The East Midlands Shared Services Joint Committee met to discuss the performance and financial position of the East Midlands Shared Services (EMSS). The committee approved the Audit Plan for 2025/26 and noted the Q1 performance report, which highlighted improvements in customer satisfaction but also identified areas needing focus, such as system usability and communication clarity. The committee also noted the forecast outturn position of EMSS for 2025/26, which reported an underspend of £49,000, leading to an expected reimbursement of £24,000 to each partner authority.

East Midlands Shared Services Internal Audit Update

The committee approved the Audit Plan for 2025/26. Richard Green, Interim Head of Audit (Nottingham City Council), presented the plan, which had been developed in consultation with Elaine Simpson, Head of East Midlands Shared Services. The plan will also be reported to both councils' Audit Committees.

The primary focus of audits will concentrate on higher risk areas:

• Accounts payable
• Accounts receivable
• Payroll and Human Resources
• Business Continuity

Richard Green stated that the audit would also include data analysis to identify anomalies, including duplicate or over payments.

The reason for the decision was:

To provide assurance to the Joint Committee that EMSS has appropriate audit arrangements in place to identify weaknesses in processes and procedures and provide recommendations to address any identified issues.

East Midlands Shared Service Performance Report Quarter 1 2025/26

The committee noted the performance of EMSS during Q1 2025/26. Elaine Simpson, Head of East Midlands Shared Services, presented the report, which provided a summary of activity against the current Strategic Plan and an overview of customer satisfaction survey results.

Key discussion points included:

• Oracle Licensing: Regular reviews of license requirements and purchases are scheduled due to usage beyond licensed levels. The contract with Mastek[^1] has been extended for two years, achieving savings and improved terms after renegotiation. [^1]: Mastek is an IT service management company that provides services including Oracle implementation.
• Customer Service: Customer service volumes, engagement, query resolution, and satisfaction levels were summarised, with customer satisfaction increasing to 76%. Feedback from the new survey is being used to drive improvements.
• Employee Service Centre (ESC): Performance continues to improve due to increased strategic communication between partners, corrective measures, and restructured staff reporting within Development Teams. The ESC processed 42,792 payments within Leicestershire County Council (LCC) and Nottingham City Council (NCC) and made 384,580 pension payments in Quarter 1.
• Payroll: Payroll colleagues achieved faster payments and 99.62% accuracy but were hampered by functionality inconsistencies within Oracle and late or missing information.
• Job Applications: Manual processing of job applications was significantly impacted due to a broken link from the job board site, resulting in 366 manual applications in Q1, compared to 97 last year.
• Finance Service Centre (FSC): The FSC continues to perform well, with 89% of new supplier accounts created within the Service Level Agreement range.
• Supplier Payments: Trade Suppliers were paid within an average of 14.2 days for LCC and 13.1 days for NCC. An additional measure of trade suppliers on 30-day payment terms showed that 93.4% were paid within 30 days for LCC and 98.1% for NCC.
• Debt Collection: LCC has outsourced debt collection to the CEDR Group[^2] to reduce costs, but NCC wishes to identify its own debt collection provider. [^2]: The CEDR Group is a commercial debt recovery agency.
• Staff Turnover: Staff turnover has been minimal, with recruitment mainly due to internal progression.

Members requested more detail regarding participant numbers for the staff and user surveys and encouraged staff engagement and connection.

The report also included the results of a customer survey. The overall satisfaction score was +0.15, indicating moderately positive sentiment but clear room for improvement. The survey aimed to understand service effectiveness, self-service technology support, and areas for improvement. The EMSS Customer Survey gathered feedback from 178 respondents across both organisations. With an estimated workforce of around 10,000 employees across the partner organisations, the 178 responses represent a return rate of just 1.78%.

The survey found:

• Customer Service & Standards scored highest at +0.20
• Employee Service Centre scored lowest at +0.09, marking it as a priority area
• With a score of -0.07, NCC's rating of the Employee Service Centre was one of few negative results in the analysis.
• No service or analysis area met the +0.5 satisfaction benchmark.

Qualitative feedback praised staff helpfulness but highlighted issues with system usability, communication clarity, process efficiency and lack of human contact.

East Midlands Shared Services Financial Outturn Position 2025/26

The committee noted the forecast outturn position of EMSS for 2025/26 as at the end of July 2025, reporting an underspend of £49,000 and the spend against additional earmarked funding for the Claremont Archiving Solution. Susan Baum, EMSS Strategic Financial Manager (LCC), presented the report.

Key points from the report:

• Underspend: The forecast outturn position for EMSS at the end of July (period 4) is £5.90 million, which represents an underspend of £49,000 (or 0.82%) against the approved budget for the year. Each authority is scheduled to receive a £24,000 reimbursement.
• Claremont Archiving Solution: The ongoing external pressures of the cost of the Claremont Archiving Solution require £26,000 for this year and a further three years. These costs will be incorporated into business as usual and included within the ICT ongoing costs as part of the 2026-30 Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP).
• Pay Award: The forecast outturn assumes a provision of 3.5% (£152,000) for the pay award. The pay award negotiations are now complete, and the employers' opening offer of 3.2% for all employees has been agreed. Including on-costs, this is estimated to cost £143,000 based on budgeted staffing establishment and is currently within the provision available.
• Finance Service Centre (FSC): A £56,000 net underspend is expected, due to underspending on staffing as a result of delays in recruitment to vacant posts (£58,000) and slippage in the implementation of the Dialler system (£6,000), offset by increased running costs (£8,000).
• Employee Service Centre (ESC): A £42,000 underspend is expected, arising from staff turnover (£41,000) and savings on the Oracle General Ledger forum subscription (£1,000).
• Management & Business Development: A £34,000 underspend is expected on staffing costs due to delays in recruitment to vacant posts.
• ICT Ongoing: An £83,000 net overspend is expected, with underspending on staffing (£3,000) offset by increased costs associated with additional HCM licenses (£86,000).