Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Hollingworth.

To move “That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act".

Part 2 (Non Public Information)

RESOLVED –

That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

The Leader, Cabinet Member for Business Transformation and Customers and the Service Director – Digital, HR and Customer Services attended to present a report about the lessons learnt from the Arvato and Kier services transitioning in-house. 

On 24 April, 2018, members approved the early return of the ICT and Human Resources services in-house service delivery from Arvato to support the successful implementation of the Council’s ICT Improvement Programme. These services were transitioned on 18 October, 2018. Nineteen employees from ICT and Human Resources were successfully transferred to the council. The transition project which enabled this transfer  was completed within a three month timescale. Positive feedback was received from the Unions and from ICT and Human Resources employees on the process which was followed. The ICT and Human Resources teams have been strengthened following their return.

On 14 January, 2020 the Joint Cabinet and Employment and General Committee approved that the remaining services, delivered through the Public Private Partnership arrangement with Arvato, would be returned to in-house service delivery at the end of the 10 year partnership arrangement. The Assistant Director – Customers, Commissioning and Change was granted delegated authority to make arrangements for the transition of these services.

On 9 June, 2020, members subsequently approved an accelerated transfer of Kier employees and that transition of the remaining services managed by Arvato should be moved to 17 January, 2021. These changes were made to protect the employment of Kier employees working on the Chesterfield Borough Council (CBC) contract whilst also enabling key officers to focus on the development and delivery of critical services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Kier services were transferred to the Council on 31 July 2020.

Twenty-seven Kier employees were successfully transferred to the council. This transition project was completed within a seven-week timescale, which was extremely challenging to deliver. The project members worked collaboratively to achieve such a stretching timescale and again, the transition process was well received by the transferring employees.

A team had been implemented to deliver the transition projects, consisting of officers from Legal, Finance, Information Security, Human Resources and ICT services within CBC, Arvato and Kier. The CBC team members were co-ordinated by a Transition Project Manager who had been recruited on a fixed term basis, until 31 March 2021. The project team was now working towards transferring the remaining services to the Council, with 148 employees due to transfer to Chesterfield Borough Council from 18 January 2021. The transition project was in its final phase and planned activities remained on track.

A transition management board, made up of senior officers from Arvato or Kier and the Council, was put in place to ensure successful delivery of the transition. The Board meets monthly, or more frequently, as required by the programme.

A jointly agreed plan had been developed for each of the three transition projects. The plans detailed the activities which needed to be completed in order to deliver a successful transition and covered three workstreams: Human Resources, Operations and Commercial and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.