New council-owned company takes on delivery of vital services

A brand-new local authority trading company (Latco) began its work delivering the administration of revenues and benefits and customer services for three east Kent district councils on Monday (3 February).

PartnershipOne is owned by Canterbury City Council, Dover District Council and Thanet District Council and has taken over from Civica which took a strategic decision to no longer operate in the world of business processing outsourcing (BPO).

Civica itself took on the administration and collection of Council Tax, Business Rates and corporate debts, the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax support and over-the-phone, online and face-to-face customer services from East Kent Services, a shared service, in 2018.

Mark Emery, Chief Executive Officer of the new company, said: “Partnership One is a brand-new organisation created to harness the very best of what the public and private sectors have to offer by expertly combining the public service ethos with a huge dose of commercial nous and best practice.

“The team joining the company has a 15-year track record of delivering award-winning specialist public services to a set of stakeholders with varying, sometimes conflicting, needs and will deliver an outstanding service to our customers by taking full advantage of the skills, experience and dedication of our staff.

“It’s a cliche to say our people are at the heart of everything we deliver but, in this case, it is indisputably true.

“Our teams put their customers first and their customer satisfaction scores prove it.

“Finally, we’re ambitious, aspirational and determined to be the best in class, the example others will want to follow. We’ll prove that too.”

The complex project to move to a Latco began in early 2024 and has been supported by Interim East Kent Services Transition Manager Jasvir Chohan who has coordinated a range of workstreams undertaken by officers at the three councils working with the Civica team including HR and payroll, finance, legal, information governance, communications and IT.

PartnershipOne’s directors will be Canterbury City Council’s Head of Corporate Governance Matthew Archer, Dover District Council’s Head of Finance Helen Lamb, Thanet District Council’s Head of Property Andreea Plant and Mr Emery.

Published: 4 February 2025