Decision - South East Business Services and Central Services

That the Committee:

1)           Approve full exploration of SEBs shared services as a founding member, including the business case development, whilst remaining open to alternative models in parallel.  If appropriate, further approval to progress Joint Committee membership would be sought at a later stage.

2)           Notes the ongoing work to develop an internal trading model, which could be required for any future service delivery model.

Agreeing to Brighton &Hove City Council becoming a founding member of SEBS affords us the opportunity to develop shared services in partnership with other local authorities.  It allows us to keep all options open and available to us, whilst allowing us to improve our own internal trading model and explore shared services with other potential partners.

In the future there are different service delivery models which the council could consider, each of which would need to be explored carefully for each function.  This report does not seek to explore or advise on those options, but rather keep all options open until further work can be undertaken.

With the May 2015 elections, it is appropriate to consider future options in detail after this date.