Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendations.

The Cabinet Member for Corporate Management introduced the final business case for the merger of the Flintshire and Denbighshire Corporate Procurement Units (CPU).

The Chief Executive stressed the importance of the Procurement Unit and the increased profile and importance of procurement as part of the Council’s change and efficiency programmes

The new Joint Procurement Unit would be hosted by Denbighshire and the current Flintshire procurement team would transfer over and be employed by Denbighshire. 

The new joint unit would be overseen by a Joint Management Board with equal senior management representation from both Councils.  The service would be provided to Flintshire under a robust service level agreement to ensure service and organisational needs and expectations were met.

The business case included ambitious efficiency targets arising from the new operating model and the introduction of category management.  There may need to be some adjustment to the targets to take account of agreed procurement savings as part of Flintshire’s current Medium Term Financial Plan.  However, it was recognised that further efficiencies were needed for future years and procurement spend would need further reductions to achieve those.

In response to a question from the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, the Chief Executive explained that all Councils in the region had had the opportunity to be involved with the merger only being between Flintshire and Denbighshire currently. 

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the final business case for the merger of the Flintshire and Denbighshire procurement teams into a single JCPU be endorsed;

(b)       That the JCPU being hosted by Denbighshire County Council be agreed; and

(c)        That the development and agreement of the SLA for the service be delegated to appropriate officers (Head of ICT and Customer Services, Head of Legal and Democratic Services and Head of Finance) in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Corporate Management.