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Appendix 4 BSD - 29.09.2026

Committee report · Cabinet · Tue 29 Sep 2026 · East Sussex County Council · agenda item 5

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It reports that the Council spent £421m with local suppliers over the past 12 months, meeting its target of 60% of total procurement spend. p2

The report states that the Council's SAP payroll and finance system is being replaced by Oracle Fusion, with the payroll element running in parallel in both systems ahead of a planned live move to Oracle in November. p2p3

It records a Q1 2026/27 sickness absence figure of 2.13 days lost per FTE across the whole authority, excluding schools, with a forecast year-end figure of 9.77 days per FTE against a target of 9.10. p6

The Business Services net revenue budget for 2026/27 is £32.888m, with a forecast £0.052m underspend at Q1. p25

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  • p2P rocurement Local spend The Council has spent £421m with local suppliers over the past 12 months. This equates to 63% of our total procurement spend, which meets our target of 60%. 1,422 local suppliers were used. The Procurement team continues to promote our contract opportunities to local suppliers, as well as building local supply chain opportunities into our tenders where possible. Social Value In Q1, 4 contracts were awarded. Three contracts were within the scope of the Council Plan measure, which requires at least 10% of the award criteria to be linked to the Social Value Model themes. All 3 contracts within the scope of the measure met the 10% requirement, resulting in performance of 100% against a target of 60%. The total addressable spend that was in scope of this measure was £102.4m. One contract was outside the scope. This contract was a modification to an existing contract and was not subject to an open, competitive procurement process with award criteria. The target of 60% reflects the proportion of contracts expected to meet this requirement across the financial year. In Q1, all in scope contracts met the requirement, resulting in a quarterly performance of 100%. The Social Value commitments secured through these contracts included: · prioritising recruitment and career development opportunities for East Sussex care leavers, young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), disabled people and residents from disadvantaged communities · creating opportunities for volunteers to develop skills and progress into paid employment or further training · delivering workshops and mentoring to support the growth of local small businesses. Oracle Implementation The Council’s current Payroll and Finance system SAP will no longer be supported from 2027. Following an extensive procurement process, the Oracle Fusion system was chosen to replace SAP.
  • p3The Oracle programme is being delivered in a phased ‘adopt not adapt’ approach, feeding in learning from implementations in other organisations. Phases 1 and 2 (covering Enterprise Performance Management, Finance, Recruitment and Procurement) are now live, with teams now looking to make the most out of the functionality that the new system offers. Phase 3 (HR and payroll – c.10,000 users) is the most complex element of the programme and the most important to deliver to a high level of quality. This phase is currently undertaking parallel payroll running ‘PPR’ (running the payroll in both the existing system, SAP, and the new system, Oracle and comparing results). The quality level for PPR1 and PPR2 has been sufficient for the programme to progress to PPR3, though PPR2 was extended in order to hit the required threshold, leaving little contingency left in the programme. In addition, there are ongoing concerns and risks around build quality, resourcing and the data migration process. Whilst these are being managed and it is planned to run the live payroll in Oracle in November, it is not possible for the programme to entirely mitigate against potential issues or risks materialising. Any remaining risks or issues on going live will ultimately need to be set and considered against the risks of not going live.
  • p6During Q1 the ‘Essentials of Health and Safety’ training has been delivered to senior managers which has been well received with positive feedback. Attendance Management and Wellbeing The 2026/27 Q1 sickness absence figure for the whole authority (excluding schools) is 2.13 days lost per FTE, an increase of 2.4% compared to the same period last year. The year end estimate for 2026/27 (based on three month’s data) is 9.77 days/FTE, so the target of 9.10 days/FTE is not predicted to be met (ref i) .
  • p25The 2026/27 Business Services net revenue budget is £32.888m (ref v) . There are £0.435m planned savings in Business Services this financial year (ref iii) all of which are assumed to be achieved. The current outturn forecast is a £0.052m underspend (ref v) . The forecast position comprises marginal underspends of £0.039m (ref iv) within Finance and Business Administration and £0.007m within HROD, together with a £0.006m within Property. IT & Digital, Procurement, Oracle and the contribution to Orbis are all currently forecast to be delivered within budget.

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