Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Finance, Governance and Organisation and Deputy Leader.

RESOLVED – that the Executive:

(i)               Endorses the continued development of the Revenues, Benefits and Fraud service’s joint working with other councils and external bodies; and

(ii)             Endorses the development of shared services for Revenues and Benefits with Tandridge District Council, noting the intention to create a Centre of Excellence across the two councils.

Executive Member for Finance, Governance and Organisation and the Deputy Leader gave an overview of the Revenues, Benefits and Fraud service’s joint work with other local authorities and organisations, in particular future joint working with Tandridge District Council.

Councillor Lewanski the work for other local authorities started in 2015 and since then the service now provides services to 28 separate organisations including local authorities, housing providers and private sector companies. The service’s award-winning counter fraud team now provides counter fraud services for five other Surrey local authorities and conducts property inspections for local authorities across the country.

This work generates additional income to cover staff costs and overheads and give this Council’s service areas added resilience to maintain capacity to deliver high quality services including collection and savings from fraud. It was noted that there is forecast income of £600k from these activities within the service budget for 2023/24.

The meeting heard that there was a further opportunity to work more closely with Tandridge District Council. Four options had been identified as viable following a report from external consultants. These were set out in paragraph 10 of the report to the Executive. The option most likely to provide the best outcomes was the ‘Centre of Excellence’ model. This was endorsed by the Tandridge Strategy and Resources Committee in March 2023. The model would be managed effectively so as not to disrupt any service activities.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered this report at their meeting on 15 June 2023. Their observations were published as an Addendum to the Executive agenda pack.

Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Harrison, confirmed that the Committee had asked questions about how the arrangement would be managed, whether there would be any staffing issues or potential future redundances (it had been confirmed that this was not the case as more jobs would be created) and forecast operating costs. Councillor Harrison requested an update on progress when the Commercial Strategy Update report was presented to Overview and Scrutiny Committee at a future meeting.

There were no comments from Executive Members.

The Leader, Councillor Biggs, described the service as one of the ‘jewels in the Council’s crown’ and thanked the Head of Service, Simon Rosser, and his team for their work.

RESOLVED – that the Executive:

(i)               Endorses the continued development of the Revenues, Benefits and Fraud service’s joint working with other councils and external bodies; and

(ii)             Endorses the development of shared services for Revenues and Benefits with Tandridge District Council, noting the intention to create a Centre of Excellence across the two councils.

To consider the Revenues, Benefits & Fraud Service Provision report and to provide any observations to Executive on the plans for continued development of the Revenues, Benefits and Fraud service’s joint-working with other councils and external bodies, specifically with Tandridge District Council.

The Executive Member for Finance, Governance, and Organisation, Councillor Lewanski, presented the Revenues, Benefits & Fraud – Service Provision Report.

The report provides an overview and update of the Revenues, Benefits and Fraud service’s joint work with other local authorities and organisations and, in particular, future joint working with Tandridge District Council. Local authorities are allowed to trade with each other under section 113 of the Local Government Act 1972. Services may also be provided under section 93 of the Local
Government Act 2003, providing the services are on a cost recovery basis only. Therefore, if the Council is not making a profit, there is no requirement to set up a separate trading company,

This work for other local authorities started in 2015 and since then has developed and the service now provided services to 28 separate organisations including local authorities, housing providers, and private sector companies. In particular, the service's award-winning Counter-Fraud team now provided counter-fraud services for five other Surrey local authorities and carries out property inspections for local authorities across the country.

As well as generating additional income to cover the staff costs and overheads, these arrangements give the Council’s service areas added resilience, ensuring that capacity can be maintained to deliver high quality services, including collection and savings from fraud.

Information about the 2023/24 budget for Revenues, Benefits and Fraud was set out in the table at paragraph 26 of the report. It is noted there is provision to generate income of £600,000 within the overall service budget.

A further opportunity had now arisen to work more closely with Tandridge District Council around Revenues and Benefits. A Counter-Fraud service was already provided to Tandridge, and work has been carried out to identify the benefits of collaborating in more areas of work.

During 2022/23, external consultants were commissioned to review the options for future service provision of both councils. From this piece of work, four options were identified as being viable and these are set out at paragraph 10 of the report.

Of these four options, it was decided that the Centre of Excellence model would be more likely to provide the best outcome in terms of cost reduction, income generation potential, and enhanced resilience.

This approach was endorsed by the Tandridge Strategy and Resources Committee in March 2023 and it had been agreed that this report would also be submitted to the Reigate and Banstead Executive, to seek equivalent endorsement of the planned approach.

Members were assured that adoption of the Centre of Excellence model would be managed effectively so as not to disrupt current service activities. Both councils will be looking to share expertise and build resilience, while working towards offering a commercially attractive service with other local authorities.

The Executive Member for Finance, Governance, and Organisation, Councillor Lewanski invited Members to ask questions on the Revenues, Benefits & Fraud – Service Provision Report provided in the agenda pack. In response, the following clarifications were provided:

Creation of a Centre of Excellence

It was confirmed that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8