Worcestershire County Council has today signed a seven-year contract with Liberata, the business process service provider, to deliver a range of transformational Human Resources and Finance Services to the Council and local schools. The base contract worth £5.2 million will see Liberata deliver services that will enable the County Council to save up to £2.2 million over the lifetime of the agreement. Liberata will also be providing services to the region’s schools and other public sector customers. The overall end contract value could be worth up to £23 million.
“Liberata has a strong track record in the successful transition of services and staff into its own operations, including working with other local authorities on similar services. We will now undertake further discussions with Liberata in order to successfully transfer staff and services across from 1 February 2016,” said Councillor Marc Bayliss, Worcestershire County Council Cabinet Member for Transformation and Commissioning. “The commissioning of these services meets our aim to create a lower and more transparent cost of service while also ensuring our commitments to schools and other customers can continue to be delivered now and in the future.”
“We are delighted to have been selected by Worcestershire County Council as it transforms to a commissioning council. In today’s environment it’s imperative that local councils can optimise their processes and implement appropriate technology to digitally transform their operations and deliver value for money to citizens,” said Charlie Bruin, Chief Executive, Liberata. “We are also pleased to have the opportunity to grow our School Services and to bring additional employment to Worcestershire. Using our support services in HR, payroll and pensions and finance and audit, schools will be able to benefit from our team’s in-depth knowledge and commercial expertise.”
Worcestershire County Council proposes Liberata delivers the following services:
- Payroll and control services for the County Council, schools and other customers’ staff
- Human Resources transactional services (Employee Recruitment and Resources Services) for the County Council and schools
- Schools Human Resources consultancy
- Schools Finance Advice
- Payments for schools and schools systems support
- Accounts payable and accounts receivable for the County Council, schools and other customers
- Occupational Health
- Technology solution management, maintenance, support and its future transformation
- General ledger application to enable the County Council accounting services
- Process transformation of Human Resources and Finance business processes
In total, 106 roles in payroll, school Human Resources and finance advice, occupational health, transactional services, payment support and technology maintenance will be transferred from the County Council to Liberata. In addition, Liberata will be taking on 25 apprentices from the local area over the next seven years.
Liberata is planning to create a new base in Worcestershire and further to grow its School Services by making them available to other nearby councils and public bodies. Liberata has been providing support to schools for more than 20 years, successfully working with the likes of Bromley, Croydon and North Somerset Councils.
