Issue - meetings

Purpose of report: To update the Committee on the development of the Orbis Partnership, the benefits delivered to date, and an overview of future plans

Witnesses:

Anna D’Alessandro, Director of Corporate Finance

Mr Mel Few, Cabinet Member for Finance

Nikki O’Connor, Strategic Finance Business Partner (Improvement & TPP/Resources)

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Director of Corporate Finance introduced the report and explained that the Orbis Partnership had been running for around five years and had, from inception until 2018/19, achieved savings of approximately £16m, and £3.2 was expected for 2019/20. She went on to explain that 31ten had undertaken a review on the Orbis Partnership, which was prompted by the fact that all three of the partnering authorities were moving in different directions. The review concluded that the partnership as a whole had changed its strategic direction, and the review represented a forward-looking view of what each of the councils wanted to achieve in the future. Even though the Orbis Partnership had helped the Council achieve savings, the rationale behind the recommendations was to allow the Council to invest in the back office and support the transformation programme. A lot of the savings came as a result of the three councils coming together and the efficiencies that arose from this, as well as a reduction in headcount.

2.    The Director of Corporate Finance went on to explain that the new target operating model was keeping the procurement, business operations and IT functions as part of a future Orbis Partnership. All three were pulling out their property functions, and the Council had removed themselves from the majority of the HR function. With regards to finance, the only arrangement that it was planned to maintain was the series of “centres of expertise”, which were integrated teams that covered financial accounting, tax, treasury management and insurance. A review was currently being undertaken to analyse whether it was right for the Council to remain as part of this partnership.

3.    Referring to the Director of Corporate Finance’s point that savings had been through headcount reduction and not integration, the Chairman questioned whether the headcount would increase when services were moved back into the Council. In response, the Director of Corporate Finance said that one of the areas they were looking at as part of the review was how the Council could deliver savings from integrating its services. A lot of work had been done in the finance department around process integration, and HR was doing the same.

4.    The Vice-Chairman asked about the savings of £1.7m that were outlined in the report, as well as the £1.4m black savings in the Q1 performance report, and questioned whether other sectors in which Orbis was operational were at risk in terms of their ability to achieve further savings. In response, the Director of Corporate Finance explained that, in order to balance the budget, the Council had to find the savings, so whatever was not being delivered by Orbis would have to be found using another method, which was the premise behind black savings. The Strategic Finance Business Partner went on to explain that the £1.7m as outlined in paragraph  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15