A north London social landlord is set to join forces with adult social services under a newly agreed ‘sister company’ arrangement that would be the first of its kind in the UK.

Under the plans, arms length management organisation (ALMO) Barnet Homes and in-house adult social care services currently managed by Barnet Council would form part of a new Local Authority Trading Company (LATC).

The LATC – which would be owned by Barnet Council but will operate at arms length from it – would be the fourth company of its kind to be created nationally and the first ever to include an ALMO.

To reduce its corporate overheads, the adult social care services would share a chief executive with Barnet Homes and make use of staff already in post at the ALMO, such as finance, human resources and IT.

The plans, agreed last night (24 May 2011) by Barnet Council’s Cabinet Resources Committee, form part of the council’s One Barnet transformation programme and are designed to:

  • Enable users of the social care services to use direct payments to purchase these services, ensuring that they can choose the services that best meet their needs. The government has set a target that by April 2013 everyone eligible for social care should use direct payments
  • Give the services greater freedoms to adopt a more commercial approach based on the wishes of service users and how they choose to spend personal budgets and direct payments – creating services that people want to buy
  • Build on the success of Barnet Homes. Since its creation in 2004, Barnet Homes has reduced its operating costs by 15 per cent in real terms while overseeing rising resident satisfaction with services. Spreading staff costs over a wider area will help to ensure its long-term viability following the completion of its Decent Homes programme and the end of the associated government funding
  • More closely integrate expertise within Barnet Homes and the in-house adult social care services, including services such as Barnet Homes’ Assist home alarm monitoring system and sheltered housing, to enable more people to live more independently within the community.

Chief Executive of Barnet Homes, Tracey Lees, said: “Over the past seven years we’ve built a solid reputation as an organisation that blends a public sector ethos with a business-like mentality to deliver great services at great value. I’m delighted we could now have the opportunity to extend our expertise to support the in-house adult social care services.

“We’ve worked extremely hard at Barnet Homes to involve our residents in all that we do – from having a resident as Chair of our Board to setting up a resident scrutiny group that is driving service improvements. We want to share this good practice to ensure that the adult social care service users are similarly empowered to deliver real change.

“Our delivery of good quality services to tenants and leaseholders will be unaffected by these plans. By spreading our operating costs we expect we will be able to offer improved value for money to them.

“This is an exciting venture that’s entirely new for ALMOs, and it’s evidence of the strength and adaptability of the ALMO model. We’re determined to build on our successes as a social landlord while offering excellent support to drive service quality and efficiency within the adult social services.”

Barnet Council’s Cabinet Member for Adults, Cllr Sachin Rajput, said: “I appreciate that it may not be obvious to residents how this relates to them, but it is an important change to the way the council works and will make sure that we can continue to meet the needs of disabled people. This is about forging a new relationship with citizens by giving people greater control over the services they use.”

The LATC would be governed by a Board of Directors appointed by Barnet Council in its capacity as sole shareholder. It is expected that a further individual Board of Directors for adult social care services will include service users, just as Barnet Homes’ Board includes council tenants and leaseholders.

A full business plan, jointly drawn up by Barnet Council and Barnet Homes, will be presented to the council’s Cabinet Resources Committee ahead of the creation of the new LATC, which is expected in late 2011.