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Agenda item

Publica Transition Plan

Purpose:

To consider the Detailed Transition Plan and to note its contents.

 

Recommendations:

The Committee notes the report and agrees any recommendations it wishes to make to the Executive on 22 July 2024.

The Executive is recommended to recommend to Council to:

1.    Approve the implementation of Phase 1 of the Publica Transition on the basis of the Detailed Transition Plan;

2.    Delegate to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader of the Council the decision to deal with any final detail matters arising from the Detailed Transition Plan;

3.    Delegate authority to the Director of Governance in liaison with the Leader to update the constitution by making any consequential changes required as a result of Phase 1 of the Publica Transition;

4.    Carry out a budget re-basing for the 2026/7 financial year so that the funding provided to Publica is proportionate to the services received.

Minutes:

The Chief Executive introduced the report that set out the services proposed to transfer, the process including phasing, consideration of risks and opportunities, cost implications, practicalities and timelines for the Publica transition.

 

It was explained that important work had been done collectively and alongside the Interim Programme Director to ensure the best outcomes were achieved.  Taking into consideration logically, the great detail of services to ensure any changes were done in a phased manner with a strong locality focus to ensure the organisation would deliver.

Special care was taken to recognise that service areas varied and that there would be differences in how Publica and the Council would be structured and reframed effectively whilst producing financial modelling.

The financial implications of the Publica Review had been the subject of extensive due diligence since programme inception in February 2024. The resulting financial modelling output reflects robust programme assumptions and a detailed audit trail of movements between baseline costing, of delivery via the current Publica model, to the new WODC structure posttransition, as proposed in the Detailed Transition Plan. The key financial implications of the Detailed Transition Plan were as follows:

Indicative enduring annual increase to West Oxfordshire District Council revenue budget of £185k per annum (pro rata for 2024/25 would be £77k) with one-off costs of restructuring between £207k to £301k, being the “most likely” and “maximum” scenario respectively.

The report also referenced business change and a focus on WODC with its needs and priorities, different services, both community wise and economic. The changes would bring better clarity in roles and responsibilities, responsiveness and agility.

There was a plan to implement minimum redundancies and the intention was to find places for as many people as possible.  TUPE would be used to facilitate this process and for the majority of staff the transition from Publica to West Oxfordshire District Council would straightforward with very little disruption.

The Interim Programme Director explained that he deliberately set up a programme office and asked Members to note the ‘Waterfall’ chart on page 31 that  highlights the core movements in cost from the Publica baseline costing to the WODC new structure post transition. The key assumptions which underpin the Phase 1 cost movements were:

·         The Council model assumed all Phase 1 roles were opted-in to Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) at the point of transfer (November 2024) with no subsequent opt out.

·         Newly created roles were in accordance with service delivery requirements under the Council model post Phase 1. Proposed organisational structures had been developed, to facilitate this cost modelling, and these would be refined and finalised after consultation with staff involved in Phase 1.

·          “Direct savings” result from roles not transferring to an equivalent role within the Council operating structure.

·         “Indirect savings” result from a Senior Management restructure within Publica. These savings were offered in entirety underneath the scope of Phase 1, therefore no further executive management savings were anticipated for future Phases.

·         For modelling purposes, both the one-off costs of transition and the savings (direct & indirect) had been split equally across Councils (one third each).

·         The paper did not consider any impact of the Council restructure on Retained Officers’ remuneration.

·         As mentioned, Local Partnerships envisaged a phased approach to the transition and Phase 2 would be the subject of a future report.

The Chief Executive and the Interim Programme Director answered questions from Members and the following points were to be noted:

·         The intent was to make sure as many people as possible would have roles in and where TUPE does apply, the employment of any employees assigned to an organised grouping would transfer automatically to the Council unless they objected to the transfer. They would be employed on the same terms and conditions, save for gaining an entitlement to join the Local Government Pension Scheme. Where a role is fragmented (shared) and would no longer remain shared post transfer, TUPE would not apply. In these instances, formal consultation would be undertaken with the impacted employees in line with the Publica Redundancy Policy and Procedure following ACAS best practice. Consideration will be given to alternative measures to minimise or avoid redundancies including, but limited to, suitable alternative suitable employment within Publica, or through employment opportunities with the Shareholder Councils.

·         The cost savings were explained in the covering report section 5.1. Impact on 2024/25 were explained in section 5.3 of the covering report.

·         Human Engine identified some benefits, for example a suitable pension that may attract future employees to the Council.

·         Culture was important and this would be considered in the consultation period and understanding of what values staff felt were important would be continued to be monitored through staff surveys.

·         Processes for redundancy costs would be highlighted as a part of the quarterly budget monitoring report to ensure Members could be made aware.

·         Publica would still exist and deliver important services to the Council.

·         The Budget for 2024/25 was built on assumptions that were known at the time. The cost of the transition was found in section 5.2 of the report.

·         Councils were creating various roles within planning to ensure experience was retained within each Council.

 

RESOLVED that the Committee AGREED:

 

1. To Note the Publica Transition report.

 

 

Supporting documents:

 

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