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Councillors' Questions Answered

 

How can people access council services?

The aim is to make council services more accessible to everyone in Northumberland through improving contact points. There will be one-stop-shops in larger towns and communities, and these will be supported in other areas by new uses at access points that already provide services, like libraries, tourist information centres or leisure centres.  All other locations will have access to self-serve facilities and these will be determined by the Council in consultations with local communities. There will be single doorway to contact the council, whether by post, phone or email – and easy to use digital services.

 

How will housing be managed?

In the short term there will be no significant changes, and tenants have legal rights that mean they must be consulted about major changes. The new Northumberland Council will be a landlord for tenants in Alnwick and Blyth Valley when it is formed on the 1st April 2009.  It is expected that housing management arrangements in the Alnwick and Blyth areas will continue as they do now within the new area set-up. Officers from Alnwick and Blyth are meeting to co-ordinate the new arrangements and we will be looking to set the best level of services that can be achieved in the short term. If there are differences in the two areas we will aim to roll out the best standard across the new authority so any minor changes will result in an improvement in service. There will be some differences, for example Blyth Valley Homes will continue to manage council houses in the Blyth area under the same contract as they do now.

Later this year we will be consulting with tenants about the new arrangements for Northumberland Council. In the meantime if tenants have any issues that they want to raise they should contact their own housing officer. The housing officer may not have the answers to every question but someone in each district council housing department will be involved in setting up the new arrangements.  They will either provide answers to queries or ensure that any points raised are properly considered. A team from Alnwick and Blyth will look in detail at housing management and they will have ongoing dialogue with tenants and members from District Councils; who will remain responsible for housing services until April 2009.

It is important that district council members are involved in overseeing the arrangements for providing housing services, and it would be best to bring them together during this financial year. It has been suggested that the portfolio holders from the District Councils meet to oversee the work of the Northumberland Housing Board and Northumberland Supporting People. It is expected that each council will receive a report about that proposal soon.

In the longer term the new authority will make its own decisions about changing housing management arrangements and tenants will be consulted on these.

 

How will corporate service arrangements work?

Corporate support services help to ensure the council is performing well and fulfilling its community and corporate leadership functions effectively. The aim will be to provide support to members to help them fulfil their roles, as well as to staff and managers. The transition to the new council involves merging seven separate support functions, each with their own systems and processes, into a single corporate support function. This will involve work to:

  • Standardise processes
  • Define the split between transactional services and specialist services
  • Remove some administrative functions from existing business units to the corporate core
  • Consolidate back office support services into one organisation with its own location
  • Embed existing partnership and agreements

This standardisation and rationalisation process aims to transform in-house services to a world class standard.

The transformational project for back office must have a shared vision, and the bid and Blueprint Design promote a firm course on collaborative and partnership models. The following options will be considered:
Option 1 - Collaboration and sharing with other Councils in a formal shared service agreement – partnership working
This would involve sharing systems and processes with other councils to deliver ‘end-to-end’ transactional processes (most finance processes, and some HR support, which have a start point, an end point and can be made repeatedly – for example, raising a requisition, receiving the goods, receiving the invoice, and making the payment to the supplier). Service improvements and efficiencies would be delivered by shared teams and economies of scale.
Option 2 – Commercial model with public sector partners
This would involve inviting other councils onto a shared infrastructure, and charging for services while at the same time achieving further economies of scale.
Option 3 – Commercial model with private partner
This would involve developing a new commercial organisation with a private sector partner, and entering the market to offer services to other public sector partners. This offers the potential for profit sharing and reinvestment in services as well as service improvement and economies of scale.

Each of these options will be appraised and detailed business cases will be prepared. A further possibility is that a hybrid position is reached.
The back office design builds in an options appraisal for partnership and shared services models, with checkpoints for political decisions. It does not provide a direction to create a corporate shared services model with  detailed designs.

 

Will it be possible to transfer some assets into community ownership?

We are examining the range of options available to maximise the benefits from the current estate and asset rationalisation. Work will be carried out within the requirements specified by the new councillors and this will include some element of community ownership. Community ownership is currently considered on an individual proposal basis by the existing councils.

 

Why an Executive of 8 Members?

Given the large policy portfolio of the new Council, an Executive of an appropriate size to ensure clear accountability is needed.  By having eight Members, a sensible split of the portfolio responsibilities can be achieved which allows each Executive Member sufficient responsibility and accountability for the effective management of all of the council’s policies and priorities.  Learning from best practice from excellent unitary councils was also a consideration when deciding on the proposed size of the Executive. Legislation allows an Executive to have a maximum of 10 Members and the new Council may choose to increase from 8 to this level.

 

Why only 67 councillors for the new council?

The original bid submitted to Government proposed that the new unitary council should initially consist of 67 divisions in Northumberland, subject to review by the Electoral Commission. The Commission have already indicated that they are keen to review the situation in Northumberland following the establishment of the new council to ensure the best fit of electoral divisions can be established. This may result in an increase in electoral divisions in Northumberland, and if that is the case, elections in the future for any new divisions would need to take place.  No firm date has yet been given for the boundary review in Northumberland.

 

How will scrutiny work at corporate and area level?

Scrutiny will operate at three levels. At County level, three scrutiny committees are proposed to cover unitary council responsibilities on a functional basis.  They will review executive decisions made on county wide and regional matters.  We also anticipate there will be a separate county wide scrutiny committee for health.  At area level there will be three area scrutiny committees reviewing decisions of the area committee, service delivery at area level, and important local issues.  It is likely that these scrutiny committees will make provision for non-elected representatives of the community in their membership.  At belonging level there will also be the opportunity for residents and local organisations to engage in scrutiny through the community forum and their elected member.

 

What support will councillors have to support their constituency work?

Currently the Leader and Deputy Leader have a dedicated secretary to provide administrative support, the Chairman and Vice Chairman also have a dedicated secretary, and these two officers also provide the Executive with administrative support. A further team of three officers support the rest of the members with administrative tasks, research and surgeries, and will usually be members’ first point of contact.  The team also support the Mobile Information Unit (for mobile surgeries with members) in towns and villages across the county on a weekly basis. Once the new council is fully operational, the new leadership may decide whether resources for this support will change.

 

Will councillors receive development and training?

Yes. Training will be provided for all elected members. A comprehensive package based on a mix of skills training and essential information is planned, and individual training requirements will also be discussed and appropriate training provided.

 

What will be the financial position of the new council?

The bid for a single council recognised the financial challenges faced by councils across Northumberland, and bringing councils together can help ease these pressures while protecting and investing in front line services. All seven councils are working jointly on a financial plan that will enable the new councillors to review the existing position, but new members will want to determine their own political priorities and future policy, considering factors like council tax and the priorities of the original ‘one council’ bid. Such decisions will clearly have financial implications and it will enable them to accurately determine the level of savings required. The current position before any of this work indicates a need to save between £20-25 million over the next two years – this would have been the case even if there had been no change and the status quo was maintained.

 

Is there central government funding to pay for the transition process?

No the process is being carried out within existing budgets and resources.

 

Who decided on the salaries of the new chief executive and senior directors?

The salaries have been set by the Implementation Executive (IE) following external advice to reflect salary ranges nationally for councils of this size.

 

How would the re-organisation of local government save £17million?

Broadly, the savings will come from consolidating county and district council services and back office functions, rationalising property assets and more efficient procurement of goods and services. This is the figure put forward in the bid to central government, and is not dissimilar to the figure in the district’s bid.

 

The District Councils will still be in place until 1 April 2009 – are the District Councillors still in place until that time.

Yes