Member Article

Oldham Council seeking extra value from Unity partnership

Oldham Council has renewed its contract with the Unity Partnership for a further three years, but has announced “significant changes in their future relationship” in an effort to deliver improved services and value for money.

The Unity Partnership, a joint venture with Mouchel, has been delivering a range of important services for the local authority - including ICT, Highways and Customer Services - since 2007.

The Partnership manages more than 3,000 tenancies and licences on behalf of various clients, including Oldham Council, First Choice Homes Oldham, New Deal for Communities and Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority. It provides customer services, exchequer, highways and engineering, property and ICT services for the council.

The new agreement sets out significant changes in the management structure and how the partnership will operate. Unity’s contract has been extended by three years to 2022.

Oldham Council is seeking to make further budget savings – having already made reductions of more than £100 million in the last four years.

From October 1, Emma Alexander – Oldham Council’s Executive Director of Commercial Services – will now also be Managing Director of Unity.

Andrew Kendall is taking a new role as Partnership Development Director to support this work and a joint role of Enterprise Architect has been created to examine how to use IT to deliver better services. In addition to the managerial changes, Unity will deliver a programme of significant savings over the next two years.

It is also making a major new commitment to Oldham Council’s ‘Get Oldham Working’ campaign: investing £200,000 over the next four years to support local people into work, including increasing the number of apprenticeships, staff volunteering opportunities and jobs. Agilisys, the council’s ICT provider, will continue to be a key partner with the Unity Joint Venture, reflecting the increasing role IT will play in future services.

Councillor Abdul Jabbar, Oldham Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, said: “These are important changes in our relationship with the Unity Partnership.”

“They reflect our determination as a Co-operative Council to deliver better services and find savings that will offer value for money to all our residents.

“The new arrangements give us a fantastic platform to really strengthen the relationship between Oldham Council and Unity for the benefit of all and ensure there is a shared focus on our priorities for the Borough.

“It is also particularly pleasing that part of this agreement sees Unity increasing its contribution to our Get Oldham Working campaign. We know that it is absolutely vital that we seek to increase job opportunities through every contract and partnership that we make and this is a significant commitment by Unity to our residents and the local economy.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .