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Issue - meetings

Legal Services Partnership Agreement

 

 

Meeting: 09/05/2024 - Cabinet (Item 281)

281 Legal Services Partnership Agreement pdf icon PDF 131 KB

Purpose

To seek authority to enter into a formal partnership agreement for a shared legal service with Forest of Dean and West Oxfordshire District Councils and to note progress on the Legal Services Transformation programme to date.

 

Recommendations

That Cabinet resolves to:

1.    Delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for the Economy and Council Transformation, to enter into the formal Legal Services Partnership Agreement with Forest of Dean and West Oxfordshire District Councils with immediate effect.

2.    Note progress and the direction of travel for the Legal Services Transformation Programme to date.

Additional documents:

Decision:

The purpose of the report was to seek authority to enter into a formal partnership agreement for a shared legal service with Forest of Dean and West Oxfordshire District Councils and to note progress on the Legal Services Transformation programme to date.

 

The Cabinet Member for Economy and Council Transformation introduced the item, highlighting the following points;

  • Cadence had carried out a review of the Council’s legal processes.
  • The key outcomes of the review were to formalise informal partnership agreements, and the procurement of the Iken case management system.

 

Cabinet Members welcomed the proposals and particularly the procurement of the case management software, which would allow the Council’s legal teams to better monitor their caseloads.

 

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Tony Dale and were seconded by Councillor Mike Evemy.

 

RESOLVED: That Cabinet

 

1.    DELEGATED AUTHORITY to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for the Economy and Council Transformation, to enter into the formal Legal Services Partnership Agreement with Forest of Dean and West Oxfordshire District Councils with immediate effect.

 

2.    NOTED progress and the direction of travel for the Legal Services Transformation Programme to date.

 

Voting Record

 

8 For, 0 Against, 0 Abstention, 0 Absent/Did not vote

 

Minutes:

The purpose of the report was to seek authority to enter into a formal partnership agreement for a shared legal service with Forest of Dean and West Oxfordshire District Councils and to note progress on the Legal Services Transformation programme to date.

 

The Cabinet Member for Economy and Council Transformation, Councillor Dale, introduced the item and outlined the following points:

  • The Legal Services provision for Cotswold District Council, West Oxfordshire District Council and Forest of Dean District Council had been done on an informal agreement since 2016.
  • A review had been carried out by Cadence to look at all aspects of the informal agreement.
  • The recommendation was for Cabinet to agree to enter into a formal agreement under S.113 of the Local Government Act 1972.
  • The agreement would confirm the current governance arrangements of a Steering Board involving the Council’s Monitoring Officers, the Head of Legal Services and the Legal Services Change Manager.
  • The new Iken case management software had been rolled out which would help to track cases and the software would integrate with existing Council ICT services.
  • It was hoped that the new arrangement would be a successful shared services model for the Council.

 

Cabinet welcomed the report and specifically the case management system which would help to manage the workload of legal services staff.

 

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Dale and were seconded by Councillor Evemy.

 

RESOLVED: That Cabinet

 

1.    DELEGATED AUTHORITY to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for the Economy and Council Transformation, to enter into the formal Legal Services Partnership Agreement with Forest of Dean and West Oxfordshire District Councils with immediate effect.

 

2.    NOTED progress and the direction of travel for the Legal Services Transformation Programme to date.

 

Voting Record

 

8 For, 0 Against, 0 Abstention, 0 Absent/Did not vote

 

For

Against

Abstention

Absent/Did not vote

Claire Bloomer

 

 

 

Joe Harris

 

 

 

Juliet Layton

 

 

 

Lisa Spivey

 

 

 

Mike Evemy

 

 

 

Mike McKeown

 

 

 

Paul Hodgkinson

 

 

 

Tony Dale

 

 

 

 

 

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