Transformation Programme - Report to Scrutiny Panel 25th March 2014

A report updating North Somerset councillors on the contract negotiations with Agilisys went to the Community and Corporate Organisation Policy & Scrutiny Panel this week. The full report is at this link: http://apps.n-somerset.gov.uk/cairo/docs/doc25528.pdf

The councillors were also given a presentation on the contract negotiations, which included a rather complicated looking bubble chart designed to blind them with science. The councillors decided that a special working group will scrutinise the contract negotiations and the Transformation Programme, and they have agreed to our request to attend the meetings of the working group, although we will not have voting rights.

The main points of the report and presentation are:

• Transferring more jobs and services to Agilisys, including customer services, business support and transactional services.
• Extending the contract with Agilisys by another 5 years - taking it to a 15 year contract
• Expecting a 20% to 30% saving on new services and a discount on existing services
• Giving them other business over the life of the contract - we're not sure what that is yet
• Asking Agilisys to help them with the Transformation Programme, including IT transformation and Shared Services

The report states that the annual cost of Support Services is now £10.66 million. But interestingly when the council voted to award the contract in August 2010 the annual cost was £10.379 million. This seems odd given the contract was supposed to reduce the cost of support services by £1.5 million in the first 2 years.

The timescale for the contract negotiations will involve a report to full council on 6th May, which will include draft proposals from Agilisys, and then a further report to full council on 23rd September, which will include the full business case and at that point councillors will vote to approve services transferring, with the transfer of staff and services being completed by December.

As well as attending the contract scrutiny working group, UNISON will be campaigning against further service transfer, and we need all North Somerset UNISON members to lobby the council meeting on 6th May from 5.30 pm outside the Town Hall in Weston.