Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets (copy enclosed) seeking Cabinet approval to continue the existing collaborative procurement arrangement with Flintshire County Council for a further three years.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       agrees to enter into a further three year Service Level Agreement with Flintshire County Council for the hosting by Denbighshire County Council of a collaborative procurement service to operate across the counties of Denbighshire and Flintshire, and

(b)       that the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services has authority to finalise and enter into an appropriate form of agreement with Flintshire County Council.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill presented the report seeking Cabinet approval to continue the existing collaborative procurement arrangement with Flintshire County Council for a further three years.  He introduced the Legal and Procurement Operations Manager who had been in post since September 2017.

Cabinet had approved a merger with Flintshire County Council in May 2014 to create a Collaborative Procurement Unit hosted by Denbighshire as employer in order to realise a number of benefits including efficiencies and economies of scale, improving capacity and resilience, and to maximise relationships with suppliers.  The agreement ended in July 2017 and the Head of Legal Services had agreed an extension of the arrangement to enable a joint audit to be commissioned which was reported to Corporate Governance Committee in June 2018.  Whilst the audit report had been critical it was largely historical and many of the issues raised had been resolved following the appointment of the Legal and Procurement Operations Manager who had also provided stability for the unit.  An action plan had been developed and Cabinet was advised of measures to improve outstanding governance issues and encourage corporate and political buy-in to the service which included strengthening reporting, scrutiny and monitoring arrangements; alignment of the procurement strategy of both Councils, and embedding collaborative procurement within the culture of both Councils across all services and at political level.  It was noted that continued delivery of the service had been achieved despite having only one quarter of the employees per £1m of spend recommended by Welsh Government and Wales Audit Office.  The unit consisted of highly trained officers working with services to ensure procurement was involved at a much earlier stage leading to services being more familiar with requirements.

Councillor Thompson-Hill acknowledged that more work was required but positive progress had been made with tangible benefits delivered.  In response to questions Councillor Thompson-Hill and the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services –

·         confirmed that Internal Audit would produce a follow up report detailing progress against the action plan for submission to Corporate Governance Committee in January.  The action plan included target dates for completion later in the year which would result in a further follow up report to Corporate Governance Committee to ensure full compliance and completion of the action plan following which future monitoring arrangements for the unit would be agreed

·         clarified the Cabinet decision in respect of the options for delivering the enforcement of environmental crime together with the involvement of the Collaborative Procurement Unit within that process – at the last Joint Procurement Board meeting Flintshire colleagues had been amenable to future discussions on the possibility of regional or sub-regional collaboration

·         advised there was no criticism in the report relating to the size of the unit or number of employees but the focus was on ensuring all services considered collaborative procurement at the outset with detailed actions to deliver that aim

·         explained that in considering future savings realised, whilst some savings were easy to quantify other procurement savings proved difficult to determine and work was ongoing as to how to deliver that detail for the purposes of future scrutiny and monitoring

·         clarified the role of the Corporate Governance Committee in ensuring correct processes were in place and delivery of the action plan and highlighted the need to ensure an appropriate mechanism for future monitoring and scrutiny of savings and performance by scrutiny committee

·         advised that in terms of procurement strategies a suite of key performance indicators had been agreed with both Councils although some figures for the excellence threshold differed in order to reflect the Councils’ different aims and objectives; there were also performance measures in place to measure spend for both local authority areas.

The Leader acknowledged the initial teething problems following the merger but highlighted the benefits in terms of a more viable unit and greater staffing resilience.  He considered the collaborative arrangement to be the way forward and given the benefits to be realised and assurances provided in terms of actions to address shortcomings and effect improvement he was supportive of the recommendation.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       agrees to enter into a further three year Service Level Agreement with Flintshire County Council for the hosting by Denbighshire County Council of a collaborative procurement service to operate across the counties of Denbighshire and Flintshire, and

(b)       that the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services has authority to finalise and enter into an appropriate form of agreement with Flintshire County Council.