Issue - meetings

Report of the Leader of the Council.

Decision:

To approve the recommendation to join the established and successful Lincolnshire Legal Services Partnership and retain the existing staff.

Considerations/reasons for decision:

·       The report of the Leader of the Council on the options for SK Legal Services.

·       The team has reduced in size, whilst requirements for legal support have increased.

·       The Corporate Plan 2020-2023 places significant emphasis on strong and robust decision making.

·       The full range of expertise required by the Council cannot be provided by a small in-house team.

Options considered:

1.    Fully outsource to Lincolnshire Legal Services (LSL).

This would involve outsourcing the entire legal function to LSL, leaving no legal staff inside the Council. This is not considered ideal, as there are day to day legal matters that it is more efficient to provide in

house such as sealing of contracts, maintaining the deed store, attend at committees, and assist members and officers in day to day queries.

2.    No change.

The current model does not cater for all the Council’s legal requirements.

3.    Build up a fully functioning in house team.

In order to provide the range of skills and expertise needed, we would need to recruit up to 5 additional lawyers. This would take up to 2 years and it would be more efficient enter into a partnership to source this support.

4.     Hybrid model.

This is the recommended option. This model would see LSL delivering the majority of the Council’s legal support, while retaining a small in-house team. LSL would provide certainty and the full range of skills,

and as the Council would be a full partner, any surplus income would be recycled back to the Council as a partner. The model is efficient as we would only pay for what we use. The existing legal budget would be used in a targeted way, purchasing the right skills and expertise as and when needed.

The Leader of the Council presented the report on the options for Legal Services. The  Legal Team had reduced in size over recent years, whilst requirements for legal support had increased. With an ambitious Corporate Plan in place, it was likely that the demand for legal services would remain high and the Council needed to ensure that this could be accommodated to support robust decision-making.

Members gave their experiences of the services provided by Legal Services Lincolnshire and shared confidence that the decision to join the Partnership would be a positive move to improve the legal services available.  

On being put to the vote, it was AGREED:

To approve the recommendation to join the established and successful Lincolnshire Legal Services Partnership and retain the existing staff.