Agenda item

Purpose: To set out the final arrangements for Wokingham BC exiting the Public Protection Partnership including arrangements around Commissioned Services, to note the governance arrangements for agreeing the exit and to clarify and resolve some of the remaining issues arising from the decision by Wokingham BC to leave the Partnership.

Sean Murphy introduced the report (Agenda Item 8) which set out the final arrangements for Wokingham Borough Council to exit the Public Protection Partnership (PPP). This included the governance arrangements for agreeing the exit, the arrangements that would be put in place with Wokingham around traded services and other outstanding issues arising from the decision by Wokingham to exit the PPP in March 2021.

Mr Murphy said a project team had been set up working across Wokingham, Bracknell and West Berkshire covering matters including IT, legal issues and a range of operational transfer issues. Mr Murphy said there was still work to be done in order to implement a transfer of operational matters to the new service and he was working closely with his colleagues in Wokingham to achieve this.

The report included a proposal around the rebranding of the service for Bracknell Forest and West Berkshire and the potential commissioned services from Wokingham such as Trading Standards, Case Management, Intelligence, Financial Investigations and Food Standards. The rebranding would have to reflect that the Trading Standards element would be three-Authority as set out in the report. 

The report also set out future governance arrangements for the elements of the commissioned services which would be through the Joint Management Board (JMB). These arrangements included the fact that today’s meeting was the last as a three-Authority Committee with a move to a two-Authority Committee of Bracknell Forest and West Berkshire from April 2022. From April 2022, one of the two weekly JMB meetings each month would have a two-part agenda with one part dealing with areas of commonality across the three Authorities.

The report dealt with Food Standards and Food Hygiene inspections which had been put on hold due to Covid response work taking priority over the last two years. It was proposed that any outstanding work not completed by the end of March 2022 would be finalised in Q1 of 2022/23. 

Mr Murphy advised that the primary piece of work to be dealt with over the next few weeks would be the transfer of staff, a smooth operational handover to Wokingham of assets such as equipment and data, and the sign-off of the legal agreements to bring the old Partnership to a close.

Councillor Graham Bridgman reflected on the goodwill that had been shown during the negotiations and thanked everyone involved for reaching an amicable resolution.

Stephen Brown said he wanted to put on record his thanks to Sean Murphy and other Officers who had worked hard over the last year to effect the transfer to the new service.

RESOLVED that:

·         The report be noted.

·         The proposed branding, as set out at Section 7 of the report, be approved. Councillor Bill Soane abstained from the vote as Wokingham would have no part in this. However, Councillor Graham Bridgman pointed out there was an element of branding relating to all three local authorities in relation to Trading Standards.

·         A report would be received on the implementation of PPP MK2 at its meeting in June 2022.

·         The outstanding Wokingham food standards unrated inspection work would be concluded in Q1 of 2022/23.