Declarations of interest:
None
Witnesses:
Michael Coughlin, Director of
Customer, Digital and Transformation, Surrey County
Council
Kevin Foster, Chief Operating
Officer, East Sussex County Council
David Kuenssberg, Executive Director of Finance and
Resourcing, Brighton and Hove City Council
Adrian Stockbridge – Head
of Strategy, Performance & Change, Surrey County
Council
Key
points raised during the discussion:
- The Committee
received an introduction to the report from officers who provided
an overview of Surrey County Council’s (the Council)
Transformation Programme. Members heard that there was a
significant challenge to the SCC’s financial sustainability
over the coming years and that the Transformation Programme aimed
to address this through a rapid and fundamental shift in both
culture and service delivery across the organisation. £40
million of savings were required for the 2018/19 financial year to
avoid drawing on more of the Council’s reserves.
- Officers advised that
SCC had temporarily paused the integration of its HR and Finance
teams into the Orbis partnership. This
was to ensure that SCC had the resource and capability within these
services to support delivery of the Transformation Programme.
SCC’s HR and Finance Teams would continue to cooperate and
collaborate with its Orbis partners but
further integration of these services would be on hold until late
2019/ early 2020.
- Further information
was requested on what impact this pause would have on delivery
against agreed savings for the financial year 2018/19. It was
confirmed that originally budgeted savings within Orbis HR and Finance functions had been achieved,
It would be necessary to adapt the integration process in order to
deliver the savings targeted to be made in 2019/20.
- Members were informed
that ‘bridge roles’ had been created for HR and Finance
to ensure their continued co-ordinated management across the
partnership, which would help to facilitate the integration of
these services into the partnership when SCC was in a position to
do so. Officers also highlighted the development of an Action Plan
to support a process of integration that incorporated the
requirements of the sovereign partners. Members requested that the
Action Plan be brought to the January meeting of the Orbis Joint Committee to keep them informed about
the progress of the integration agenda.
- The conversation
turned to the publication of the Chartered Institute of Public
Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) report on the financial
sustainability of SCC. The Committee heard that comments made about
the Orbis Partnership included within
the report had been taken out of context and did not reflect
SCC’s view of its Orbis partners.
It was acknowledged that the report had caused some consternation
at BHCC and ESCC due to the phrasing of parts of the report
relating to Orbis and because
Orbis partners hadn’t been
offered the appropriate opportunity to comment on and suggest
amendments to the final report.
Actions/ further information to be provided:
- The Orbis Partnership Integration Action Plan to be
included on the Joint Committee’s forward work programme for
its meeting in January.
RESOLVED:
That the Orbis Joint Committee noted
the detail of the transformation programme in Surrey and the key
areas of focus.