Councils close IT company and take services back in-house

A company set up by Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester councils to deliver essential business services to both local authorities and market services to outside organisations will close next year.

CoSocius Ltd was set up in May 2014 to provide essential business services to both councils, with the opportunity to trade commercially and save millions of pounds for Cheshire's council taxpayers.

Once established the company was expected to generate savings in excess of £5m after the first five years, rising to £1.6m annually.

Following a review, a decision has been taken by the Cheshire shared services joint committee to bring services currently provided by CoSocius back under the remit of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester councils.

The ICT service will now be provided by Cheshire East to both councils, and the Finance and transactional HR services will be provided to both councils by Cheshire West and Chester Council.

Leader of the Council, Councillor Michael Jones, explained: "CoSocius was a joint venture and all that we are doing is bringing this service back in-house.

"CoSocius may begin trading in the future once again but now is the time to re-think the business model and ensure we are benefitting from opportunities presented in a shifting market.

"We know that since Ansa – one of our most successful wholly-owned companies (WOCs) – was formed, bin collections have been more efficient than ever before.

"Everybody Sport and Leisure, our new leisure trust, is set to develop more leisure services over the next decade because it has the freedom and flexibility to innovate – and this is what is so important.

"All councils must innovate to become less financially dependent on central government funding – and we are leading the way on this and will continue to do so.

"This is about delivering more for less and providing better services for our residents. Our staff have never had such an opportunity to innovate in such a way and for staff, who are on that journey with us, morale is high as a result.

"There is now an opportunity for staff to work with us to shape their own future."

Around 330 members of staff working in these services will be transferred to one of the two councils starting in April 2016, or sooner. In the meantime, the company will continue to trade as normal.

Councillor Louise Gittins, Deputy Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council and committee member, said: "CoSocius has had a number of notable successes, however, we are constantly reviewing the service to ensure we get best value for money for our council tax payers.

"Staff who transfer to one of the two councils will be protected and services will now be delivered in-house with a shared arrangement to ensure value for money."

Dave Hudson, Managing Director of CoSocius, said "The committee acknowledged that CoSocius had made progress in a number of areas and contributed to the success of other areas of both councils, however the changing environment meant that many aspects of the company's original agreed business plan had needed revisiting.

"I particularly would like to thank all the staff at CoSocius for their significant contributions and hard work over the last 18 months."

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