangements in place within the partnership and recommended that scrutiny should receive regular updates on its monitoring. It also recognised that it should party to information when the benchmarking review was undertaken at year 8 of the partnering arrangements.

The Committee was presented with information on both aspects and was asked to agree a 2019/20 Scrutiny of the Technical Services Partnership (Capita) programme.

Technical Services Partnership Annual service Plan 2019/20 briefing

The Committee was reminded that the strategic objectives of the partnering

arrangement were:

• Invest in the services;

• Job protection for the existing workforce;

• Growth opportunities for the services leading to job creation;

• Financial efficiencies;

• Co-location in the Borough; and

• Improved performance of the services

The Committee was informed that Technical Services Strategic Partnership Board (SPB) approved the Annual Service Plan (ASP) 2019/20 in March.

The ASP was aligned to the highlighted main aims of the work that would be covered by the Technical Services Partnership over the coming year with the continued commitment to work like a Council Service.

In addition to these Strategic Objectives the Technical Services Partnership would deliver a number of action plans with associated Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) that related to:

• Property Workstream

• Engineering Workstream

• Regulatory Services Workstream

• That were cross cutting

• KPI/PI relating to Major Capital Projects.

Schedule 10 – Annual Strategic Targets of the ASP would ensure;

• no compulsory redundancies for transferring TUPE staff without prior approval of the Authority

• Remain co-located with the Authority in Council offices.

• The investment of £2.050m in the partnership to create the platform for growth, service improvements and efficiencies / income generation

• Continue service improvements measured through our Performance Regime

• generate 5 new jobs, of which 1 will be an apprentice and 1 will be a graduate, to ensure delivery of the 50 new jobs between contract years 6-10.

• To provide gross income/savings of £6.140m through Business Case Delivery

• Further commitments on H&S, Member Support, Armed Forces support

A member asked to what support to Armed Forces was provided and if there was consideration for a guaranteed interview scheme. In response the Capita Partnership Director stated that Forces Assist Charity which she was the Chair would be supported in the current year, further support was to encourage ex armed forces personnel into engineering opportunities with Capita, she also stated that Capita would support a guarantee Interview Scheme.

A member asked for a greater understanding of the item in relation to the cost of money that was within the Appendix D – Business Case Saving Summary.

The Senior Manager Technical & Regulatory Services stated that the heading was in relation to the transfer of cash but indicated that further clarification would be provided.

A member asked the length of time that there had been involvement with Norham School and questioned what improvements had been realised.

The Head of Commissioning and Asset Management stated that Capita had a long relationship with the school, with a good relationship with the governing body and had increased GCSE success and offered to provide further information to members.

A member questioned the generation of 5 new jobs and asked if these had been secured.

The Capita Partnership Director stated that the target for new jobs had been realised and would provide information on the posts created.

Benchmarking Overview

Technical Services Partnership contract requires Benchmarking Exercises at the 5th, 8th and 12th anniversary of the Commencement Date (1 November 2012).

The first Benchmarking Exercise was carried out under the Partnership following the 5th anniversary (1 November 2017), where, the Strategic Partnership Board accepted the recommendations and benchmark comparable data, with a summary of associated agreed next steps were provided to the Committee for each of

• Regulatory Services

• Property Services

• Engineering Services

The presentation also provided benchmarking outcomes for the overarching

partnership delivery.

The second benchmarking review was scheduled to take place at the end of contract year 8 and work was underway to scope this exercise, which would build on the Year 5 approach and include external challenge.

It was stated that once the review had been scoped and agreed by the Strategic Partnership Board it would then be passed to Scrutiny to consider in March 2020.

A member raised concerns that members aren’t always aware of utility works that are planned in their Wards and therefore can’t inform/answer residents’ concerns when approached.

In response the Capita Partnership Director stated that once permits had been issued for utility works Members would be informed.

It was Agreed that (1) the 2019/20 Scrutiny of the Technical Services Partnership (Capita) programme; and (2) the Technical Services Partnership – Capita report and presentations in relation to Technical Services Partnership Annual service Plan 2019/20 briefing & Benchmarking Overview be noted.