Issue - meetings

A report is attached on Shared Services.

The Divisional Director for Strategy and Performance introduced this item to the Panel. He explained that local authorities have under successive governments been encouraged to work together and at various points initiatives been developed to drive this further from Local Government Reviews and boundary changes to programmes like Total Place and Community Budgets.

He added that with the scale of change faced by Local Government, collaboration and sharing services has emerged as an area where we need to look actively at the range of opportunities that might exist.

Councillor Charles Gerrish said that he welcomed this report. He added though that he thought that the Strategic Management Teams should meet more than twice a year.

Councillor Barry Macrae said that he hoped the planned savings for the agreement would be justified and cost too much in effort and funds to find them. He added that he felt that B&NES should be looking to use the areas in which it is strong within other Councils.

The Divisional Director for Strategy and Performance replied that a piece of work would only go forward if deemed value for money.

Councillor Colin Barrett asked if the Trades Unions were aware of these proposals.

The Divisional Director for Strategy and Performance replied that discussions have taken place with the Trades Unions and that they will continue to do so. He added that the most recent meeting had taken place on May 29^th 2014 and representatives from Unison, GMB, Unite and ATL were present.

The Chairman commented that he welcomed this piece of work.