HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
POLICY AND RESOURCES CABINET PANEL
WEDNESDAY 16 JUNE 2010
PATHFINDER PROGRESS REPORT
Report of the Director of Environment & Commercial Services
[Authors: Helen Style, Pathfinder Programme Director and
Emily Whittenham, Pathfinder Programme Officer
Tel: 01992 556029/ 01992 555352]
Executive Members: Robert Gordon (Leader), Richard Roberts (Performance and Partnerships)
1. Purpose of report
1.1 To update the Panel on progress of the two tier Pathfinder programme that has been established with districts and the Police Authority in order to develop more -
▪ customer focussed services
▪ sustainable service provision
▪ effective and efficient services in Hertfordshire.
2. Summary
2.1 The Pathfinder programme has been underway for nearly three years and ideas are now coming to fruition such as shared legal activities, additional joint procurement work and a phased option for a two tier audit service from 2011. Key areas of progress in this report refer to progress in achieving efficiencies, communications and on delivering outcomes for the customer access and the support services work streams.
2.2 Issues highlighted in this progress report include -
· national policy and scrutiny
· efficiencies and external funding
· communications
· themes/progress on Customer Access, a traffic light highlight report and a wider project update. Appendices 2 and 3 refer.
3. Recommendation
The Panel is asked to endorse the progress of the Pathfinder programme and note the key involvement of the County Council.
4. National Policy Agenda and Scrutiny
4.1 The “Agenda”
The national policy agenda for local government and so the national context for the four original two tier Pathfinders is of course fairly unsettled at present. The local policy context is also increasingly challenging, in terms of delivery of efficiencies and improving access to services for our customers in Hertfordshire.
The constant themes through our Pathfinder remain the collegiate nature of the partnership and a clear focus on improving working amongst the two tiers to deliver outcomes that improve services to our customers. The emphasis of the partnership is now moving to focussing on the more practical implementation of ideas and towards delivering “improved two tier working in Hertfordshire”, noting of course the wider partners such as Health and town and parish councils.
Meetings with key stakeholders in CLG and OPM have therefore been less about the Pathfinder status as such and have not included other Pathfinders. The content of national meetings has been mainly concerning the progress in Hertfordshire, the possible delivery models for shared services and some of the challenges that need technical external input, such as data analysis methodologies such as “DECATS”.
The Panel are asked to also note that HCC (Hertfordshire County Council) members are due to scrutinise Pathfinder 21st June 2010 as part of the County Council’s scrutiny schedule. District HCFOs (Heads of Finance) and others are being called upon as “key witnesses” and outcomes will be reported back to a subsequent meeting of the Panel.
5. Efficiencies and external funding
5.1 Efficiencies – ambitions for support services.
The financial year 2010/11 is now underway and initial estimates for the year are still to be calculated. The position for 2007/08 and 2008/09 (actuals) and 2009/10 (still estimates in some cases) and the current total (now including part year procurement elements for 2010/11) exceeds £26m arising from collaborative efficiencies across Hertfordshire. HCC’s specific element is currently being calculated and verified.
The current 3 year target for savings from two tier collaborations is £12m. Spreadsheet detail on the figures is being verified by HCFOs Sub Group to ensure accuracy and is to be circulated to CEs separately once full verification has been made.
Recent items that are being confirmed relate to the outcomes of the work of the legal partnership for example on shared online subscriptions.
The Panel are asked to note the overall position on efficiencies and that the more detailed information regarding HCC’s (County Council) element of the savings is being actively calculated.
5.2 Funding
As reported previously, a bid to Improvement East has been approved for support services and procurement and provides external funds of £320-350k approx (figures to be confirmed) for 2 years.
The flow of funds is dependant upon achievement of savings as indeed was set out in the bids and to date, Pathfinder has identified efficiencies in excess of targets set.
The external funding provides an excellent foundation to take a programme of improved two tier working forward over the next 2 years and provide innovative and lasting outcomes, targeting shared support services and improvements to customer access across the tiers.
The County Council is supporting and enabling the Pathfinder programme and the Panel may recall a previous report that set out a budget requirement of match funding from district and borough councils to the programme which is expected to be £6k per council (HCC £60k equiv) per year for two years from 2010/11. The match funding has been included in all 11 councils’ budget plans and, if approved, will provide a firm foundation to enable further progress to be made moving forward.
The Panel may also wish to note that every effort is being made to support key officers in their endeavours to make savings through collaborations and that the County Council’s Strategic Management Board (SMB) are carefully monitoring the input of senior HCC officers on Transformation and Shared Managed Services (SMS) programmes in particular, so that efforts are combined and moving towards the same overall goals and objectives as the two tier Pathfinder work programme.
6. Communications
6.1. LGA 2010
Planning and preparations are underway for the Pathfinder exhibition at the LGA July 2010 conference. The exhibition will include case study information from all councils and a new DVD etc.
Hertfordshire Pathfinder will also be one of the LGA’s feature partnerships at the conference this year and will attract extensive publicity nationally among the sector for the County Council, the districts and partners involved.
7. Themes
7.1 Customer Access (CA)
The CA Group continues to make progress on developing enhancements to customer access across Hertfordshire and current key areas of work are set out in Appendix 1.
Recently the group have begun agreements on detailed discussions on common core standards for phone, email and face to face responses to the public across Hertfordshire which was one of the key milestones for the group.
7.2 Shared Services – Progress on delivering outline business cases/options papers
Key outcomes (Appendix 1 also refers) since last reporting include -
· That detailed work is underway by the Pathfinder Legal Officers’ Group on new joint procurements in particular and the group have agreed a pan Herts single contract for online subscription services that will deliver savings and provide enhanced support to all legal teams. Initial estimates of savings arising are being verified in detail. Further work is underway on combining the procurement of external advice/counsel etc. (known as “panel management”) and other items – including possibilities for shared procurement of online case management systems. Other items on the work programme include the possibility of sharing attendances at court for pleas etc.
· Work is underway on Audit to offer a shared service model (hosted by the County Council) for 2011 onwards and details on form and function, the structure of the shared service hub, HR issues and systems are all being actively discussed amongst the councils most interested in moving forward.
· Discussion and meetings on procurement have taken place and ideas regarding a how to progress a two tier review of procurement activity across the councils, including using a form of diagnostic review known as “DECATS” (CLG sponsored) are being actively researched. DECATS has recently been successfully used at the County Council and a roll out of the methodology to a two tier environment and a key function such as procurement, will be a useful way of working with partners in a structured, analytical environment to find greater efficiencies and opportunities for collaborations.
· HR (Human Resources) Partnership are very engaged in SMS discussions.
· ICT “Hertslink” (Pan Herts systems and technology group) have produced a proposal for the production of an outline business case concerning shared “data centres” in Hertfordshire. Michel Saminaden (Chief Executive of Welwyn and Hatfield Borough Council) has chaired a meeting with a sub-group of Hertslink to discuss the proposal (which has been circulated to Chief Executives on separate email). A timeline for the production of the work assumes the OBC work will be underway in June and July and a milestone report to Chief Executives in early late July. Final reporting will be in September.
· Targeted Revs and Bens/NNDR (non domestic rates) partnership discussions are more actively underway and being co-ordinated including Hertsmere/St Albans/North Herts/Broxbourne/Dacorum/Stevenage/East Herts in particular. Clusters are beginning to emerge around software platforms of “Northgate” and “Academy” which is a much more streamlined landscape for shared service possibilities than two years ago when more than 7 software platforms were active in revs and bens in Herts.
Stevenage and East Herts are looking in detail at a shared Revs and Bens team and service moving forward.
· Waste Procurement – discussions are underway on contract opportunities and recent savings from joint activities have been identified.
· Highways Procurement – joint options have been offered at Chief Executives’ Co-ordination Group and Hertfordshire Leaders’ Group by the County Council. Similarly SMS (Shared Managed Services) joint contract discussions are underway.
The Panel may also wish to note the following areas for attention in 2010 identified by the Chief Executives’ (CEs) stocktake workshop -
· Green Space/Street Scene
The Herts Association of Cultural Officers (HACO), Environmental Sub Group wishes to examine the scope, potential and benefits of a partnership approach to the joint procurement/specification and development of grounds maintenance and associated activities undertaken by Hertfordshire local authorities. The initial proposal was prepared in January and further discussions with HACO are needed in order to asses the funding request and the current contracting context.
· Regulatory
Environmental Health Services and Trading Standards have ongoing partnership working and savings are being achieved. A work plan to look at opportunities (“golden threads between the two tiers” such as investigations etc which can be costly and need high levels of training) is being worked up to report back to CEs.
· Health and Safety
Relates to the above and a meeting with Health and Safety officers from all councils has been undertaken and opportunities for sharing and trading and data capture are being captured and costed. The transformation programme at the County Council and particularly work stream (6) on the Regulatory Services, is flagged for this and Regulatory in general and needs to be context to the discussions amongst the wider group of councils.
The Panel are asked to note the activity of these groups and that initial discussions are also underway on the forward workplan.
100616 Policy & Resources Cabinet Panel
Item 7 – Pathfinder Progress Report
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