Decision details

The Cabinet will be presented with an options appraisal for the delivery of ‘core’ support services and other services currently provided by Elevate, based on the Council’s new operating model and in view of the expiry of the Elevate contract in December 2020 and the need to deliver £5m saving from those services by 2021, and asked to approve the way forward.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Agree that ICT services be delivered by an in-house provision for; strategic ICT, policy and specialist applications support and that other packaged ICT services be delivered via outsourced arrangements;

(ii)  Agree that Customer Services be delivered primarily by an in-house provision with the option that specialist areas, such as the out-of-hours and Careline services, can be delivered via an outsourced arrangement;

(iii)  Agree that all other Elevate services (procurement, accounts payable, revenues and benefits, including financial assessments) to be delivered in-house;

(iv)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services and the Director of Law and Governance, to agree the terms for an orderly planned exit of the Elevate East London joint venture and the timescales for and potential phasing of services being transitioned to agreed new arrangements;

(v)  Approve a budget of £9.7m for the proposed exit of the Elevate contract and the implementation of the new operating models for all Core Support Services, noting that anticipated savings from implementation of changes are a minimum of £7.8m per annum from 2021/22 and a positive return on investment was forecast; and

(vi)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating  Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services and the Director of Law and Governance, to undertake all steps to implement the above recommendations including negotiations and to conduct the procurement and enter into any deeds of variations / contracts / agreements  and all other necessary or ancillary agreements with any successful bidder(s) and/or other related parties in accordance with the strategy set out in the report.