Wirral Borough Council: Re-Imagining Libraries, Leisure, Parks and Cultural Services Phase 2 Report October 2017 Jim Clifford OBE MSc FCA FRSA Partner, Head of Advisory & Impact 020 7551 7860 [email protected] Abbie Rumbold MA (Cantab) Partner, Head of Public Services and Mutuals 020 7551 7755 [email protected] TableTable ofof ContentsContents 1 Executive Summary 1 2 Background and Objectives 17 3 Methodology 18 4 Layout of the Report 22 5 Needs 24 6 Asset Mapping 70 7 Business and Operations 78 8 Finance and Funding 125 9 Opportunities… Options… 174 10 Solutions… reasons to consider and requirements for an ADM 195 11 Governance and Structure 201 12 Control and influence by the Council over the ADM 218 13 Transactional for an ADM 223 14 Conclusions and Recommendations 225 Wirral Borough Council: Re-Imagining Libraries, Leisure, Parks and Cultural Services - Phase 2 Report / 1 September, 2017i SectionSection 1 1 ExecutiveExecutive Summary Summary We have found that: • Wirral’s LLPC services are good in many ways, but are not reaching anywhere near all of the residents, and could do so much more for less Council subsidy. All should have affordable access to its facilities, presented in a way that is both universal, and designed to encourage their use. • That requires not just that the four elements of LLPC work together, but that the model is radically changed into one which includes community engagement and outreach, with reframing delivery of services around a multi-level hub model, with LLPC taking a leadership as well as a delivery role • The alternative is to maintain the LLPC portfolio in-house (but with enhancements). Our analysis shows that the likely cost to the Council to be £18.7m in the current year, falling over three years to £17.9m in 2020/21. In addition there would need to be at least £18m of capital expenditure to bring assets up to reasonable condition. • There are significant benefits to be had in moving to an Alternative Delivery Model. These are through a mixture of financial effects that are only achievable if LLPC is outside Council ownership, and the benefits of being able to achieve more, more quickly in an agile, business- focused, community -focused and engaged organisation. • Specifically an ADM offers: o Financial benefits from improved VAT and other elements Freedom and flexibility to operate quickly and competitively, and to be really business o focused o The ability to raise social investment from external sources - £20m perhaps, for enhanced facilities, which could deliver net benefits of £2m per annum o Access to additional grant income sources o The ability to negotiate more easily for shared incomes and costs with other commissioners such as health o The ability to plan more strategically over longer time periods than currently normal considering election and Council cycles. • Marking against the revised figures for costs to the Council of an in-house model of £18.7m falling to £17.9m over three years, the ADM model could reduce this by: o Around £3m in 2018/19 (allowing for delays in picking up the benefits from the changes) rising to £7.5m plus by 2020/21 o With some costs relating to pensions and infrastructure left in the Council, the net effect on Council budgets would be upwards of a £1.5m saving in 2018/19, rising to £6.8m upwards by 2020/21, with a further possible net improvement of say £2m if £20m of social investment can be raised and well invested in enhanced services Our recommendation is that: • The Council moves LLPC into an ADM, with the autonomy, mission and remit to develop it into a fully community-engaged and needs-focused social enterprise • LLPC is not put out to tender in a conventional outsourcing model but developed as an entity working closely with the Council on common social goals with a locked-in mission to improve the lives of residents of and visitors to the Wirral. • The ADM’s mission is to be delivered by embracing efficient and effective business practices, and innovation in delivery and accessibility models so that it can reach more people, in a way that enables them to respond and engage. It should take a leadership role in developing local provision, but harness the ingenuity and energy of grass roots organisations. • The ADM is in the form of a Company Limited by Guarantee, and registered as a Charity, meaning it is properly regulated, and permanently focused on applying its assets to that public benefit mission • The Charity takes on the LLPC assets under different terms for different assets such that it gains clear long-term title to a range of them (to make its balance sheet sound and fundable) whilst holding others on shorter term or rolling arrangements • The Council retains influence whilst allowing the Charity the independence to deliver its mission, by: o Working together to coordinate complementary activity o Embodying realistic terms in its ongoing funding agreement o Putting appropriate restrictions in the terms of tenure of assets transferred into the ADM o Taking an appropriate role, alongside community and staff, in the Charity’s governance 1 Wirral Borough Council: Re-Imagining Libraries, Leisure, Parks and Cultural Services - Phase 2 Report / 1 September, 2017 Section 1 Executive Summary 1.1 The objective of this project is to re-imagine four areas of Council statutory and non-statutory services to deliver an integrated portfolio that better meets local Social and community needs needs whilst reducing Council subsidy. The four areas are: Leisure (including demand a model that is both not just wet and dry leisure centres but also football pitches, tennis courts, golf universal and targeted. courses and others); Culture and the Arts (the Floral Pavilion, the Williamson • It must ensure that: every and Birkenhead Priory); Parks and Countryside (including large and small parks, Wirral resident has affordable access to: public spaces such as roadside verges, and the crematoria); and Libraries. The subsidy, based on 2016/17 actual figures, is currently standing at £17.8m a i. Sports and fitness facilities year, with more likely to be incurred to meet the costs associated with condition surveys on a number of the buildings. Total staff working in these services is ii. Information, books and 475 full time equivalent employees. This portfolio of services is referred to ICT facilities throughout this report as “LLPC”. iii. Cultural facilities (theatres, galleries 1.2 The Council needs to balance its budgets. These areas have already sustained events) cost cuts in previous years. Further cuts would be likely to result in closures of iv. Safe Community space – facilities and reduction of staff. Set against this are targets under the 2020 outdoor and indoor Pledges better to meet social needs, both generally and for specific groups, and • It maximises the to create, not reduce jobs. The choice, then is to follow this path of further cuts, opportunities to reach out probably at significant scale, or to reform the way these services operate to: to those in need • Develop new income to support those services and enable Council financial support to be reduced, and • Use assets differently in delivering social and economic outcomes for the people of the Wirral. This project addresses how these Council services can deliver these two outcomes. In formulating solutions, this report draws a comparison between an enhanced in-house case and what is achievable in an Alternative Delivery Model. The former draws in positive potential improvements developed through this project or coming from Council staff and management as we have shared findings iteratively with them. The latter draws on experience elsewhere, and our wider research. 1.3 The project was structured in two phases: Phase 1 Through a combination of reviewing financial and operational data on the services, and about needs in the area, supplemented with (to March 2017) workshops, interviews, and other input from the Council, other agencies and the services themselves, and analysis, this phase developed a concept of how a re-imagined groups of services might look, with a view of likely savings to Council support. We reported on that back in February, which was considered by Cabinet in March. 2 Wirral Borough Council: Re-Imagining Libraries, Leisure, Parks and Cultural Services - Phase 2 Report / 1 September, 2017 Section 1 Executive Summary Phase 2 That outline concept is developed further, and in more detail, based on a fuller analysis of needs, assets, business and finance to (to September 2017) produce a full business case with financial illustrations, business plan, detailed governance model, and transition plan for any proposed changes. If changes are approved then further work will need to be done to implement these. 1.4 The analysis of needs undertaken across the two phases recognises, but also looks beyond, the pledges in the Wirral 2020 plan to encompass the views of other agencies such as Community Safety Partnerships and Health. It highlights: Delivering • Multigenerational poverty and disengagement these services in- • Low working age to retired ratio, with needs around ageing well, dementia care, and isolation and house loneliness appears to be making them • Inclusion and exclusion of some, socially and economically less economically • Higher than average numbers of looked-after children, and people with special or additional needs and socially effective • Areas of oversupply or underuse of assets, some unsuitable assets, and others needing reconfiguration to meet need and market demands • Opportunities to support tourism, both for general and special interest groups such as dementia sufferers and their carers, or those with autism • Opportunities to meet health and social needs with the leisure and cultural assets 1.5 Those analyses of needs demand a model for delivery from LLPC and other services that is both universal and targeted.