Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report provides the findings of the Business Improvement Partnership annual service review and identifies the key deliverables for the Partnership for 2005/06..

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The Council Executive is asked to:

a) endorse the findings of the annual service review

b) endorse the deliverables for the Partnership for 2005/06 as listed in paragraph 4.6

c) note that the Resources O&S Panel has included a review of the Partnership within its workplan for 2005/06 and to delegate to the Executive Member (Resources) in consultation with the Council Leader authority to consider and respond to the Panel's conclusions and recommendations.

3

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 The annual service review provides a framework for the calculation of the annual contract price for services provided under the partnership agreement with HBS, together with an investment plan for ICT development. Agreed ICT and BIS service levels and investment plans can be funded within existing budgets but volume workload increases within Peoples Services have triggered contract price increases that cannot be met within existing HR Service budgets. This is currently being addressed by the Head of Human Resources as part of ongoing work to align the responsibility for the funding of HR-related workload at the source of the workload demand.

4 THE REPORT

4.1 The Council initiated the "Paris Project" to engage a strategic partner in spring 2001. Through a series of structured procurement stages the Council reached the decision, in January 2003, to select HBS Business Services Ltd as preferred supplier. After contract negotiation the Council Executive authorised the completion of the Partnership Agreement with HBS in July 2003 and the Business Improvement Partnership became "live" on 4^th August 2003.

4.2 The Partnership covers the transferred services of ICT, payroll and HR administration, with around 70 staff transferring to HBS' employment in August 2003. However the Partnership also offers a new Business Improvement Service (BIS) offering the Council access to HBS skills and resources to develop and deliver projects, mainly with a technology driver, that raise the performance of Council services and/or improve their efficiency.

4.3 In April 2004 the Executive received a progress report on the Partnership which completed the closure of the transition phase and agreed actions for the development of the Partnership.

4.4 The Partnership Agreement with HBS requires an annual service review to provide a "look back" at the previous year coupled with a "look forward" to 2005/06, including service improvement proposals. It is therefore a key planning and review process which HBS and the Council work closely upon, and the summary of lessons learned, continuous improvement and proposals for next year, including risk and reward and investment, represent the joint conclusions of HBS and the Council officers together with the Executive Member (Resources) who is the Executive's representative on the joint Partnership Board. The appendix provides a copy of the draft Business Improvement Partnership Annual Service Review for 2004/05.

4.6 In addition HBS will, as the Council's IT service provider, lead projects to deliver the Council's ICT Strategy (due to be considered by the Council Leader, as the Executive Member responsible for IT, in April) and work with the Council to achieve improvements in:

4.7 The Executive should note that the Resources O&S Panel has included a review of the Partnership within its workplan for 2005/06. It is suggested that authority is delegated to the Executive Member (Resources), in consultation with the Council Leader, to consider and respond to the Panel's conclusions and recommendations.

5 RISK MANAGEMENT

6. RATIONALE

6.1 The rationale for the recommendations is detailed within the body of the report.

7. OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

7.1 Not relevant to this report as this is detailing the progress to date of the project.

8. CONSULTATION

8.1 The Annual Service Review has been subject to consultation with the Council's partnership groups (Partnership Board, BIP Service Delivery Group and BIS Development Group) and with Directors and Heads of Service. A copy of this report was sent to Unison and GMB Unions on 16^th March.