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Maidstone Borough Council

Strategic Leadership and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Mid Kent Improvement Partnership (MKIP)

Report of: Orla Sweeney, Overview and Scrutiny Officer

1.           Introduction

1.1.      On the 4 June 2013, at its first meeting of the 2013/14 Municipal Year, the Strategic Leadership and Corporate Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolved that it would include Mid Kent Improvement Partnership Governance Model as part of its Future Work Programme.

1.2.      The Leader of the Council updated the Committee on his priorities for the year.  The following extract is taken from the minutes of the meeting held on 4 June 2013:

“The Leader described MKIP as being politically resilient and embedded in the culture of Maidstone Borough Council.  He informed the Committee that the MKIP governance model would be a strategic decision taken by Cabinet in the early autumn.  Members were keen for scrutiny to be involved in the development of the MKIP governance model and felt that there would be a benefit in working with the Scrutiny Committees at the authorities that formed MKIP: Tunbridge Wells, Swale and Ashford.”

1.3    Since its initial meeting the Committee has pursued the proposal to work jointly on the scrutiny of the MKIP governance model.

1.4    It was felt that those authorities interested in joint working would benefit from an initial evidence gathering session to establish a firm understanding of MKIP and from this decide what aspect of its future work streams and decisions it would like to investigate. Therefore, the Chairman felt it appropriate to receive a presentation on MKIP at this meeting to help inform the Committee, followed by a question and answers session.

2.           Recommendation

2.1.      The Committee is recommended to consider the presentation given by Ryan O’Connell, MKIP Programmes Manager and Leader of the Council, Councillor Chris Garland.

2.2.      The Committee is recommended to consider which aspect of MKIP’s future work streams and decisions it may wish to explore as part of its future work programme and whether or not it would like to undertake this on a joint basis with other MKIP partnership Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

3.           Mid Kent Improvement Partnership (MKIP)

3.1     The Mid Kent Improvement Partnership (MKIP) was formed in 2008 with Audit as its first shared service.  The original decision made by Cabinet on 9 July 2008 is attached at Appendix A. The decision detailed the following aims and objectives for MKIP:

·         To improve the quality of service to communities;

·         To improve the resilience of service delivery;

·         To deliver efficiency saving in the procurement, management and delivery of services;

·         To explore opportunities for trading in the medium to long-term; and

·         To share best practice.

3.2    MKIP is overseen by an MKIP Board, consisting of its Leaders and Chief Executives.

3.3    Maidstone’s MKIP partners now include Tunbridge Wells and Swale Borough Councils and it has six shared services:

·         Audit

·         HR

·         Legal

·         ICT

·         Parking Enforcement

·         Revenues and Benefits

3.4     Two further shared services, Environmental Health and Planning Support, are entering into implementation phases with business cases agreed.

3.5    The 2012/2013 MKIP Annual Report (Appendix B) was produced in September 2013. It included a detailed picture of its budget and staff size for 2012/13 along with reports on its savings and performance.

3.6    A further section of the Annual report, entitled ‘Project Hub’ includes a report on the Employment Model project which was an area the Committee was initially interested in investigating as part of its MKIP inquiry.

4.           Shared Services – The National Picture

4.1    The Local Government Association (LGA) has re-launched the national shared services compendium and map which now shows that at least 337 councils across the country are engaged in 325 shared service arrangements resulting in Ł278 million of efficiency savings. At least 95 per cent of all English councils are sharing services with other councils.  This interactive map can be found by following this link: http://www.local.gov.uk/productivity/-/journal_content/56/10180/3511353/ARTICLE

5.           Impact on Corporate Objectives

5.1        The Committee will primarily consider reports that deliver against all the Council priority: ‘Corporate and Customer Excellence’.

          5.2    The Strategic Plan sets the Council’s key objectives for the medium   term and has a range of objectives which support the delivery of   the Council’s priorities.  Actions to deliver these key objectives may          therefore include work that the Committee will consider throughout the coming year.