Decision details

To approve a sharing agreement with Cambridgeshire County Council.

Both PCC and CCC trading standards have been successfully working together on an informal basis for a number of months, and have for many years worked jointly on a number of work streams, as well as together as part of the East of England Trading Standards Authorities Group.

PCC and CCC recognise that this agreement helps provide efficiencies and adds resilience to service provision at a time when service demand is increasing. Little of the criminal activity investigated by trading standards is confined to local authority boundaries, a bigger service operating across a wider geographical area would provide a better platform from which to provide services.

PCC was forward looking when it established its first shared regulatory service with Rutland County Council (RCC) in 2011, and now has an opportunity again to develop its regulatory base further, this time with the advantage of experience.  Due to the success of the agreement with RCC both councils renewed arrangements in April 2016 for a further five years. 

By taking this opportunity now, Peterborough will be well placed to take advantage of further consolidation of regulatory functions across Cambridgeshire should the economic climate necessitate it for Cambridgeshire District Councils in the future.

PCC currently have a regulatory services team consisting of environmental health, licensing and trading standards whereas trading standards at CCC is a standalone team. The current structure at Peterborough along with the existing RCC shared service commitment means that the transfer of CCC staff to PCC is the only viable option at this time.

The advantages for both councils of a shared service have been identified as:

·         Increased staffing pool in PCC’s regulatory services group, providing greater resilience and flexibility in the utilisation of resources across all functional teams including trading standards.

·         Increased pool of staff with trading standards knowledge, experience and expertise arising from a larger staffing resource.

·         Opportunities for efficiencies through removing the need for separate information systems.

·         Efficiencies through having a lean management team.

·         Opportunities for efficiencies through procurement savings, reduced attendance at regional meetings (one representative instead of two).

·         Economies of scale in the provision of training, through the ability to have a greater percentage of training delivered at council premises and in house, thus enabling more staff to benefit as well as providing better value for money.

·         Opportunity to increase externally funded business advice services, taking advantage of the combined customer base and unmet demand.

·         Maximisation of opportunities as part of criminal investigations to seek to recover proceeds of crime.

·         Enhanced information sharing leading to better regulatory outcomes.

The council could decide not to enter into new shared service arrangements with CCC, though there are no alternative shared service opportunities at this time. There is an option to retain status quo, this doesn’t however add the resilience to service provision at a time of growing service demand, nor does it maximise future commercial opportunities.

None.

No additional documents were used.