PUBLIC REALM COMMUNITY SAFETY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND REGENERATION OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

Transcription

1 PUBLIC REALM COMMUNITY SAFETY, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND REGENERATION OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE 19 FEBRUARY 2013 SHARED SERVICE FOR PARKING WITH THE LONDON BOROUGH OF BROMLEY 1 SHARED SERVICES BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW For the past year officers from Bexley and Bromley have been working together to develop a shared service for Parking. The principle being that, by combining services across the boroughs, management costs and other overheads are reduced without affecting the delivery of the front-line service. At the end of November 2012 both Councils agreed that a shared parking service should go ahead and good progress is being made towards implementation from 1 st April GOVERNANCE (a) Host Borough The London Borough of Bromley will host the shared service. In 2011/2012, Bromley issued 90, 180 PCNs compared to 50,155 PCNs issued by Bexley. Due to the larger scale of the operation in Bromley, they are more able to cope with the staffing numbers and management of the shared service, where they have capacity to house this within their existing accommodation at Bromley Civic Offices. Also Bromley operates a fixed CCTV enforcement operation in-house. Bexley do not operate any fixed CCTV enforcement and moving this operation into Bexley would have been a substantial cost to initiate and maintain. Bexley and Bromley staff will have the capability to work flexibly, including home working. It is also proposed to have touch down spaces within 2 Watling Street as an off-site work space for Bexley staff. (b) Governance Arrangements A Stakeholder Board comprising the Cabinet Member for Environment and Public Realm (Bexley), the Environment Portfolio Holder (Bromley) and the Deputy Director (Public Realm Management - Bexley)/Assistant Director (Customer & Support Services - Bromley) will have a key advisory role in developing the Shared Parking Service. A review after the first six months of operations will be reported to Members in both boroughs. A joint Parking Management Board will have delegated responsibility for overseeing the management of the service at officer level. The Board will comprise the Assistant Director (CSS), Deputy Director (PRM) and the Head of Parking Services for the shared service, and also Finance and HR representatives as required from both boroughs. Key responsibilities of the Board will include preparing and agreeing joint business plans, work

2 programmes and budgets. The joint Board will oversee the planning and delivery of the joint work plan for the Shared service and have overall responsibility for delivering the work programme and any specific projects including joint procurement of a shared enforcement contract in 2016 and any other business development opportunities. The development of the shared parking service will involve the creation of an integrated management team, reporting to Bexley s Deputy Director (PRM) and Bromley s Assistant Director (CSS). At point of delivery, the shared service will maintain the necessary local distinctions of the two boroughs. The delegated authority for Bromley to act on Bexley s behalf will be specified in the final collaboration agreement for the shared service. 3 IMPLEMENTATION (a) ICT System A key element of the Parking Shared Service will be the main ICT system that will manage the day to day workload of the service. The opportunity was therefore taken to jointly tender the ICT system. In September 2012 a joint tender proposal was sent out under the ESPO framework for the provision of a back office ICT solution for Bexley and Bromley Parking services. The options under this tender were to provide an option for a solution for a potential shared service alongside options for providing separate solutions for each borough (with potential discount for procuring jointly). Preceding this tender a Market day was provided for all suppliers under the framework to outline the early proposals of the shared service. The cost split for a shared solution was 61% for Bromley and 39% for Bexley based on the ratio of what the single borough contracts would cost. The tender from the Bexley incumbent contractor (ICES) achieved the biggest savings for both boroughs, providing a 41,000 saving for Bexley over the length of the contract. (b) Head of Service appointment Bexley and Bromley s existing Head of Traffic & Parking Services/Head of Parking Services respectively were ring-fenced for consideration of the new Head of Parking Service for the Shared Service. Arising from this Bromley s Head of Parking Services has been appointed to the new post of Head of Parking Services for the Shared Service. (c) Ways of working and Staff Integration The Head of Parking Services for the Shared Service has scheduled a number of meetings with all staff appointed to the shared service structure to establish how the shared service will work over key areas of :

3 Contract and Operations Management Strategy and Service Development Appeals and Debt Recovery Car Parks and Asset Management The opportunity will be taken at this informative stage to review the overall approach to Customer Service. This will ensure high quality and consistent communications across both organisations, adopting a best practice approach. 4 HUMAN RESOURCES IMPLICATIONS Bexley employees will be seconded to Bromley. This approach is cost effective and retains maximum flexibility should the shared services arrangement be extended to another authority in the future. This also reflects the successful secondment arrangements made for the shared library service. The current structures in Bromley and Bexley consist of 37.9 fte established posts including vacancies. The proposed new structure will reduce the establishment and number of employed staff to 27.5 fte. The new Shared Service structure is shown at Appendix 1. Each borough will retain management oversight of the service through Bexley s Deputy Director (PRM) and Bromley s Assistant Director (CSS). This will ensure that the needs of each borough are met through the equitable use of the shared staff. There will be an emphasis on ensuring a strong shared strategic vision for the shared service through the establishment of a structure that can commission, plan and execute a consistent quality service offer to customers across the two boroughs. All staff directly affected by the proposals were ring fenced to roles in the new structure. All posts in the new structure have been filled by staff in the ring fence. All reasonable attempts are being made to redeploy to other available posts before any redundancy takes effect. Bexley also additionally employ two Modern Apprentices in the Parking Team who will be able to complete their apprenticeship. The proposals were subject to formal consultation with staff and recognised Trade Unions. The main concerns raised during the consultation related to the change of location and additional travelling time and cost. Staff and trade unions have been advised that there will be considerable scope for flexible working which will limit any disruption to a minimum. The Council s usual procedures for reimbursement of excess travel costs will also be applied. 5 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS The ongoing costs of the joint arrangements will include staffing, accommodation costs, ICT costs and support service costs. There will also be non-recurring costs that will include redundancy and ICT set up costs.

4 Staffing costs will be shared equally, except for Parking Appeals staff, where the split will be based on the relative numbers of penalty charge notices (PCN) issued. ICT contract costs will be apportioned on the basis of the ratio of costs to the two boroughs were they to retain separate contracts. This results in a 61:39 split between Bromley and Bexley Office costs and support service costs will be shared equally apart from those that are linked to PCN numbers or are staff based. Non recurring costs will be shared on a 50:50 basis. However, as the Bexley severance payments are higher for Bexley staff. These additional costs will be met by Bexley. Accommodation costs will ultimately be shared on a 50:50 basis although the share paid by Bexley initially will be 25% of this sum in year 1 rising incrementally until the full 50% share is achieved in year 4 of the shared service. The accommodation costs reflect the charge for the appropriate share of the office space that the unit will occupy in Bromley Civic offices. The latest estimate of the total cost to Bexley of 512,000 is set out in the table below and this compares to an existing budgetary provision of some, 610,000, giving a saving of 98,000. The staffing and other costs are being finalised and the full year savings from the new arrangements will be dependent on the final costs. Description Costs 000 Staff costs 875 Postage 59 Post room and scanning 45 Other office costs 29 Accommodation 51 Support Service costs 106 Total Costs Shared Service 1,165 Cost to Bromley 653 Cost to Bexley (including full accommodation charge) 512 Existing Budget 610 Saving to Bexley 98 The full year savings arising from the new arrangements will be between 90,000 and 110,000, dependant upon the final costs of the shared service. The non recurring costs of redundancy is estimated to be in the region of 110,000. Under the cost sharing model this will result in a non recurring cost to Bexley of circa 68,000. In addition the non recurring ICT costs are estimated to be 15,000 to 20,000 and Bexley s share would be 7,500-10,000. The redundancy costs will be met from the Contingency Provision and the ICT costs will be met from existing parking budgets. The ICT contract under the shared arrangements will result in an annual

5 saving of 12,000 compared to the existing arrangements. 6 SUMMARY OF LEGAL IMPLICATIONS A shared service can be structured in a variety of ways; the type of structure determines the legal requirements that need to be satisfied. As the proposals concern a merger of Bexley s and Bromley s service provision as opposed to one authority purchasing these services from the other and/or both councils purchasing the service from a newly created joint venture company, current EU decisions suggest that the arrangement falls outside of EU procurement law. There are powers in the Local Government Act 1972 and the Local Government Act 2000 which enable authorities to exercise functions jointly. The Local Government Goods and Services Act 1970 allows authorities to provide services to each other. The shared service will be documented by a collaboration agreement between the Bexley and Bromley. The terms of this agreement will be negotiated by the officers of both authorities in consultation with cabinet members. 7 CONCLUSION The rationale behind sharing back office, ICT and management Parking services with the London Borough of Bromley is ultimately to maintain Bexley s parking services provision in a more cost effective manner, achieved through streamlined processes, reduced staffing requirements and economies of scale. The project is anticipated to achieve savings of circa 110,000 per borough and the shared parking service is scheduled to commence from 1st April Further potential savings are anticipated when existing contractual obligations for parking enforcement expire and can be aligned into a single shared contract. LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 SECTION 100D List of Background Documents Report To Councillor Gareth Bacon, Cabinet Member For Environment And Public Realm 30 November Shared Service For Parking With The London Borough Of Bromley Contact Officer Reporting to Mike Frizoni, Deputy Director (Public Realm Management), Direct Dial: Director of Environment and Wellbeing