Fife Council’s handling of a new service model brought in to help claw back £54 million in savings over the next four years has been branded “a shambles”.
Councillors voiced concern about the new Shared Support Services Programme, otherwise known as 3S, at a meeting of the standards and audit committee.
The council signed a £26m contract last year with service provider Capgemini to implement a number of transformational change programmes in a bid to deliver significant cost savings and efficiencies.
The goal was to optimise council business processes, implement major change programmes and transform ICT to support local services.
Members discussed an Audit Scotland report on the progress of the 3S programme, which stated that though some elements of the programme delivery were successful, progress had been “hampered” by the lack of an approved blueprint.
“The council will need to be clear about the business model they are implementing and carefully manage the cultural change that is required to realise the vision and the anticipated benefits from the programme,” the report stated.
The report stated the projected cumulative benefits, anticipated to be around £54m by 2019, is now expected to be around £48.7m.
“Indications are that the programme will not achieve the benefits anticipated and there is a risk the council might need to consider further budget reductions to achieve the savings target, potentially impacting on front-line services,” the report stated.
Glenrothes councillor Ross Vettraino said he is “extremely dismayed” that an official blueprint for the programme has yet to be finalised. “We are a £1 billion organisation yet the basic building blocks are not in place. It’s a shambles and we need to find out why this has happened.”
Buckhaven, Leven and Wemyss Villages councillor David Graham said he is concerned council staff have not been trained adequately.
“For an organisation the size we are to wait until now to highlight these issues and for us to have to bring in an external team to address them is absolutely ridiculous,” he said.
Head of IT Charlie Anderson admitted there is a shortage of IT skills in the council but is confident staff can be trained to deal with the new system by the end of March.
Members were assured by the council’s IT officials that a finalised blueprint would be submitted by the end of this month.
Councillors will hold committee briefing session on issues relating to the 3S programme and agreed for a further report to be go to the next meeting of the standards and audit committee updating members on the points raised by Audit Scotland.