Agenda item

That:

1)              the Council serves formal notice on the Public Protection Partnership before 31^st March 2021, which if effected would take place on 31^st March 2022;

2)              the delegation to PPP in respect to the Executive and Council functions and duties (including environmental health, licensing and trading standards) will end and will be exercised by the Council directly from 1^st April 2022;

3)              The Director of Place and Growth and Deputy Chief Executive (and Section 151 Officer), in consultation with the Lead Member for Environment and Lead Member for Finance and Housing, are authorised to commence design of the new services structure and any resulting negotiations on an Exit Plan and to address timeframe (including earlier dates than stated in recommendation 1 and 2 if agreed by the Councils), mitigation of risks and costs, key milestones, ongoing resources and staffing implications for a successful departure from the partnership;

4)              The Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Place and Growth create and work with a task force of Officers and Members to create the new in-house service;

5)              it be noted that a special item of £500k, spread over financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23, was included in the Medium Term Financial Plan to fund a safe and effective transition.

The Executive considered a report relating to a proposal to authorise the services delivered by the Public Protection Partnership (PPP) to be brought back in-house to Wokingham Borough Council as from 1 April 2022.

During his introduction of the report the Leader of Council advised that the Council had to continually analyse its limited resources to ensure that they were focussed to the greatest benefit of residents.  The Council’s ambition was to provide a wraparound service for residents to keep them safe, secure and happy.

One way of providing that wrap around service, was to repatriate the control of the more than one hundred pieces of legislation, which had previously been delegated to West Berkshire Council, and then subsequently to the PPP.  Whilst residents held the Council responsible for these duties the Council did not, however, have the power to set the priorities of the PPP to ensure that residents were provided with the service they expected and that which the Council would wish to give.

Councillor Halsall advised that the aim of the proposal therefore was to tailor service delivery at a locality level which would provide a clearer cohesive response to issues that arise in the community eg anti-social behaviour, fly tipping, unauthorised encampments, noise, bonfires, neighbourhood disputes.  The intention was for delivery of these services to be integrated into other Council services, such as Localities, Community Safety, Legal, Children’s and Adults. This would make better use of the capacity of existing locality officers offering earlier incisive intervention and prevention. It was also anticipated that this would engender effective joined up professional responses across the Council’s service specialisms i.e. safety, enforcement and environmental health, with swift responses, resulting in increased resident satisfaction and potentially efficiencies.

Councillor Halsall set out the benefits and advantages to the Council and residents of bringing the control of the service back in-house which included:

·       Greater control, in one organisation with direct influence over policy, implementation, and accountability;

·       More visible ownership and flexibility to focus on residents’ priorities;

·       An integrated single Council approach to delivery in localities, which crosses specialisms, with the efficiencies, in respect to time and outcomes, by tackling issues holistically that this approach brings. That is, “do it once’ with joined up and combined responses to issues that consider the range of enforcement powers that the Council possesses. For example, consideration of anti-social behaviour alongside neighbour disputes, planning enforcement, noise and bonfires;

• An improved resident perception and experience due to a less complex customer journey, with a greater emphasis upon prevention and proactivity than reactivity;
• A service that delivers valued and visible interventions with timely support at the time when residents most need it;
• Potential efficiencies and economies of scale (within a wider locality team) can increase accessible hours and reduce response times;
• Greater influence and control over preferred suppliers and associated costs;
• It will allow, if the PPP is willing, to retain the services of the PPP when appropriate.

The meeting was advised that the Inter Authority Agreement (IAA), which governs the PPP, states that should any partner wish to exit the partnership, the following conditions apply:

• A minimum twelve-month notice period to terminate the agreement;
• The notice must therefore be given before the 31st March 2021 to exit the partnership on 31st March 2022 which was the earliest opportunity for termination;
• Within 6 months, the Councils sign off an exit plan and the Joint Management Team shall cooperate in good faith to agree this;
• If Wokingham elects to serve notice, it would still be possible to negotiate that some services remain within PPP as part of the Exit Plan.

It was noted that the IAA precluded any discussion on service delivery until notice has been given and the PPP retains control of the legislative framework until notice has been exercised.

Councillor Halsall advised that initially it was intended to replicate what currently exists but no doubt in time the service would dynamically respond to resident demands on a real time basis.  It was also expected that outside agencies would be used for the delivery of some of the services; which may include the PPP but did not exclude other authorities or the private sector should they be more willing or more capable.

Councillor Jorgensen provided her support to the proposal as she felt that getting better control over public services was the right thing to do however she queried whether any consideration had been given to the provision of specialist services eg trading standards?  The Leader of Council responded that the discussions that would take place after notice had been served would not exclude asking the PPP, should they be willing to do so, to continue providing any of the services that the Council wished them to provide.  This would still enable the Council to have control of the service.

Councillor Kaiser felt that the proposal would provide a closer relationship with the police as very often the work carried out by the PPP led to prosecutions and having the current arm’s length approach did not enhance the Council’s relationship with the police.  The Leader of Council reiterated that with the current arrangement the Council had all the blame without the authority to do anything about it.

RECOMMENDATION that:

1)              the Council serves formal notice on the Public Protection Partnership before 31^st March 2021, which if effected would take place on 31^st March 2022;

2)              the delegation to PPP in respect to the Executive and Council functions and duties (including environmental health, licensing and trading standards) will end and will be exercised by the Council directly from 1^st April 2022;

3)              The Director of Place and Growth and Deputy Chief Executive (and Section 151 Officer), in consultation with the Lead Member for Environment and Lead Member for Finance and Housing, are authorised to commence design of the new services structure and any resulting negotiations on an Exit Plan and to address timeframe (including earlier dates than stated in recommendation 1 and 2 if agreed by the Councils), mitigation of risks and costs, key milestones, ongoing resources and staffing implications for a successful departure from the partnership;

4)              The Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Place and Growth create and work with a task force of Officers and Members to create the new in-house service;

5)              it be noted that a special item of £500k, spread over financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23, was included in the Medium Term Financial Plan to fund a safe and effective transition.