The East Midlands Shared Services Joint Committee met on 09 December 2024 and noted the Q2 performance of the East Midlands Shared Services partnership. The Committee also noted the financial forecast for 2024/25 and the draft budget for 2025/26.

East Midlands Shared Services Performance

The committee received a report on the performance of the East Midlands Shared Services (EMSS).

The most significant item discussed was the continuing decline in customer satisfaction.

The trend for customer satisfaction has continued to decline slightly. It should be noted that of the quality checks against negative feedback, many of them were not a negative reflection on EMSS, but rather the user not appreciating the self service requirements. EMSS Q2 performance report 24-25

This was attributed in part to the transition to a new IT system. It was noted that Oracle were now charging license fees for customer self-service portals, and as a result this project had been put on hold.

The committee heard that while the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure health check was now complete, with 977 out of 1000 tests passed, there had been delays in implementing Oracle Redwood.

The implementation of Redwood, the new look and feel for Oracle is still on-going and is set to complete by Autumn 2025 EMSS Q2 performance report 24-25

The accuracy of payroll calculations was discussed. It was noted that the error rate was 0.12%, or 54 errors out of 43,539 payments.

The accuracy rates of the payroll are based upon the number of errors identified by employees, managers or EMSS after payday. The performance for Q2 is 54 errors out of a total of 43,539 payments (a rate of 0.12 %). Out of over 43,000 payments, this rate remains extremely low. Printed minutes 09th-Dec-2024 10.30 East Midlands Shared Services Joint Committee

The committee noted that implementation of the Seeded Teachers Pension Scheme and MCR had been delayed until February 2025.

East Midlands Shared Services Finances

The committee received a report on the finances of the EMSS partnership.

The most significant item discussed was the overall funding requirement for 2025/26. This was forecast to be £5.93 million, representing an increase of £290,000, or 5.2%, over the previous year. The committee noted that if one-off costs were excluded, the like-for-like increase was £39,000.

It was noted that the projected underspend for 2024/25 was £123,000 (2.2%), and that this was largely due to lower staffing costs. As a result of this, it was forecast that both Nottingham City Council and Leicestershire County Council would receive a reimbursement of £93,000.

The committee heard that EMSS held no reserves, and that the balance of £105,000 at the start of the 2024/25 financial year had been fully committed to meet the cost of the seeded absence project.

Concern was expressed by the committee that no finance representative from Nottingham City Council was present at the meeting.

Future Meeting Dates

The Committee noted the future meeting dates.