Agenda item

Alternative Delivery Model for Medway Control Centre Service

Minutes:

Background:

 

This report provided details of proposals for the Alternative Delivery Model for the Medway Council Control Centre Service.

 

It was explained that the control centre had distinct functions including, CCTV Partnership, Telehealthcare and Out-of-Hours and the current delivery model had reduced its cost to the Council year on year. It was now considered that any further reductions to the cost subsidy must come from growth through winning new business. 

 

The report set out and explored the options available for the future of the Medway Council Control Centre, with the recommended Alternative Delivery Model requiring the establishment of a commercial Local Authority Trading Company (LATC), with Medway Council being the Majority Shareholder.

 

Details of the new model were set out in section 3.4 of the report and Exempt Appendix 2. It was considered that the proposal of creating a commercial legal entity would benefit taxpayers both in terms of the service that will continue to be provided and the income that it would generate for Medway Council.

 

A number of exempt appendices accompanied the report, which set out details of:

·         Financial summary 2015-16;

·         New Company structure;

·         Commercially sensitive information;

·         Five Year Financial Forecast.

 

The report stated that the Councils making up the CCTV partnership would sign off the proposal prior to the presentation of this report to Cabinet. It was reported that although there had been good progress in achieving this, all three partners would need to follow their own internal approval processes to agree their final position and this was not likely to be achieved until after Christmas 2015. Members were advised that failure to achieve agreement with any particular Council would not preclude the other Councils or any other Council from procuring the services from Medway Council’s Alternative Delivery Model under the new arrangements. Members were assured that it did not therefore affect the recommendations contained in the report.

 

Decision number:

Decision:

155/2015

The Cabinet agreed that Medway Council creates a new Local Authority Parent Trading Company (LATC), named as Medway Commercial Group (MCG) Limited and in addition create three trading vehicles, as set out in paragraph 3.5.1 of the report.

156/2015

The Cabinet agreed the following timetable, and its associated activities:

·         December 2015 – March 2016: Transitional Period, Company Formation, Novation of Contracts

·         1 April 2016: Trading Commences.  

157/2015

The Cabinet agreed to:

a)    delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer, in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Services, to finalise the governance arrangements as set out in paragraph 3.6 of the report.

 

b)   delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader, to make appointments to the Board of Directors as set out in paragraph 3.6 of the report.

158/2015

The Cabinet agreed that on the legal establishment of MCG Limited, that initially the Medway Council Control Centre Service be transferred into the new entity.

 

Reasons:

 

This ownership model allowed for any surplus or dividend arising from its success to be paid back to a Council for further investment in services or to facilitate savings. This dual element of control (through contract and through governance) allows flexibility, but lowers risk in terms of strategic alignment.

 

Within the initial 5 year (2016-2021) trading period, the Alternative Delivery Model, in the initial 5 years (2016-2021) is forecasting to deliver an accumulative savings, profit (before tax) and re-investment in the existing CCTV infrastructure.

Supporting documents: