Agenda item

To provide the Orbis Public Law Joint Committee with an update on the development and integration of the partnership. 

Cllr David Elkin arrived at the meeting at 14.20 during the discussions on this item.

Declarations of interest:

None

Witnesses:

Abraham Ghebre-Ghiorghis, Executive Lead Officer for Strategy, Governance and Law, Brighton and Hove City Council

Andrea Kilby, Orbis Public Law Business Development Manager

Ann Charlton, Director of Legal, Democratic and Cultural Services, Surrey County Council

Emma Nash, Orbis Public Law Project Manager

Philip Baker, Assistant Chief Executive, East Sussex County Council

Tony Kershaw, Director of Law, Assurance and Strategy, West Sussex County Council

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    Officers introduced the report detailing the rationale behind the creation of the Orbis Public Law partnership. Each of the four partner authorities had faced a sharp increase in demand on their legal services departments in recent years driven chiefly by a steep rise in the number of child protection cases. The Committee was advised that pooling resources across the partner authorities would lead to significantly improved resilience across the four legal services teams. Members were further informed that the partnership should enable the sharing of knowledge and expertise in specific areas of law while also reducing reliance on external advocacy services thereby contributing to financial savings across the partnership. Further spending reductions would also be achieved by enabling paralegals to take on a greater volume of the workload thereby reducing reliance on barristers and solicitors.

2.    Members requested further information on the degree to which the four authorities relied on external advocates to help deal with the volume of caseloads. Officers indicated that, at present, each team employed advocates with the expectation being that they would be able to manage a proportion of the expected volume of cases. Where there was a particularly complex case or the number of cases exceeded capacity, it was necessary to use external advocates. For this, and reasons of significant growth in cases in other areas, East Sussex County Council (ESCC) had had a drive to reduce spending on external advocates which meant it had significantly lower expenditure in this area than the other authorities in the partnership. Collective spending on legal costs related to childcare across the four councils in the 2015/16 financial year was £3.25 million of which £1.7 million was spent on external advocacy services. The Orbis Public Law partnership would help to reduce costs in this area by creating a single pool for advocacy services as well as facilitating the sharing of specialist legal knowledge across teams.

3.    The Committee was advised that there was an aspiration to develop an electronic court system which would not only to help to reduce costs but would also enable court proceedings to be paperless and more efficient.

4.    Officers highlighted that the partnership would seek opportunities to generate income by offering legal advice to public sector organisations on areas where there is expertise across the partnership. A commercial pathfinder had been created and officers were in the process of developing an organisational structure for Orbis Public Law designed to support income generation. Members were advised that clarification was being sought regarding the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s interpretation of whether the provision of legal services to external organisations by Orbis Public Law would be permitted or whether it would be necessary to establish an independent trading company in order to do this.

5.    Members were informed that change management sessions and staff forum meetings had taken place across the four authorities as a means of engaging staff in the development of the partnership. The Committee asked how staff perceived the transition to Orbis Public Law. Officers reported that staff were generally happy with the change and the majority appeared to accept that it was necessary to make financial savings. The Committee was further told that improved career opportunities could also assist in the recruitment and retention of legal services staff while increased resilience may also help to balance caseloads.

6.    The Committee inquired about the extent to which the recruitment and retention of staff was a challenge for legal services teams across the four partner authorities. Officers confirmed that there were difficulties in relation to the recruitment and retention of staff and that this had been the case for many years as a result of strong competition in critical areas of expertise. It was hoped that improved career opportunities arising from the partnership, particularly for younger members of staff, would help to address some of the challenges around recruitment and retention.

7.    Officers highlighted the shared IT system for Orbis Public Law which was already in use across all of the partners with the exception of West Sussex County Council (WSCC). WSCC was working to ensure that the system was compatible with its existing internal governance, arrangements that formal approval to adopt the new system had been given and it was anticipated the system could be in place in the Spring of 2017.

8.    Members asked how the partnership would demonstrate that it was helping to contain legal services costs for each of the four authorities. Officers highlighted that there was a clear action plan which would generate savings across the partnership. A reduction in spending on external legal services teams within each authority, however, would be the clearest demonstration that the Orbis Public Law was successfully containing costs.

Actions/ further information to be provided:

            None

RESOLVED: That theOrbis Public Law Joint Committee:

1.    noted the approach for designing and implementing the single service; and

2.    noted the progress made towards achieving this goal.