The Corporate Procurement Manager, Bridgend County Borough Council, advised that this report was intended to advise Members of progress and proposed changes to the JSS Constitution, as the existing version was no longer fit for purpose in several key areas.

At the Joint Committee on 26 June 2014, the Chairperson requested Officers to prepare a draft version for consideration at today’s meeting.

The report so presented, highlighted the key principles agreed by Officers, which if endorsed by Members would form the basis of formal legal drafting of the document.

He explained that Members should note that there are two documents in existence. One is the original document dated 4 April 1996, included within the report as Appendix 1. This has been signed under seal by all four Authorities and is the only document held by the host Authorities Legal department, who are the document owners.

A later document was drafted in 1997, however, it appeared that this was neither dated or sealed, and has never been formally completed and sealed.

The Corporate Procurement Manager, Bridgend County Borough Council stated that when considering the changes to be made, it was felt that fine tuning Deed of Variation was not an option.

            A number of key principles were proposed based on the 1996 document therefore, these included:-

§   Bridgend County Borough Council to continue to act as the host organisation.

§   The new agreement being effective for a 3 year period with a 12 month extension option to link in with Local Government re-organisation.

§   Termination will be amended to a provision for any party giving a minimum of 12 months’ notice. This will allow sufficient time for other members to consider its future.

Where just one partner decides to terminate and the organisation continues to trade, a compensatory payment based on stock valuation less any liabilities incurred will be made to that partner.

§   If closure does occur, the value of reserves less any liabilities due (staff costs, creditors etc.) will be reimbursed on a percentage of population basis. The baseline for the population measure will be defined in the agreement

§   Reference to seconded staff will be removed as all staff are now employed by BCBC on behalf of the Joint Committee.

§   A schedule of Officer Group posts will be included in the document together with those of staff employed by the JSS and the responsibilities of the Management Committee and the Officer Group will be made clear in the document, together with the frequency of meetings.

Reporting lines would also be made clear via flowcharts.

§   A mechanism for appointing new posts will need to be outlined. It was proposed that all posts below Principal Officer will be managed by BCBC with reference back to the Officer Group and JSS Committee after the appointment has been made. The Officer Group will be consulted regarding the appointment of all Principal Officer posts.

§   Finally confirmed the Corporate Procurement Manager, Bridgend County Borough Council in order to make provision for control of capital expenditure, it was proposed that the Joint Committee has delegated powers conferred on it by the partnering Authorities to spend up to £100,000.

Any expenditure above this limit would require each individual Authority to seek permission for the Joint Supplies Service to incur.

Each of the above principles had been endorsed by both the Procurement and Legal Officers in each Authority, and as there were no questions on the report, it was

RESOLVED:              The Joint Committee endorsed principles 4.4.1 to 4.4.10 inclusive in the report, as well as the recommendation that Legal Officers prepare and agree a draft and final version for approval by Members at the meeting of the Joint Committee on 29 January 2015.