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City of Westminster
Item No.
CMf/CP&LIC/12/2005
Decision-taker: Date: Title of report:
Cabinet Members 17 November 2005
for Finance and Legal Services and Licensing Review
Support Services
and Licensing and
Community
Protection
Report of:
Classification: For General Release
Director of Legal and Administrative
Services and Acting Director of Finance
Wards involved All
Policy context Council priorities: To support Civic Renewal projects and
maintain a low Council tax
Financial
summary The proposed amalgamation of the Legal Clientside and
Business Unit together with the minor restructuring of the Legal
Division will incur a one-off cost of £99k in 2005/6. The full year
impact of the proposals will deliver existing business plan savings
of £190k with no additional impact on the revenue budgets of the
affected services.
Report author Colin Wilson Ext 2710
1 Summary
1.1 A review of the Legal and Administrative Services Department has been
carried out to ensure that it continues to meet the changing needs of the
organisation and achieves agreed business plan savings.
1.2 The key elements of the proposals emerging from the review and contained in
this report are as follows:
Amalgamation of legal Clientside/Business Unit
Deletion of Post of Business Unit Manager
Amalgamation of the Litigation and Planning Services and Litigation
Sections of the Legal Divison and creation of a dedicated licensing appeals
team in the Litigation Section of the Legal service
Deletion of post of manager of Litigation and Planning Services section
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Amalgamation of existing Policy and Business Support and Processing
teams in Licensing and the creation of a unified licensing division under a
single senior manager
Creation of two additional licensing posts to deliver key projects in the street
trading area
Deletion of Licensing Appeals Support Officer post
2. Recommendations
2.1 That the current client/contractor split in the Legal Division be abolished, that
the Litigation Section and the Litigation and Planning Services Section be
amalgamated, and the revised structure set out in Appendix A be implemented.
(The current structure is set out in Appendix B).
2.2 That the Licensing Service be restructured as a separate division as set out in
Appendix C. (The current structure is set out in Appendix D). A current and
revised overall structure plan for the department is attached at Appendices E
and F).
2.3 That the following posts be deleted with effect from dates to be agreed
between the Director of Legal and Administrative Services and the Head of
Human Resources:
Legal Services Business Unit Manager
Litigation and Planning Services Manager
Licensing Process Manager
Licensing Policy & Business Support Manager
Licensing Appeals Support Officer
2.4 In the event that it is not possible to redeploy the postholders they be
declared redundant with effect from dates to be agreed between the Director
of Legal and Administrative Services and the Head of Human Resources, and
paid benefits in accordance with the procedures approved by the Policy and
Resources Committee (Appointed Members Panel) on 29 January 1993, and
the Finance and Support Services Committee on 3 February 1997.
2.5 That the following posts be created at grades to be determined by the Head of
HR
Head of Licensing Service
Deputy Head of Licensing Service
Solicitor
Para-Legal officer
Street licensing policy manager
Street trading policy officer
2.6 That the Licensing Appeals Manager post be transferred from the Policy and
Business Support Team in the Licensing service and assimilated into the new
dedicated Licensing Appeals team in the Legal Division Litigation Section as
set out in paragraph 4.8.
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2.7 That the above changes be made within the current financial year on dates to
be agreed by the Director of Legal and Administrative Services, the Head of
Human Resources and the Acting Director of Finance.
3. Background and reorgansiation of the Legal Division
3.1 In October 2003 the Licensing Service was transferred from the Department of
Planning and Transportation into the Legal Services Business Unit as there
was a need for additional cost effective and high level management support.
The service was preparing for the new licensing regime and the Legal Services
Business Unit Manager has spent the majority of her time on the Licensing
Service and the transition to the new regime since the transfer. Management
support for the Legal Services Business Unit has been provided from within the
legal clientside which has had the benefit of allowing the department to trial
reintegration of the Business Unit back into the legal service prior to doing
away with the client/contractor split on a more permanent basis.
3.2 At the time of the transfer it was recognised that "it is a medium term aim of the
Department's Business Plan to do away with the client/contractor split and
reintegrate the Business Unit within the Legal Division" and, that "this should
enable the post of Legal Services Business Unit Manager to be deleted thus
effecting a saving in the longer term ".
3.3 Whilst the split served a purpose in the past in facilitating the competitive
tendering of legal services to demonstrate value for money, it now no longer
serves any useful purpose and doing away with the split would present an
opportunity to streamline management arrangements within the Division to
deliver savings in accordance with the Business Plan (report September 2003
attached).
3.4 The Legal Services Business Unit consists of four sections (excluding
Licensing): Advocacy and Advice, Litigation, Litigation and Planning Services,
and Planning and Conveyancing.
3.5 The Litigation and Planning Services and the Litigation Sections were originally
together but were split to facilitate competitive tendering. Litigation and
Planning Services became an in house Direct Services Organisation (DSO)
following a successful tendering exercise. The DSO was disbanded in 2002
with the service remaining in house. There is no logical reason why the work
of this service should remain separate and there would be efficiencies and
savings made were it to be amalgamated with the Litigation Service in that the
post of Litigation and Planning Services manager can be deleted.
3.6 The revised management structure for the Legal Division is set out in Appendix
A. Whilst the Principal Solicitors' major role is to provide corporate legal advice
to Cabinet Members, Committees and Chief Officers as well as support to the
Statutory Monitoring Officer role, under the new structure they will in future
assume some line management responsibilities for the Section Head Posts of
the Litigation, Advocacy and Advice and Planning and Conveyancing sections.
The Section Heads would remain accountable to the Divisional Management
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Team for the work of their sections. The Principal Solicitors would remain
accountable to the Deputy Director of Legal Services.
3.7 The Practice Manager post which reported jointly to the Business Unit Manager
and the Director of Legal and Administrative Services as line managers will in
future report directly to the Director for line management purposes and will
remain accountable to the Divisional Management Team for the work of his
section.
3.8 Following a review of the management structure of the Legal Division and a
review of the potential cost of continuing to contract out all the licensing
appeals expected to be received under the new legislation, and taking account
of the need to introduce new and more cost-effective methods of dealing with
appeals, it is considered that extra resources invested in the delivery of this
aspect of the Civic Renewal Programme will result in significantly reduced
costs for the City Council overall.
3.9 Two additional posts for the Litigation section are being proposed, a solicitor
post and a para-legal post to deal specifically with licensing appeals. See
paragraph 4.8.
4. Licensing Management Restructure and Creation of Unified Licensing
Division
4.1 In September 2004 a Licence Processing Manager was appointed and this has
enhanced the direct management support to the service and provided an
opportunity to review the overall management structure.
4.2 Prior to the transfer of the licensing service to the Legal Division Business Unit,
the Client/Contractor split meant that two senior managers of equal grade were
running the service. When it was transferred into the legal services business
unit, the client contractor split was done away with and the client side team was
reviewed and redesignated the Licensing Policy and Business Support team.
4.3 There is no longer a client/contractor split, and the proposals in this report
provide an opportunity to streamline management arrangements and unify the
service, because a separate Policy and Business support function is no longer
necessary. The existing senior managers support the proposal to have one
senior manager who takes responsibility for the whole of the licensing service.
4.4 The revised management structure for the Licensing Service is set out in
Appendix C. It is considered that a more streamlined and accountable
management structure is needed to meet the developing needs of the service.
It is proposed to establish a separate licensing division with a Head of
Licensing Service post and a Deputy Head of Licensing Service post and to
delete the posts of Licensing Process Manager and Licensing Policy &
Business Support Manager. It is anticipated that the current postholders of
these posts would be redeployed to the new posts.
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4.5 As a result of the creation of the dedicated legal Licensing Appeals team within
the Litigation Section it is considered that the post of Licensing Appeals
Support Officer can be deleted. It is anticipated that the current postholder
could be redeployed within the Licensing Appeals Team.
4.6 The posts of Strategic Policy Manager; Finance and Business Support
Manager; Business Analyst and Performance Analyst & IT Projects would be
assimilated into the revised structure as shown on Appendix C.
4.7 The Licensing Act 2003 has resulted in an exceptional amount of additional
work in this area. The transition period for conversion of licences has ended
and there is now a large number of licensing appeals being submitted.
4.8 To minimise the costs to the Council it is proposed to recruit one additional
solicitor and one para-legal post to the Litigation Section to focus on dealing
with some of these appeals in house and to transfer the post of Licensing
Appeals Manager from the Licensing Policy and Business Support team to
strengthen this dedicated appeals team. It is envisaged that setting up this
specialist licensing appeals team will significantly reduce the costs of appeals
over the financial year 06/07 and thereafter, thereby delivering a business plan
savings target of £100,000 per annum in the medium term. The appeals are
currently contracted out to external solicitors. The Licensing Appeals Manager
will continue to provide a range of support to the Head of Licensing Service in
relation to appeals, from within the Litigation team. The duties of this post to be
reviewed by the manager of the Litigation Section in consultation with the Head
of Licensing Services and any duties not carried over with the post will be
absorbed within the Licensing Service. Client responsibility for licensing
appeals will remain with the Head of Licensing Services.
4.9 A Street Trading Project was established in March 2005, and a number of tasks
have been carried out. In particular a number of street trading initiatives have
been identified as desirable by members. Additional resources will be required
to deliver these initiatives, as the current capacity and skills set in the service is
not geared to this type of work. Two additional posts are proposed to deliver
these initiatives the cost of which will be met by an increase in street trading
fees.
5. Finance and Business Support Team
5.1 The Legal Service has for some time had to rely upon "external" financial
support supplied by the Finance Department. Other larger departments have
had their own internal finance teams. The Legal and Administrative Services
Department is now, itself, larger and with the inclusion of the Licensing
Division, has a much greater budget management and monitoring
responsibilities. Detailed budget monitoring has proved difficult in practice in
the absence of dedicated financial support and it is therefore proposed to
review the arrangements for financial support to the Legal and Administrative
Department as a whole at the end of the financial year.
6. Financial Implications
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6.1 The proposals set out in this report deliver existing business plan savings of
£190k and implement proposals identified by the Director of Legal and
Administrative Services’ submissions to the Cabinet Member for Finance and
Support Services as part of the Star Chamber process this year.
6.2 The financial implications of the reorganisation of the Legal and Licensing
Divisions are set out in the following sections.
6.3 Licensing & Legal Services Restructuring - Existing Business Plan Savings
(£190k)
6.3.1 The deletion of posts identified in this report incurs estimated redundancy
payments of £96k, £19k compensation lump sum and £68k Funding
Requirement should the post-holders not be redeployed, the net effect being
£91k additional cost in 2005/06.
6.3.2 The net effect of the deletion of the Licensing Process Manager and Licensing
Policy and Business Support Manager posts and the creation of the Head of
Licensing Service and Deputy Head of Licensing Service will be additional
costs of £4k in 2005/06 and £14k in 2006/07. These additional costs will be
managed within existing salary budgets.
6.3.2 The deletion of posts through the Licensing and Legal Restructuring enables
the existing £190k Business Plan Savings to be achieved in 2006/07,
including £50k brought forward from 2007/08.
6.4 Creation of a Dedicated Licensing Appeals Team
6.4.1 The transfer of the Licensing Appeals Manager will entail a budget transfer of
£13k in 2005/06 and £43k in 2006/07 from Licensing to the Legal Division,
with no additional costs.
6.5 Street Trading - New Business Plan Growth (£80k) and Compensatory Savings
6.5.1 The creation of the proposed Street Licensing Policy Manager and Street
Trading Policy Officer posts (£80k) in 2006/07 were included as part of the
Star Chamber proposals this year, to be funded through increased licence fee
income.
6.6 Licensing Appeals – New Business Plan Growth (£93k)
6.6.1 The creation of the proposed Litigation Solicitor and Para-legal posts in
2006/07 were included as part of the Star Chamber proposals this year to
mitigate against the costs of the high level of Licensing Act appeals work
carried out by external solicitors.
6.6.2 It is envisaged that the Solicitor post would be recruited to by March, thereby
incurring £4k additional cost in 2005/06, which will be managed within existing
salary budgets.
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6.7 Summary
In order to achieve the Savings of £190k in the Existing and New Business
Plans, total additional costs of £99k will be incurred in 2005/06, with ongoing
additional costs of £14k from 2006/07. However, it is anticipated that these
additional costs will be managed through existing budgets, facilitated by
careful resource monitoring.
7. Staffing implications and consultation
7.1 Consultation has taken place with the senior managers and staff immediately
affected, and with the trade unions.
8. Ward Members’ comments
8.1 This report is not ward specific and no ward member consultation has
therefore, been undertaken.
9. Proposed Reason for Decision
9.1 The amalgamation of the business unit and clientside will rationalise the overall
management arrangements within the Department of Legal and Administrative
Services. Under the new Licensing Act fees will be set centrally and these are
expected to be wholly inadequate for the Council to fulfil its licensing
responsibilities. The Council will need to ensure that income is maximised and
the burden on council taxpayers of the licensing service is kept to a minimum
whilst ensuring delivery of an effective service and the energetic pursuit of the
Council's licensing policies. The proposed management structure for the
licensing service will ensure the effective delivery of the service under the new
licensing regime.
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUERIES ABOUT THIS REPORT OR WISH TO
INSPECT ANY OF THE BACKGROUND PAPERS, PLEASE CONTACT
COLIN WILSON ON 020 7641 2710; EMAIL ADDRESS
cwilson@westminster.gov.uk; FAX NUMBER 020 7641 3325
BACKGROUND PAPERS
The documents used or referred to in compiling the report were: -
Transfer of Licensing Service to the Legal and Administrative Services
Department dated 8 October 2003
Legal and Administrative Services Business Plan 05/06
…………………………………………………………………………………………
For completion by Cabinet Member
Declaration of Interest
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I have no interest to declare in respect of this report
Signed ……………………………. Date ………………………………
NAME:
I have to declare an interest
State nature of interest ……..……………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………..
Signed ……………………………. Date …………………………………
NAME:
(N.B: If you have an interest you should seek advice as to whether it is
appropriate to make a decision in relation to this matter.)
For the reasons set out above, I agree the recommendation(s) in the report entitled
…………………………………………………….(to be completed by report author)
and reject any alternative options which are referred to but not recommended.
Signed ………………………………………………
Cabinet Member for ……………………………….
Date …………………………………………………
If you have any additional comment which you would want actioned in connection
with your decision you should discuss this with the report author and then set out
your comment below before the report and this pro-forma is returned to the
Secretariat for processing.
Additional comment: …………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………….
NOTE: If you do not wish to approve the recommendations, or wish to make an
alternative decision, it is important that you consult the report author, the Director of
Legal and Administrative Services, the Director of Finance and, if there are staffing
implications, the Head of Human Resources (or their representatives) so that (1) you
can be made aware of any further relevant considerations that you should take into
account before making the decision and (2) your reasons for the decision can be
properly identified and recorded, as required by law.
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Note to Cabinet Member: Your decision will now be published and copied to
the Members of the relevant Overview & Scrutiny Committee. If the decision
falls within the criteria for call-in, it will not be implemented until five working
days have elapsed from publication to allow the Overview and Scrutiny
Committee to decide whether it wishes to call the matter in.
Q:\val\reports\legal and licensing review.doc
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