The Head of Customer Services submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which requested approval of the Delivery Partnership Agreement with the Department of Work & Pensions for the provision of services required as a consequence of the roll out of Universal Credit.

Cllr Brown, Board Member for Customer Services and Social Inclusion presented the report.  She explained that as an early adopter of Universal Credit, the Council would be able to recommend changes to influence how it is rolled out elsewhere.

Cllr Price asked what the outstanding issues were in rolling out the programme.

The Revenue and Benefits Programme Manager explained that since the writing of the report, all the outstanding implementation issues with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and other partners had been resolved. The Council is in a position to sign off on the project next week.

The City Executive Board resolved toAUTHORISE the Executive Director for Organisational Development and Corporate Services to enter into these arrangements provided that she is satisfied that the full terms of the agreement are acceptable and properly reflect the principles set out in the report.