Plymouth leads the way with business plan to share ICT services

Plymouth City Council’s cabinet have agreed to move forward with setting–up a business to share ICT services with four other public sector organisations.

Set to save in the region of £27 million over 10 years the company, called DELT, will consolidate services, make better use of ICT and improve service delivery for customers. Plymouth is expected to see £12 million of these savings.

The City Council has already invested £4 million in the last three years to build a solid foundation of improvements to its ICT Service. This has enabled flexible working for staff, better resilience through the creation of a new data centre and improved communication services and technologies.

Two of the other partners, Teignbridge District Council and the N.E.W. Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, have also agreed to take forward the set-up of the company. Following today’s decision the next step will be for East Devon District Council and Exeter City Council to confirm their agreement.

Assets and budgets are expected to be transferred from all partners to DELT on 1 April 2014 following a due diligence process.

Staff, including 100 from Plymouth City Council, will also transfer to the company by TUPE.

Deputy Leader, Councillor Peter Smith said: “We are pleased with the progress of this business case and fully support being one of the first organisations to sign this off. Moving towards sharing ICT services will help make some of those much needed budget cuts without impacting on customer service or delivery. In fact, in some respects it will provide us all with the opportunity to improve customer interaction.”