A LEADING Worcestershire politician has urged people to get behind a massive shake-up of Worcestershire County Council - saying it is vital the changes work.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, a member of the Conservative leadership, has mounted a passionate defence of the move to commission services to new providers.

In an interview with your Worcester News, he said:

- If services remained in-house they would face drastic cuts, including the possibility of complete closures to facilities like libraries

- The private sector will not be the only answer, with just four of the 10 functions commissioned over the last couple of years handed to companies

- Despite having to save around £25 million a year up to 2020, he insists all services can maintain the same standards or get better by using the tactic

As your Worcester News revealed last year, the leadership is working on a new operating model based on handing up to 85 per cent of services to new providers.

The move is expected to lead to 1,500 in-house jobs going, with the hope as many as possible can be transferred over.

The four deals to involve private firms so far involve Jacobs UK, which took on the design unit 13 months ago, IT contracts handed to Hewlett-Packard and Capita and Babcock, which runs school support.

Some other emerging deals, as we have previously reported, include bringing Trading Standards back in-house from next spring and the county's music service, which is expected to be ran by a not-for-profit mutual.

Councillor Bayliss, who is overseeing the huge changes as cabinet member for transformation and commissioning, has led a rallying call for people to be positive.

"What matters is what works, we cannot take our foot off the gas with this," he said.

"But we are not ideologues who are intent on commissioning everything, we want what is best for the people of Worcestershire.

"If we stopped doing this we'd still have to save around £25 million a year, we'd have to cut our standards, you could see library closures, none of us want that.

"Our aim is to make sure we can save this money while ensuring service standards remain as they are now."

He also said all councillors at County Hall will be able to request the performance clauses included in any contracts with new providers, known as KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) - saying they are entitled to keep tabs on it.

In recent weeks that was proving a bone of contention with some backbenchers.

He has also urged people to judge the leadership on its record a few years down the line, once a lot of the current pieces of work have gone through the process.

All the contracts will run under certain timescales, meaning each and every one could change as the years roll by, with some coming back in-house or being handed to alternative providers as new opportunities emerge.

The target of putting 85 per cent of services through the process compares to the current figure of around 65 per cent of council activity being done by outside bodies - like Ringway, for example, which looks after the highways.

"We will always call the shots with our services and the accountability for them will always rest with us," he said.

"Judge us on our record. This is our way of maintaining services."

It follows criticism from the Labour group last week, with its leader Councillor Peter McDonald saying the authority had gone "commissioning-mad".

Around 106 finance, admin and HR jobs are set to be handed to a company called Liberata from February under a seven-year deal, as we revealed in September.

- For more background on some of the recent deals go HERE.