Bath & North East Somerset Council | |||
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RESOURCES CO-ORDINATION COMMITTEE |
AGENDA | |
MEETING DATE: |
14TH NOVEMBER 2000 | ||
REPORT AUTHOR: |
Tom McBain, Head of Property and Legal Services (01225 477806) Kevin Hemmings, Best Value Programme Manager (01225 477336) | ||
RESPONSIBLE OFFICER: |
Jean Hinks, Resources Director (01225 477300) Peter Rowntree, Operations Director (01225 396690) | ||
TITLE: |
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WARD: |
ALL | ||
BACKGROUND PAPERS: Report of Peter Rowntree, Operations Director to Strategy Committee on 30th November 1999: "Best Value - Progress and Plans" | |||
AN OPEN PUBLIC ITEM | |||
1. SUMMARY
1.1 This report summarises the findings of B&NES' Best Value Review of the Council's Legal Services. It requests Members approval of the recommended Action plan and further reporting arrangements.
2. RECOMMENDATIONS
2.1 That members approve the Action Plan, summarised in Appendix A and supported by detailed recommendations and material in the body of the report, (cross referenced to the Action Plan), and that officers are authorised to pursue these actions subject to current budgetary constraints.
2.2 That a further report is brought to Members in both April 2001 and June 2002 detailing progress against all items in the Action Plan.
3. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
3.1. Position Statement
3.1.1. The role of Legal Services, as set out in their 2000/01 Service plan, is to ensure propriety, provide legal advice and services to the Council. To support and enable Service initiatives whilst retaining overall responsibility, in conjunction with the Heads of Service, for ensuring that the Council as a whole acts lawfully (for every action taken by the Council there must be a supporting statutory provision).
3.1.2. Within the above role they aim to: support services in achieving the Council's strategic objectives; compare favourably with the private sector in terms of quality, price and professionalism and be flexible in delivering services in line with both fluctuations in Services' demands and legislative and policy changes.
3.1.3. Examples of the practical roles of the Service include attendance at Committee; participation in cross-Service working groups; policy advice to Senior Managers; regular verbal and written advice, including research where appropriate, to Officers and Members; drafting contracts, Statutory Orders and legal documents; litigation and advocacy across a wide range of services; conveyancing; ensuring proper conduct of specialist litigation (e.g. Employment, Child Protection, Planning); advocacy in court tribunals and Public Inquiries.
3.1.4. Legal Services are working towards becoming a fully rechargeable trading unit with retrospective effect from April 2000 and will provide services under specific Service Level Agreements (SLA's). At present SLA's do exist but clients do not actively use them and have not shown great interest in developing their use. This is unlikely to change until budgets are recharged.
3.1.5. As a result of the recent Council Restructuring, the Council now has a Solicitor to the Council and four Legal Managers directly accountable to the Council for professional issues relating to the staff and work areas for which they are responsible. The Legal Services Managers work as a "partnership" and operationally report to the Head of Property and Legal Services. The professional role of the Solicitor to the Council, who is the Council's other legal adviser and also the designated Monitoring Officer, is an issue highlighted in para 3.5.5 of this report.
3.1.6. The Legal Services Division comprises four professional teams of lawyers - Corporate Law, Family and Community Law, Planning and Environmental Law and Property Law. A copy of the structure is attached at Appendix B. (From September 2000, a Legal Advisor will transfer from the Planning and Environment team to the Family and Community team). In total 24 professional staff including managers (22 FTE - full time equivalent) are employed. Of these, 1 is qualified as a Barrister, 14 (including 3 part-time) as Solicitors, 7 (including 2 part-time) as Legal Executives (with 1 more training for this qualification) and 1 with no legal qualification
3.1.7. A shortfall was identified with regard to the demand for Legal Services to support existing planning workload. Demand exceeded supply and was satisfied only through legal staff working excessive hours. An additional lawyer, specialising in Planning Law, has now been appointed.
3.1.8. The overall cost of B&NES legal advice and service is £1.4m. A more detailed breakdown is available in Appendix C, but in summary, Legal Services "in house" costs are £1.04m and external expenditure is £346k.
3.1.9. The current contract to provide legal services to Somer Community Housing Trust worth £40,000 per annum is renewable annually and has been extended to the end of December 2000. In addition, all schools who have responded to date have decided to purchase legal services from B&NES in the first year of the "Fair Funding" regime.
3.1.10. Nine admin and support staff (six FTE's) work predominantly or partially on Legal Services work (including work for the Solicitor to the Council), however the lawyers do not have responsibility for recruiting or managing these staff.
3.1.11. All Legal Services and their Support staff are based together at Riverside, Keynsham. Their customers are based throughout B&NES main offices.
3.1.12. Legal Services were required to make efficiency savings of 2% in 2000/01 and plan for further 2% efficiencies in the following two years' as part of the three-year service plan. These savings are being achieved in 2000/01 through a reduction in expenditure on equipment.
3.2. Evidence of benchmarking, service delivery and performance
3.2.1. Formal systems of performance management other than budgetary control are not in place.
3.2.2. The PROFESS time recording system has been in operation since April 1999 and data captured will need to be applied to the development of Service Level Agreements, measurement of their subsequent delivery and how well the customers' needs were met.
3.2.3. Notional hourly charges for B&NES Legal Services staff have been calculated to be £60 (for managers) and £40. Work to verify that these rates accurately reflect costs and chargeable time has been completed and a summary, by legal team, is attached as Appendix D. The main points are:
· Inconsistencies in the way each team records chargeable and non chargeable time has distorted the data
· Target chargeable hours for 1999/2000 have not been achieved
· Based on the above rates of £60 and £40, two of the teams made a loss. This would appear to be due to failure to achieve target hours as opposed to incorrect calculation of hourly rates.
3.2.4. The teams monitor expenditure on consultants and external assistance where they are aware of it. (see Appendix C)
3.2.5. Case workload data has been investigated, but does not currently exist in a reportable format.
3.2.6. In October 1998 a Voluntary Competitive Tendering (VCT) exercise was carried out. This exercise did not involve in-house bids and was largely in relation to work that was not being carried out in-house at the time.
· Pension Fund Advice (£85 - £250 per hour),
· Southgate/major development projects (£60 - £270 per hour),
· Conveyancing (£50 - £200 per hour),
· Property litigation (£50 - £200 per hour),
· Planning Inquiry Services (£60 - £130 per hour),
· Child Care Advocacy Services (£275 - £720 per day),
· Right to Buy (£50 - £200 per hour).
Brackets show the spread of rates quoted, where available, with the figures at the lower end relating to trainees and newly qualified or non-qualified staff. In some cases, the hourly and daily rates are in addition to a "brief" fee, e.g. for Child Care Advocacy work, this fee ranged from £100 to £1400.
3.2.7. A decision has long been outstanding on whether to recruit a Practice Manager as recommended by the Legal Managers, to improve operational efficiency thereby enabling better service delivery.
3.2.8. Information regarding the broad measures of the Service against 11 of the members of the New Unitaries Benchmarking Group and B&NES' "Audit Commission Family" was collated, (Appendix E). This information was not considered robust enough for meaningful analysis. We believe the real value of this exercise lies in establishing contacts and identifying different approaches that can be investigated further. Legal Services staff, following initial contact by the Best Value Team, are continuing this work. The Best Value Team also visited and spoke to various other Legal Service providers. These are also shown on Appendix E.
3.2.9. Whilst comparative data can be used as a broad indicator of the spread of Councils' investment in in-house Legal Services, the "correct" size and level of expenditure can only be truly established by identifying B&NES' requirements from the Service. Provision could then be made for these requirements to be met in the most economic, efficient and effective way possible, whether that is through in-house or externally procured service delivery.
3.2.10. The main representative bodies for legal professionals (including the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors) within Local Government have been working with the Competition Advisory Service on developing benchmarks and performance measures for Legal Services. The measures and indicators currently being examined cover costs and efficiency, effectiveness, quality and contribution towards strategic goal and achievement and will need to be part of performance measurement analysis going forward. A table showing these indicators is attached as Appendix F.
3.2.11. Networking with other Local Government lawyers takes place with Special Interest Groups adding value to the skills and services in specialist areas.
3.2.12. Officers within Legal Services carry out their duties in accordance with the professional standards adopted by their various institutes. These offer guidance and advice on fundamental issues of legal practice and provide the necessary covenants of the profession. Examples include: - Codes of professional conduct for lawyers (Barristers, Legal Executives and Solicitors), and arrangements for handling child care cases and `Children Act Proceedings Codes of Practice'.
3.2.13. Since April 1999, B&NES Legal Services have been working to the Law Society Practice Management Standards, contained in an Office Manual, a copy of which has been distributed to all legal staff.
3.2.14. The Council indemnifies all of its officers in terms of personal professional liability, and this applies to Legal Services staff. B&NES has not taken out any additional professional indemnity cover in respect of advice and services provided to third parties e.g. Somer. The cover would cost an estimated £3,000 and is recommended (para 3.5.6).
3.3. Consultation and Communication
3.3.1. The most recent customer survey of B&NES managers was carried out in early 1999 - 23% of managers responded. It indicated general satisfaction, but a desire for more briefings on new legislation and case law; more regular and written advice (including "face to face" contact with day to day service delivery issues); more policy advice to senior managers (including inter corporate issues); and more contributions to staff training.
3.3.2. An earlier survey of managers (61% response), carried out in April 1998 recorded similar feedback. The results of this and the above survey are summarised in
Appendix G.
3.3.3. As part of this Review, additional surveys were carried out of B&NES managers (first to third tiers), B&NES Elected Members and organisations/or individuals outside the Council who have some experience of B&NES Legal Services. The results suggest overall satisfaction with the service provided. See Appendix H.
3.3.4. An annual customer survey of B&NES managers is the only mechanism used to obtain views of clients and customers. Other evidence which does exist, (in many cases unsolicited), is generally very favourable.
3.3.5. A total of 10 workshops (6 involving customers of the Service) have been held to gauge opinion on the Service and to explore issues (see Appendix I). Key conclusions were:
3.4. Business Excellence Assessment
3.4.1. In accordance with B&NES adopted approach, the European Foundation for Quality Management Business Excellence Model has been used as part of the Best Value Review methodology. Legal Service scored best on Process Management and Customer focus and satisfaction. The service scored less well on performance measurement, staff development and Policy and Strategy. This assessment is consistent with all other information gathered as part of this Review. The scored assessment will be used as a basis for measuring improvements achieved through the proposed Action Plan.
3.4.2. Main strengths identified were:
3.4.2.1. The existence of a Service Level Agreement for customers
3.4.2.2. Introduction of an Office manual for all staff within Legal Services setting out standards and objectives for the department.
3.4.2.3 Customer satisfaction
3.4.3. Main areas for improvement were:
3.4.3.1. Urgent need for relevant and accurate performance information and application
3.4.3.2. Need for clear leadership to develop a longer term strategic approach to delivering Legal Services
3.5. KEY CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
3.5.1. Customer Satisfaction
The customer workshops and surveys that have been carried out indicate that Legal Services is a highly regarded and frequently used service that consistently meets the existing needs of its' clients. Clients also felt that the in-house team added value as they understood the `bigger picture'. It is essential that this level of service and satisfaction is maintained and wherever possible improved.
3.5.2. Organisation of the Legal Service
The Service has a high number of qualified staff and its turnover rate is low, with 18 of the 24 staff who transferred to B&NES on 1st April 1996 still remaining. Whilst this can be advantageous in terms of experience and continuity within the service, it can become, however unintentionally, an obstacle to development and improvement. There is clearly identifiable scope, within the existing service, to examine current working arrangements with a view to effecting short and longer-term improvements such as those below:-
Challenge the feasibility of four teams, and the resulting existence of four managers and four management styles.
Measure the benefit of high involvement in Committee processes (papers and attendance) compared to other Councils? Certain Committees (e.g. Social Services and CCL) always have a lawyer in attendance, who is seldom used, and not always for strictly legal issues. At some other Councils (e.g. the Isle of Wight), lawyers only attend Committee (apart from Development Control and Licensing) when requested.
There is potential, through accessibility, for greater reliance on Legal Services by some B&NES managers or their staff than could be necessary, which in turn could result in an unnecessarily high demand for advice and services. This view (from some of the workshops) should be balanced against consequences for the Council when legal advice is not requested at an appropriate time;
A reasonably high number of senior and qualified staff (18 of 24 staff are Senior Legal Advisors or above, 15 of 24 staff are qualified solicitors or barristers);
There is scope for more flexible working between teams;
We could improve working practices with support staff (support staff are currently not dedicated to, or managed by, legal staff).
These issues should be addressed as follows:
A further option could be considered:
(ix) the merger of existing teams in order to provide a superior customer based service. Alternatively teams could be merged according to a skill rather than a customer base e.g. a litigation or magistrates court team. This option should be considered in conjunction with recommendations relating to management and leadership in paragraph 3.5.5.
3.5.3. Admin Support
The use of support staff by Legal Services is in need of major overhaul. The support team is based in a separate office from the Legal Team, and provide support for the Solicitor to the Council, as well as having duties in reception and the postroom. They are not perceived to be a part of the Legal Team, although their activities are key to achieving the Legal Service's objectives.
Some areas identified for improvement during this Review were:
(x) the appointment of a Practice Manager, who would review processes, implement improvements and manage change could resolve these issues. This approach is one that has long been supported by the Service, and is one that is commonly used in other Councils, particularly some of those acknowledged as achieving high quality of service provision. Whilst this would represent an additional establishment post, it is considered key to the delivery of the proposed financial savings, part of which would be used to fund this position. (see recommendation xxv).
(xi) an appropriate number of support staff should be integrated into Legal Services, with a view to some receiving paralegal training. Operationally they would report into the Practice Manager and would be involved in a review of all admin processes with a view to streamlining or eliminating them.
(xii) The introduction of paralegals would enable greater delegation between fee earners and support team e.g. chasing overdue documentation, administration of review boards and/or panels, drafting of some legal documents.
(xiii) Tailored IT training for all Legal staff on Word and Outlook is needed and the Profess time recording system should be either used or discarded.
3.5.4 Performance Management
Performance measurement and management is not well developed, but is essential if the Service is to determine how well they are performing, both locally and nationally. This has been partly due to the lack of a clear set of measures and indicators. The PROFESS system has been in place for a year and there are now opportunities to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the system and current time recording practices and in order to develop and improve performance management systems. A significant part of a Practice Manager's role would be to measure performance.
(xiv) Performance indicators for Legal Services have now been agreed at national levels and must be one of the factors included within performance measurement.
(xv) A code of practice, regarding the use of PROFESS within Legal Services, needs to be devised and implemented to avoid the inconsistencies that currently exist.
(xvi) Further analysis of the performance information required by Legal Services and their clients is needed to enable further development of performance measurement systems and management.
3.5.5 Professional and operational management
(xvii) That the partnership be given the opportunity to develop within a specific framework of individual as well as partnership performance targets. Achievement of these targets to be monitored and reviewed by the Head of Service on a quarterly basis - see para 3.5.2 (iv). Targets should take the form of those outlined in Appendix L.
(xviii) Legal Services and the Solicitor to the Council should issue clear guidance on which service issues they advise upon and on which corporate issues members and the Management Board should seek the Solicitor to the Council's advice.
(xix) This should be supported by an SLA for the relevant Services. Each SLA should be clear over the cost, quality and timeliness of the service, and should include provision to seek further advice if appropriate.
(xx) The Solicitor to the Council in his role as Monitoring Officer should have a role in providing further advice to clients, if and when requested. In the event of a conflict of legal opinion the client would make a decision on the basis of the advice received from the Solicitor to the Council. Advice provided by the Solicitor to the Council will be recorded by him and recharged directly to the client as part of the overall charge for legal services on that particular matter.
(xxi) In order to ensure that the Council is being properly advised on legal issues the Solicitor to the Council will ensure enforcement of the corporate legal standards which provide that the only officers authorised to procure external legal advice are the Solicitor to the Council and Legal Services.
(xxii) The Solicitor to the Council will decide whether he wishes to procure legal advice for major corporate or strategic projects on a case by case basis or whether he should request Legal Services to do so. The lawyer procuring the advice will be responsible for monitoring its cost and quality. Legal Services will provide reports to the Solicitor to the Council listing details of external legal advice procured by Legal Services each month. Together with reports by the Solicitor to the Council of any external legal advice procured by him, this will enable the Council to have a definitive account of all external legal advice and its cost centrally recorded. The service can also use the information to analyse and review the `external' requirements of the Council
(xxiii) The solicitor to the Council should have support from within legal services in his role and duties. The level of this support should be agreed between the Solicitor and the Head of property and Legal Services
3.5.6 Externalised Legal Work
A significant level of legal advice is procured externally (approximately £46k by Legal Service and an estimated £346k by other Services), either because the work is specialised with insufficient demand to justify an in-house post, or because of workload pressures within the Service.
The Voluntary Competitive Tendering (VCT) exercise (see para 3.2.6), shows a systematic approach to procurement, but is not sufficient in itself to demonstrate that B&NES is achieving optimum value from its external procurement. Some of this work has now been brought back in-house.
(xxiv) Investigate a more cost-effective strategy for the delivery of legal services as a whole, e.g. procurement partnerships and other co-operative arrangement with neighbouring authorities, strategic partnerships with the private sector, agreements on charges and service levels with local solicitors
3.5.7 Decision ownership
The demand for legal services, particularly advice and practical assistance, is linked to the perceived and actual levels of empowerment of B&NES' managers. A view expressed in workshops by some but not all staff, as well as by some customers, is that the Legal staff are often expected to make decisions for, or give strong recommendations to, managers. The correct level of involvement for Legal services is to provide advice and give specialist legal opinion. Clearly there are circumstances where staff should not act without legal advice, but there is scope to encourage decision ownership amongst managers by more pro-active training in Legal issues for all B&NES Managers. Heads of Service attending the Challenge Panel on 22nd May were clear that the responsibility for operating within the law lay with them.
3.5.8 Location of Legal Services
Legal Services are based at Riverside, but 80% of their clients are located in Bath. Workshops indicated that clients would not be happy to pay for travelling time of lawyers.
Workshops also (para 3.3.5) highlighted particular problems regarding the locations of Property Services and the Property Law Team. The former are based at Northgate House in Bath, whilst the latter are based at Riverside, Keynsham. Lease assignments and renewals and minor disposals comprise approximately 60% of the work, but the location of the bulk of the Council's deeds, and its corporate and commercial estates are in Bath. Workshop discussions indicated that the Property Law team are generally in favour of relocating to Bath.
Complete feasibility studies, considering costs and benefits, on whether a) the entire Legal Service should relocate to Bath and b) whether the Property Law team should relocate to Bath. Both to be carried out in consultation with key clients.
4. RESOURCE AND CORPORATE POLICY IMPLICATIONS (WHERE NECESSARY, THE VIEWS OF THE COUNCIL'S STATUTORY OFFICERS ARE REFLECTED IN THE COMMENTS BELOW)
Financial:. A number of this report's recommendations are capable of delivering financial benefits to the Council as a whole. Realistically we believe there are efficiencies to be achieved of around £150K within 3 years. Note, however, these savings could well be derived from more efficient delivery of unplanned work for which there is currently no specific budget. Careful monitoring will be needed to identify such savings. Legal Services SLA's will create financial over and underspends in the devolved Legal Services budget. A corporate solution will be needed to treat such outcomes consistently. The appointment of a Practice Manger will result in additional expenditure, to be financed by financial savings achieved by the Service.
Staffing: included in the report
Equalities: none directly arising
Economic: none directly arising
Environment: none directly arising
Council Wide Impacts: For every action taken by the Council there must be a supporting statutory provision. The Legal Service is responsible for ensuring that the Council as a whole acts lawfully.
5. BACKGROUND AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK
5.1. Under the Local Government Act 1999, all local authorities will be required to carry out Best Value Reviews of all functions within a five-year period commencing April 2000. B&NES took the decision to carry out a number of Pilot Reviews to test methodology in advance of this date (see background paper). This report summarises the findings and recommendations arising from the fifth Best Value Review - Legal Services. This review benefited significantly from lessons learned in carrying out other reviews, particularly that of Property Services, which reported in October 1999.
5.2. All Best Value Reviews carried out within B&NES will be subject to external scrutiny by Best Value Inspectors appointed by the Audit Commission. In due course the detailed working papers for this review will be inspected. These papers are available for inspection now by any Member on request from the authors of this report.
6. CONSULTATION
This report was sent to the Trades Unions for comment on 25th October 2000. Any comments received will be reported to the meeting.
G:\BESTVALU\Legal\legalrcc8.doc
Recommended Action Plan
Report Ref. |
Recommendations |
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3.5.3 |
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3.5.1 |
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3.5.1, 3.5.2, 3.5.4, 3.5.5, 3.5.7 |
Identify and set performance targets for individual fee earners and the overall partnership to include: 10% efficiencies within current chargeable time, innovative approach to customer service partnership partnership |
Practice Mgr andT McBain |
3.5.4 |
Implement regular performance measurement across the service, analysis and reporting |
Practice Mgr |
3.5.2 |
Pilot existing SLA's and recharges and monitor |
Legal Mgrs and Practice Mgr |
3.5.3 |
Tailored IT training for legal and support |
Practice Mgr and Chantal Young |
3.5.6 |
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3.5.6 |
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3.5.8 |
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3.5.3 |
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3.5.4 |
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3.5.3 |
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3.5.2 |
Review 2000/01 SLA's and allocate budgets for pilot implementation from April 2001 |
Practice Mgr and Legal Mgrs |
3.5.6 |
Challenge VFM of current external procurement arrangements by reviewing external work expenditure and service |
V Hitchman and Legal Mgrs |
2.2 |
Progress report to committee in April 2001 |
T McB / KH |
Completion by June 2002 |
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3.5.2 |
Recruit trainee staff |
Legal Mgrs |
3.5.3 |
Implement admin systems and processes |
Practice Mgr |
3.5.2 |
Implement fully working SLA's |
Legal Mgrs and Practice Mgr |
3.5.2 |
By April 2002 review current service organisation to include: Identifying partnering needs, identifying new external business opportunities, mix of qualified / part qualified staff |
T McB, Practice Mgr, Legal Mgrs |
2.2 and 3.5.2 (iv) |
Review operation of the Partnership and final progress report to Committee in June 2002 |
T McB, Practice Mgr, Legal Mgrs, KH |
Corporate Law Team Manager |
Family and Community Law Team Manager |
Property Law Team Manager |
Planning and Environmental Law Team Manager | |||||||
Amanda Brookes Competition and Best Value, Public Procurement, Contracts, Conduct of Council Business, Other Corporate Issues |
Christine Betts Social Services - Adult & Child Care, Education, Housing |
Andrew Reed Conveyancing, Leisure Services |
Tony Bevan Local and Structure Planning, Highways and Transportation | |||||||
· Andy Biddlecombe Senior Legal Adviser Contracts, Standing Orders and Financial Regulations, Other Corporate Issues · Rebecca Jones Senior Legal Adviser Employment, Equal Opportunities, Travellers, Benefit Review Board, Other Corporate Issues |
· Sarah Coldrick Senior Legal Adviser Social Services - Child Care, Adult Care, Education · Sue Davies Legal Adviser Social Services - Child Care, Adult Care, Education, Housing · Simon Goacher Senior Legal Adviser Social Services - Housing, Child Care, Adult Care, Education · Elizabeth Reinstein Senior Legal Adviser Social Services - Child Care, Adult Care, Education · Linda Ind Senior Child Care Lawyer Social Services - Child Care, Adult Care, Education NB: a legal advisor transferred into this team from the Planning and Environment team, September 2000. |
· Martin Flowers Senior Legal Adviser Commercial Property, general conveyancing, restructuring and development work · Diane Wood * Senior Legal Adviser Commercial property, general conveyancing, restructuring and development work · Peter Sanders Senior Legal Adviser Commercial property, general conveyancing, Restructuring and development work · Stephen Weeks * Senior Legal Adviser Commercial property, general conveyancing, Restructuring and development work
· Frances Horler Legal Adviser General conveyancing and commercial property · Nicola O'Connor Legal Adviser General Conveyancing and Commercial Property * Job Share |
· Simon Elias Legal Adviser Planning, Engineering and Tree Conservation · Maggie Horrill Senior Legal Adviser Planning & Development, Listed Buildings & Economic Development · Dawn Hosking Senior Legal Adviser Planning, Environmental & Consumer Services, Prosecutions & Licensing · Karin Grant Legal Adviser Environmental & Consumer Services, Prosecutions & Car Parking · Peter Malarby Senior Legal Adviser Highways, Transportation & Waste · Dean Shepherd Legal Adviser Highways and Transportation (including Traffic Orders and Road Closures) · Nicola Mathiason (due to start work in June) Senior Legal Adviser Planning and Development | |||||||
Support Services Manager (Riverside)
Total Cost Direct Staff Costs Other Direct Costs Recharges
£ £ £ £
Corporate Law 143,594 110,640 10,398 22,556
Property Law 205,759 155,842 15,676 34,241
Family and Community Law 265,084 195,272 33,840 35,972
Planning and Environmental Law 282,981 219,269 22,339 41,373
Management 61,425 - 42,591 18,834
Admin and Support 129,751 100,000 1,400 28,351
less External Income Received 43,706
20% Solicitor to the Council 14,000 - - -
External work paid for directly 346,873 - - -
Net Total Cost 1,405,761 - - -
Notes:
1 Management includes costs of Head of Service
2 Recharges include Property, Finance, IT, HR
3 External charges and income retrieved from 1999/2000 FMS data
Summary of Charges by Legal Teams |
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P&E |
F&C |
Corp |
Prop | |
Target Chargeable hours |
8,950 |
6,237 |
3,750 |
6,148 |
Actual Chargeable hours (pa) |
9,886 |
6,206 |
3,656 |
5,428 |
Actual Costs (£) including overheads |
339,713 |
271,322 |
170,183 |
239,716 |
Target charges (£) for actual hours |
* 434,468 |
271,956 |
168,960 |
237,464 |
Target charges (£) for target hours |
381,000 |
272,480 |
173,000 |
268,919 |
Actual profit/loss (£) |
* 94,755 |
634 |
-1,223 |
-2,252 |
i.e charges based on target hourly rate and actual chargeable hours rate less the actual costs | ||||
Target profit/loss (£) |
41,287 |
1,158 |
2,817 |
29,203 |
i.e charges based on target hourly rate and target chargeable hours less actual costs | ||||
Charges per hour (£) |
||||
Actual costs and actual hours |
34 |
44 |
47 |
44 |
i.e the "real" hourly cost of work done |
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Actual costs and target hours |
38 |
44 |
45 |
39 |
i.e the rate each team will need to charge to break even @ target chargeable hours | ||||
Target charges and target hours |
43 |
44 |
46 |
44 |
i.e composite hourly rate (legal manager @ £60, others @ £40) |
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Summary of chargeable hours by teams |
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Target Chargeable hours |
8,950 |
6,237 |
3,750 |
6,148 |
Actual Chargeable hours (pa) |
9,886 |
6,206 |
3,656 |
5,428 |
Variance |
936 |
(31) |
(94) |
(720) |
Actual chargeable hrs as % of available hrs |
85% |
79% |
73% |
68% |
* NB there are exceptional circumstances relating to the performance of this team - this level of performance should not therefore be considered sustainable in future | ||||
Target chargeable hours and costs for F&C team have been amended to reflect a 6 month gap in continuous employment | ||||
Actual hours are based on Profess recording 1999/2000 |
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Target hourly charges are £60 and £40 |
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Target hours per annum are 1150 for managers and 1300 for others |
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Available hours per FTE to work per annum are 1659 |
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LEGAL SERVICES BACKGROUND INFORMATION |
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Members of Audit Commission Family and New Unitary Benchmarking Group |
NUB |
ACF |
2000/2001 | ||||||||||
West Berkshire (19) |
South Gloucester-shire (17) |
IoW (16) |
Hereford-shire (6) |
North Somerset (3) |
East Riding of Yorks (9) |
North Lincs (18) |
Telford & Wrekin |
Poole (2) |
Sefton (13) |
York (1) |
B&NES | ||
Authority Population |
145,600 |
243,400 |
126,500 |
168,100 |
187,300 |
311,000 |
152,400 |
152,700 |
145,000 |
289,000 |
174,400 |
167,000 | |
Legal Service FTE's |
15.5 |
19.0 |
8.0 |
18.0 |
15.5 |
23.0 |
13.5 |
19.0 |
16.0 |
21.0 |
15.0 |
22.0 | |
Legal Svs Fee Earners |
14.5 |
19.0 |
8.0 |
17.0 |
13.5 |
23.0 |
13.5 |
17.0 |
13.0 |
17.5 |
11.0 |
22.0 | |
Net Revenue Exp.for Authority (£) |
121,424,000 |
182,238,000 |
114,003,000 |
127,399,000 |
140,969,000 |
264,670,000 |
140,338,000 |
134,280,000 |
109,700,000 |
255,800,000 |
130,200,000 |
135,430,000 | |
Gross Revenue Exp. for authority (£) |
148,117,000 |
214,475,000 |
155,348,000 |
159,088,000 |
174,918,000 |
498,500,000 |
165,382,000 |
226,070,000 |
150,200,000 |
256,300,000 |
240,100,000 |
211,740,000 | |
Total Legal Expenditure Excl. Support Costs (£) |
732,570 |
852,093 |
378,000 |
842,500 |
548,730 |
803,991 |
591,000 |
726,000 |
624,780 |
593,000 |
489,000 |
768,967 | |
188,535 | |||||||||||||
This data provides an illustration of certain standard features across similar authorities. It is not intended to be a robust model of comparison or benchmarking |
The numbers against the Local Authority names indicate their position, i.e. 'goodness of fit' within the Audit Commission Family comparators for Bath & North East Somerset. |
Also gathered information from Mendip District Council, West Berkshire District Council, Lambeth Borough Council, Halton Borough Council and Newham Borough Council. The latter three being shortlisted for the Local Government Chronicle's Legal Team of the Year award. |
NEW UNITARIES BENCHMARKING CLUB
LEGAL SERVICES
The following set of questions has been constructed by the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors. They are specifically structured to meet the requirements of Best Value.
Costs & Efficiency | |
1. |
Cost of the Legal Function (both externally and internally procured legal services) as a ratio of the council's net revenue budget (inc. the housing revenue account if applicable) |
2. |
The ratio of external to internal spend on legal services within 1. Above |
3. |
Target chargeable hours (per team) averaged |
4a. |
Actual chargeable hours achieved as a percentage of target chargeable hours by team |
4b. |
Actual chargeable hours achieved as a percentage of target chargeable hours by department |
5a. |
Percentage of fee-earning staff in each of the following categories of gross hourly rates; Less than £51 |
5b. |
£51-75 |
5c. |
£76+ |
6. |
Unit cost for a Right to Buy (This could be extended to include other transactions or legal proceedings) |
Effectiveness | |
1. |
The regular measurement of customer and staff satisfaction, the publication of such information and setting targets to improve it |
2. |
Recording outcomes of litigation work (case successfully concluded, case partially successfully concluded, case unsuccessfully concluded) |
Fair Access | |
1. |
Number of unresolved client complaints |
2. |
Commendations received |
Quality and Outcomes (1) | |
1. |
Compliance with an auditable quality system (ideally number of files audited in accordance with such a quality system in respect of each fee earner per annum) |
2. |
Amount of debt recovered against amount of debt instructed to be recovered (per annum) |
3. |
Number of Right to Buy matters referred (per annum) |
4. |
Average time between receipt of final instructions on Right to Buy matters and the Council being able to complete the transaction (per annum) |
5. |
Average number of days to serve a planning enforcement notice after receipt of final instructions (per annum) |
6. |
Percentage of successful possession orders (per annum) |
Quality and Outcomes (2) | ||
7. |
Percentage of cases conducted by Unit Cost (per annum) |
|
8. |
Number and type of discrete matters referred, opened and closed (per annum); | |
a. |
Conveyancing transactions | |
b. |
Prosecutions | |
c. |
Planning enforcement | |
d. |
Meeting of Committees/Sub-Committees/working parties etc. attended | |
e. |
Contracts | |
f. |
Child care matters | |
g. |
Employment litigation | |
Workshops held during Legal Services Best Value Review
· 4th April 2000 Staff (group 1)
· 10th April 2000 Environmental Law Team and customers
· 11th April 2000 Property Law Team and customers
· 13th April 2000 Staff (group 2)
· 14th April 2000 Corporate Law Team and customers
· 3rd May 2000 Support Staff
· 4th May 2000 Legal Team Managers
· 17th May 2000 Family and Community Law Team and customers (1)
· 18th May 2000 Family and Community Law Team and customers (2)
· 9th June 2000 Family and Community Law Team and customers (1)
+ Development control
¬ Accessible
¬ Responsive
¬ Competent
¬ Corporate
· SLA's
¬ in existence but users mostly unaware
¬ need to be flexible
· Location of legal teams
¬ Most clients in Bath, especially Property
¬ Open plan offices lack privacy for lawyers and clients
· Use of Support function
¬ Adopt generic administrative processes
¬ Each legal team to have own support team
¬ More training to address gap between admin and legal function
· More provision from Legal Services
¬ Training
¬ Briefings
¬ Publish FAQ's on global issues - HRA, DPA
¬ User guidance to ensure appropriate use and prevent over-reliance
¬ Who's who?
¬ Performance measurement
¬ Progress reports
· More provision for Legal Services
¬ Training
¬ Trainees
¬ Strategic development
¬ Clarity of management roles following restructure
¬ Profess - better understanding/training
(_/_ = broad agreement/disagreement with Eversheds' views)
_ Need for strong leadership both professionally and managerially by one person
· This has been recognised as an issue and more discussion is required as to how it can be resolved.
_ Leadership role should also incorporate role of Monitoring Officer
· B&NES has already decided that the statutory role of the Monitoring Officer should remain separate to Legal Services
_ Need for more trainees
· This recommendation is currently in the report and more work is required to determine the implementation ongoing
_ Need for dedicated support staff at a ratio of at least 1 -3 (admin. to lawyers)
· This recommendation is currently in the report and is not thought to be in dispute.
_ Practice Manager as part of the senior management team
· Appointment of a Practice Manager has been identified as an option within the report and work is ongoing to establish scope and funding for this position
_ Benchmarking undertaken is inconclusive
· The current data available will be given less prominence within the report, however, work is ongoing via the lawyers and more applicable information may become available.
_Market testing is not recommended as a valuable measure of competitiveness
· We should be looking strategically at what is currently delivered in-house and externally, and determine the best overall method of service delivery. Market testing is costly and time-consuming and should therefore be undertaken only where we are clear it will deliver benefits.
_ Case Management data, including all external provision, must be recorded and
available for both monitoring and forecasting purposes.
· Need to investigate the capability of Profess to handle this type of work and how easily it can be utilised.
_Alternative methods of service delivery should be explored e.g. joint commissioning
with other local authorities
· This is already mentioned in the report in relation to examination of external spend.
_Ensure that delivery culture is based on customer demands as opposed to existing
service available
· The SLA process should contribute significantly. Additionally, the report raises the issue of whether team organisation based on function could be considered. This could be developed in the report as it could be a more flexible solution in a changing world.
_ Comparatively good re: IT with ongoing requirement to develop a strategy to meet
Government targets
· This would be one of the key objectives of the recommended Practice Management role
_ Recommends `mixed economy' funding i.e. part central funding, part service area funding to ensure balance between service provision and costs
· We believe that this is a very similar model to what is currently being implemented
_ Recommends a review of hourly rates to better represent the various levels of skill and expertise within department
· This is an exercise that will be carried out by BV team and reported back
Legal Work Indicative Budget Allocation 2001/02
Internal Legal Work |
External Legal Work |
Total Legal Work | |||
SLA's To be allocated to Directors to buy work from Legal Services |
Unplanned * |
Planned/Regular** |
|||
Director |
£k |
1999/2000 spend (£k) |
Director |
1999/2000 spend (£k) |
|
Education |
17 |
17 | |||
Social and Housing Services |
222 |
222 | |||
EED |
360 |
EED |
50 |
410 | |
Resources |
195 |
Resources |
100 |
295 | |
Operations |
30 |
30 | |||
Corporate |
54 |
54 | |||
Unallocated |
113 |
113 | |||
Unallocated*** |
98 |
98 | |||
Totals |
1089 |
197 |
150 |
1436 | |
*Funding to be identified corporately by request to Management Board
**To be held within individual Service budgets (as currently) but procured through Legal Services
***From additional work such as that brought back in house
Actions proposed
1. Future budgets to be adjusted where necessary according to demand.
2. Financial managers to confirm or amend the above.
3. Phil Hall to propose process to implement above.
Appendix K
cont.
Draft SLA
Executive Summary
1. Client Directorates
2. Objectives of SLA
· `Mission statement'
· Client expectations of Legal Services
· Legal Services expectations of client
3. Performance monitoring
· Reviewing and reporting requirements of client
4. Service Provision
· Budget
· Annual volumes and types of work including charges
- Previous
- Forecasted
- New services
· Instructing service
· Resource
· Timing
· Charging
5. Procedure for selection of external solicitors and Counsel
6. Disputes
7. Period
Performance Targets for Legal Services
"Partnership" Targets |
· Achieve financial savings for B&NES of £50k in 2001/02, £75k in 2002/03 and £150k in 2003/04 (savings to be achieved from total B&NES Legal spend i.e. in-house and external spend - these targets to be further discussed and agreed) · Achieve total chargeable hours target of 29,300 hours per annum · Deliver 1,300 hours of "proactive" work to clients per annum · Identify requirements and delivery plan for corporate training/guidance on key legislative developments within 6 months · Achieve global customer satisfaction rating of 95% · Identify level of staff satisfaction and improve year-on-year · Carry out skills audit and report on interim opportunities for pooling and developing skills within 6 months · Produce interim strategy for procurement of external advice within 6 months | |||
Team Targets |
Corporate Law Team · Achieve chargeable hours target of 3,950 hours · Achieve customer satisfaction rating of 95 % · Achieve staff satisfaction rating of + 5% year-on-year · Specific e.g. new legislation |
Property Law Team · Achieve chargeable hours target of 8,000 hours · Achieve customer satisfaction rating of 95 % · Achieve staff satisfaction rating of + 5% year-on-year · Specific e.g. turnaround times on lease work |
P&E Law Team · Achieve chargeable hours target of 9,350 hours · Achieve customer satisfaction rating of 95 % · Achieve staff satisfaction rating of + 5% year-on-year · Specific e.g. turnaround time on planning work |
F&C Law Team · Achieve chargeable hours target of 8,000 hours · Achieve customer satisfaction rating of 95 % · Achieve staff satisfaction rating of + 5% year-on-year · Specific e.g. response time for advice requests |
Individual Targets - fee earners |
· Achieve target chargeable hours, 1250 for managers, 1350 for others · Additional specific targets |
· Achieve target chargeable hours, 1250 for managers, 1350 for others · Additional specific targets |
· Achieve target chargeable hours, 1250 for managers, 1350 for others · Additional specific targets |
· Achieve target chargeable hours, 1250 for managers, 1350 for others · Additional specific targets |
Individual Targets - Support staff |
· Specific targets set by Practice Manager |
· Specific targets set by Practice Manager |
· Specific targets set by Practice Manager |
· Specific targets set by Practice Manager |
The transfer of a Legal Advisor from the Planning and Environment team to the Family and Community team has been reflected within these targets.
MEETING: