Councils set to take back control of services

Cotswold District Council is planning to return services to be run in-house

Three councils are set to undergo a shake-up as services are brought in-house.

Most of Cotswold, Forest of Dean and West Oxfordshire district councils' services were transferred to company Publica in 2017.

However, councils chiefs now want to return to having direct control over their staff.

They hope this will help them provide better services and make savings in the long-run.

Publica is owned by the three authorities, as well as Cheltenham Borough Council, which only has its ICT services within the company.Council chiefs say the partnership has achieved the savings it was initially set up for but councillors are concerned about sovereignty and control.

The control of all services apart from customer services, employee services such as procurement and transactional HR, and ICT would be returned to councils under the proposals.

No jobs are thought to be put at risk by the changes in the short term.

The move to take more services in-house is being driven by Cotswold and Forest of Dean councils. It is likely Cotswold and West Oxfordshire councils will share most of their services under the changes.

The decision has been triggered by a recent peer review of Cotswold District Council by the Local Government Association.

Cotswold District Council's cabinet will consider the proposals on Thursday. The proposals will need to be formally ratified by all of the authorities' cabinets.

The first services are expected to be transferred next summer.