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A ground breaking long term partnership on the cards for Adur and Worthing
Ref : 07/064 : Date : 05-07-2007
Adur and Worthing councils are being recommended to go ahead with a long term partnership to have one workforce providing shared services to the two areas.
This innovative project set out to see if it would make sound business sense to join forces to make savings, reduce costs and overheads and at the same time provide better, more efficient services for Adur and Worthing residents.
A report, published yesterday, will be presented to a Simultaneous Executive meeting, a joint executive committee of the two councils, at 7pm on Thursday 12 July 2007 at the Civic Centre in Shoreham.
The list of recommendations includes appointing the current chief executive of Adur Council and interim chief executive of Worthing Borough Council, Ian Lowrie, to the job of joint chief executive.
The two current management teams will be streamlined to take this project forward and deliver services for both councils, their residents and businesses. A new team of three strategic directors and ten executive heads of service will be appointed between September 2007 and December 2007.
This streamlining will contribute towards the savings for both councils over a three year period. However, it is introducing new ways of working more economically and transforming the way business is carried out that will produce the real savings.
Adur and Worthing will remain as two separate councils, keeping their own set of accounts, their own identities and their own councillors.
The new set up could see some of the services brought together soon. Full implementation of all the services could take another two years, with all services working together by spring 2010.
Both councils recognise the need for additional resources in the short term to make this unique project work, especially in finance, legal, human resources and change management. And a bid for £250,000 has been made to the South East Centre for Excellence to support this work, which it is hoped will be successful.
A business case agreed by both councils in March suggested that Adur Council considers changing how it makes decisions. This would mean going from the current committee system to a cabinet and leader, similar to Worthing Borough Council and many other councils in the country.
A review on Adur’s political management will be discussed at a Development and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 10 July and public consultation will follow later in the year.
If the recommendations are agreed then both councils could hold elections every four years. This would allow more time to achieve goals and deliver on the bigger picture and a set of shared priorities over a longer period of time.
Following the joint meeting on the 12 July at Adur’s Civic Centre, both Adur and Worthing will have separate full council meetings to consider recommendations from the joint meeting. Adur Council will meet on the 23 July at 7pm at Adur Civic Centre and Worthing Council will meet on the 25 July at 6pm at Worthing Town Hall.
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