Concordat - Borough Council, District Council and District Council

Purpose

This Concordat has been produced to reflect the ambition to develop a long term collaboration partnership between Harrogate Borough Council (HBC), Craven District Council (CDC) and Council (SDC). The purpose of the partnership is to: x Provide significant capacity to deliver value for money services and maximise opportunities for economies of scale and efficiency gains

x Produce realistic cashable efficiency gains for each Council to determine their use of

x Increase levels of public satisfaction through the continued improvement of services

x Provide high quality, seamless services, focussed on local communities, neighbourhoods and service users

x Increase capacity through shared learning, expertise, skills and problem solving

x Demonstrate strong and supportive relationships, enhanced through a track record of greater trust

x Demonstrate strong democratic accountability capable of ensuring collaboration and joined up service delivery at the local level

x Increase influence locally, regionally and nationally in order to secure a ‘better deal’ for all our communities

Principles

The general principles upon which this Concordat is based are: x Independent organisations but equal partners

x Commitment to build strong working relations between members and officers for the mutual benefit of HBC, CDC and SDC

x Political Sovereignty remaining with each Council

x Openness and transparency of decision making

x Respect – by each Council for each Council

x A willingness to compromise for the common good

This Concordat is not intended to constitute a legally enforceable contract or to create any rights or obligations which are legally enforceable. The terms of this Concordat may be varied at any time upon the agreement of HBC, CDC and SDC. Next Steps

Initially we will: x Determine our agreed Vision in developing a long term collaboration partnership

x Identify lead Officers to take forward this work

x Research and/or visit a number of public sector partnerships that are operating/implementing or developing different forms of shared services or shared management operations to develop a greater understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of various shared services arrangements.

x Assess the opportunities for further collaboration including:

x Shared management structures

x Shared services

x Other models of service delivery

x Assess the options for collaborative working i.e:

x In house

x Public sector consortium

x Joint Venture company

x Partnering contracts and legal partnerships

x Outsourcing etc

x Develop Joint Working Governance Arrangements initially through the establishment of a Joint Leaders Group.

x Develop a ‘blue print’ for the way forward for agreement by each Council by Following the development of a blue print by the 31st May 2010 this Concordat will be reviewed and developed further.

Concordat We the undersigned are committed to progressing this arrangement to a suitable point for each Authority to make a final formal decision on the ‘blue print’.

...... Leader, Craven District Council

...... Leader, Harrogate Borough Council

...... Leader, Selby District Council