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Agenda item

Report of the Head of Economy, Enterprise and Skills (EE/17/2) on the proposed extension of the current joint Trading Standards Shared Services Agreement with Somerset County Council to also include Torbay Council, attached.  

Minutes:

(Councillors Brazil, Dewhirst, Julian and Westlake attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

 

The Cabinet considered the Report of the Head of Economy, Enterprise and Skills (EES/17/2) on the proposed extension of the current joint Trading Standards Shared Services Agreement with Somerset County Council to also include Torbay Council.

 

Members were reminded that in 2013, the County Council had formally entered into a shared service agreement with Somerset County Council for the provision of a joint Trading Standards Service.  The County Council had agreed to host the joint service and former Somerset County staff had transferred across under TUPE arrangements.  One of the objectives of the Joint Service had been to develop the capability to respond to possible changes in role, scope or budget by expanding the scope of the service either geographically and/or by broadening the range of functions within its remit.

 

The Head of Trading Standards indicated that the joint service had widely been held to be a great success. In light of the above and given the common challenges faced by the Devon and Somerset Trading Standards Service and the Torbay Trading Standards Team in ensuring that regulatory services continued to meet customer needs exploratory discussions were initiated in 2016 on a possible merger. Those discussions revealed that there was already a significant alignment between the priorities of the two services and following the preparation of a full business case it was now proposed, as detailed in Report EES/17/2 and the full business case and appraisals referred to therein, that the current shared service arrangement be extended to also include Torbay Council, providing a more robust service across the County with greater economies of scale. The Cabinet Member for Community and Environmental Services confirmed that exploratory discussions were being also held with other Councils  along similar lines.

 

The Head of Service’s Report also incorporated an Impact Assessment relating to the possible impacts of the proposal, which had been circulated previously for the attention of Members at this meeting in order that as part of its determination of the next steps in the process the Cabinet might have full regard to the responsibilities placed upon it to exercise its Public Sector Equality Duty, under s149 of the Equality Act 2010, where relevant.  That Assessment recognised the positive impact of the Strategy and that no detriment would arise from the proposed changes and no unmanageable impacts had been identified.

 

The matter having been debated and the options and/or alternatives and other relevant factors (e.g. financial, environmental, risk management, equality and legal considerations and Public Health impact) set out in the Head of Service’s Report and/or referred to above having been considered:

 

It was MOVED by Councillor Croad, SECONDED by Councillor Hart, and

 

RESOLVED

 

(a) that approval be given to the proposed extension of the current shared service arrangement with Somerset County Council (approved pursuant to Minute 200 of the County Council 24 April 2013) for delivery of the Trading Standards Service to also include Torbay Council; and

 

(b) that accordingly the County Council approve the discharge of Torbay Council’s Trading Standards functions in accordance with s101 of the Local Government Act 1972, such functions to be discharged in line with the arrangements approved by the Cabinet on 8 March 2017, recognising and accepting also (i) responsibility for the specific delegations made to Devon County Council to support the transfer of the Relevant Functions, and (ii) the need to extend the membership of the Trading Standards Joint Service Review Panel to include representatives of Torbay Council.

 

[NB: The Impact Assessment referred to above may be viewed alongside Minutes of this meeting and may also be available at:  http://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/].

Supporting documents:


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