Agenda item

A report was presented to provide Members with an update of progress and next steps for the integration of South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE) fully within the MCA.  The report confirmed the agreement of the outline project plan agreed by the MCA Board in September 2020. 

Members were informed that activity to integrate SYPTE fully within the MCA was currently in the very early stages of development, given the complexity and scale of the task. 

The report provided details of the aim and delivery objectives of the activity. 

Assurance was provided that consideration would take place to implement any new governance processes and any new risk management processes prior to integration. 

A draft programme approved by the MCA Board had been broken down into workstreams, linked to:

·       Governance

·       HR and Organisational Development

·       Finance and Assets

·       Branding and Communications

·       Programmes

A detailed project plan based on the above workstreams was currently in development and would include a series of milestones where decisions would be required by the MCA Board. 

Assurance was provided that risk management would feature independently in all of the above workstreams. 

R Jarvis commented that, following integration, audit and scrutiny of SYPTE would be undertaken by this Committee.  Therefore, he advised that a full risk review be undertaken to make sure that from an organisational point of view, health and safety was not compromised.  He was also of the opinion that risk management should be undertaken as a whole, rather than featuring independently in all of the workstreams. 

In response, R Adams said that significant independent advice would be sought to examine the programme plan to ensure that the MCA’s proposal was an assured process for the activity, including risk management.  Work was also underway to appoint an interim capacity to lead on the HR workstream.  A risk review of the whole integration would be undertaken.  R Adams agreed to provide the Committee with written assurances on the activity at a later date.  ACTION: R Adams. 

Members were informed that the process for integration required a Statutory process and an Order of Parliament to formally merge the 2 bodies.  Engagement with MHCLG was currently underway to agree the route and milestones to dissolve SYPTE. 

The timescale of the legal integration would depend on MHCLG securing parliamentary time following their agreement to support the proposal.  At the conclusion of the statutory process, all undertakings of SYPTE would transfer to the MCA, including assets, contracts and employees.  Until this point, SYPTE would legally retain its independent identity.

The Committee noted that work was continuing to move towards full integration of the Executive Teams.  A number of services were already integrated across the Group, including legal, IT and HR, further work was taking place to fully integrate finance and marketing and communications.

Planning work was commencing to integrate structures, processes and systems across the Group in preparation for full integration.

In relation to budget allocations for the integration, Members were informed that budget projections had been built into the budget planning process for 2021/22. 

Following a detailed discussion about the integration of the operations of the SYPTE’s Audit and Risk Committee into this Committee, Members’ agreed that they would need to scrutinise the detailed project plan at a later date, before they could take a view about the interventions, advice and work the Committee would wish to undertake at the point of integration. 

The Committee requested that a progress update report be presented at the June 2021 meeting.  ACTION: R Adams.

RESOLVED – That Members note the project plan approved by the MCA Board, specifically:

1.      The aim and objectives, as outlined in section 2.1,

The proposed workstreams and outline for communication, and that a fuller work programme and risk register would be developed in the coming months.