Shared Services Cooperation Agreement (including HR/Payroll Service).

Descriptions

Bath & North East Somerset Council ("BANES") and North Somerset Council ("NSC") have decided to enter into the Cooperation Agreement under which they will develop shared services arrangements (the Shared Service) to generate economies and efficiencies for the benefit of rate payers and citizens of both councils. It is intended that an area to be developed as a shared service will be HR and payroll services and facilities services (the HR and Payroll Shared Service). Other shared services (such as other professional, administrative, transactional and technical services ) may be brought within the Cooperation Agreement at a later stage. The legal basis for the Shared Service arrangements is section 1 of the Localism Act 2011 and (in relation to the staffing arrangements to support the shared services) section 113 of the Local Government Act 1972.The Cooperation Agreement provides that the Shared Service will be jointly provided, commissioned and/or funded by NSC and BANES. NSC and BANES will agree (amongst other things) to be flexible in their approach to develop the optimum model for each Shared Service and to recognise that either Party might lead on a particular Shared Service. It is proposed that any savings generated by the arrangements for the Shared Service will be shared by NSC and BANES on an equitable basis.In relation to the HR and Payroll Shared Service, it is intended that NSC will lead on this and that BANES will become integrated with the Human Resource and Payroll management system currently in place at NSC (which is provided to NSC by an existing contractor to NSC, Agilisys Limited). NSC will ensure (by drawing on services provided to it by Agilisys Limited) that implementation support, training and maintenance support is available to ensure a smooth integration. BANES will implement the system and then jointly develop the system with NSC for the benefit of all current users and customers.For the HR and Payroll Shared Service, it is anticipated that BANES will pay a financial contribution to NSC towards the costs of the HR and Payroll Shared Service, It is anticipated that the amount of the financial contribution will be in the region of £850,000 to £1,000,000 over a six year period.As noted above, it is anticipated that BANES may lead on other Shared Services in future and this will be reflected in financial contributions made as between the parties in relation to those other Shared Services. NSC and BANES already cooperate on a number of shared services.