The city council is on the brink of entering into a groundbreaking deal to transfer its IT and finance services to a public sector partnership.
Following yesterday’s (Wednesday 11 January) cabinet meeting, members agreed to enter into final negotiations with LGSS - a partnership between Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire county councils.
Subject to cabinet approval from both county councils by mid February, the move would herald the city council as the first district authority to enter into an arrangement of this kind with LGSS. The deal would last for five years.
LGSS is one of the largest wholly-owned public sector shared services in the UK with over 1100 people working for it and delivering support services to both county councils and other customers. Its vision is to be the number one public sector provider of business services in the UK and its ethos is ‘by public sector for public sector’
If formally approved, in the region of 100 city council staff across IT and finance (including revenues and benefits) will transfer to LGSS. The vast majority of these jobs will stay in Norwich. Any arrangement with LGSS would last for five years.
Brenda Arthur, leader of Norwich City Council, said: “This is a very significant move for the city and the council. I am very proud that we have been able to find a way of saving money, improving the way we work and keeping our support services within the public sector. For me a public-public partnership is definitely the best solution. This arrangement would keep services in the local government ‘family’ and I believe passionately in local government. I look forward to working with colleagues in LGSS.”
Some of the key long-term benefits to joining LGSS for the council include significant future savings, improved resilience and greater efficiency in IT and finance support services.
The city council has already saved around £14.3 million in the last three years, as part of its five-year savings plan, with a further £4.6 million earmarked for next year. This arrangement could contribute £1.5 million to this figure and will help us to make significant savings in future years.
The council already has a history of successfully working in partnership to deliver support services with shared legal service nplaw - which is made up of 78 staff drawn across the city council, Norfolk County Council and Great Yarmouth Borough Council was set up over a year ago.
Alan Waters, deputy leader of Norwich City Council and portfolio holder for resources, said: “The city council is not outsourcing these services; instead it is joining up with a partner from the public sector to delegate them in order to deliver better value money for Norwich residents. We will be the first city council to join forces with LGSS. As soon as the county councils approve this move we can begin the hard work involved in final negotiations.”
Cambridgeshire county councillor Nick Clarke, chair of the LGSS joint committee said: “We have proved the case for sharing services ourselves and are delighted to be in discussions with Norwich City Council to see how LGSS could benefit them. We are always looking for opportunities to improve the quality of business services whilst reducing the cost, and sharing services with a wider number of partners and customers would achieve this. As LGSS grows we expect economies of scale which would mean parties would benefit from the likely reduction in costs”.
If approved by all partners, the new arrangement would begin in April this year.