Option 30 Report
5 Assessment of Options
The assessment of the sub-options identified for structural change and shared services was carried out using the data available and an approach that considered the objectives and the assessment criteria relative to the current arrangements in place.
A preliminary screening was undertaken that was of a qualitative, high level nature using the professional judgement and experience of members of the Task Group. It has also been subject to a Peer Review by representatives from SCOTS, COSLA, SOLACE, Transport Scotland and the Improvement Service.
The outcome of the high level qualitative assessment for each option under the two categories B and C is shown in Figure 5.1 below and is detailed in Appendix C.
The sub-options shown in green are deemed worthy of further consideration whilst red indicates sub-options that are not deemed worthy of further consideration in the short to medium term.
Figure 5.1
This broad category has involved consideration of structural change through reform of current delivery structures to form new roads authorities.
The diagram above indicates that six of the structural change sub options are worthy of further exploration, given the benefits which could potentially be delivered through enhanced integration, standardisation and economies of scale. However, such a move has to be carefully considered for a number of factors such as accountability and ability to deliver.
Any structural change would need to be balanced against the important need to maintain local accountability. For example, a single national authority, or a number of regional authorities could potentially delocalise accountability, and appropriate governance arrangements would need to be put in place to re-secure local accountability.
There are reforms forthcoming, which will employ the combination of national governance and local accountability of partnerships (Police and Fire Reform) and joint national and local governance partnerships (Health and Social Care Reform), but these are not yet implemented or tested. Given time, useful lessons for potential future governance arrangements may well be learnt from these reforms.
Change in delivery structures is likely to have significant impacts upon existing contractual arrangements in relation to the business cases made for those contracts when they were let and the wider linkages into the construction sector. For example, Transport Scotland and North Lanarkshire Council have in place medium to long term contractual arrangements (5 - 10.5 years) with large scale consortiums covering multiple Local Authority areas. It should also be noted that there are perhaps a greater number of infrastructure cross council interdependencies affected by the delivery of roads services which are often co-commissioned with other council services. Any new roads authority created could inherit contracts that could constrain its ability for integration, standardisation and economies of scale.
The creation of regional or a national roads authority would require a full legislative process and a subsequent implementation schedule. The Improvement Service advised that this could create a substantial risk that existing developments in service improvement could become frozen in the medium-term whilst awaiting structural and legislative reform to be progressed and implemented.
For the above reasons, it would only be possible to implement structural change in the medium to long term. Nonetheless, further consideration of structural change could take place in the short to medium term. Indeed, the management of reform and improvement should be done carefully to preserve such an opportunity by planning towards a convergence point when all roads authorities would be contractually free to allow radical alternative options to be explored.
In conclusion, it was found that there was compatibility between the results for the objectives and the overall assessment as shown in Appendix C.
This broad category has involved consideration of shared service arrangements through integration of roads services with other services within a local authority as well as sharing of services between local authorities and / or the trunk roads authority.
The outcome of the assessment of the seven sub-options, shown in Figure 5.1 above, is that the wider implementation of shared services is worthy of detailed investigation now. Although each sub-option will have different operating contexts and challenges across roads authorities they are empowered to enter into partnership, consortia or joint service arrangements in order to meet their duty to provide best value.
One of the seven sub-options includes the standardisation of strategies to be developed across Scotland and because of the relative ease of implementation can be pursued straightaway by all roads authorities.
Therefore, over the short-term there should be open and formal collaboration on shared services between local and trunk roads authorities, and on efficiency and productivity improvement within existing roads authorities. However, national support for shared service sub-options will be essential.
In order to assist existing roads authorities, it is recommended that there is the need for central resources to be in place to drive and support such work across Scotland. This would include preparations of tool kits for the development of sub-options, benchmarking and base-lining support, technical support for sub-options appraisal and business case development, and support for change management and implementation.
In conclusion, it was found that there was compatibility between the results for the objectives and the overall assessment as shown in Appendix C.