Local councils must work harder to implement shared services to cut costs and improve efficiency, according to a government report published last week.
Strong and Prosperous Communities – The Local Government White Paper, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), says district and county councils need to develop shared back office systems to ensure more effective working arrangements.
‘This will include consideration of the case for sharing back office functions, transactional services and other key services, such as waste and social care functions,’ it says.
The government estimates that annual savings of 20 per cent, equating to £1.4bn, can be made through sharing services across the public sector. But while encouraging local authorities to make the change, it has not made it compulsory.
Ovum analyst Peter Clarke says the report demonstrated hesitance about shared services on the part of the government.
‘It has not used this white paper to make shared services mandatory, but has instead just said it is something that should be looked at innovatively and ambitiously,’ he said.
‘The government is not going to tell local authorities what to do, but there is the big stick of the comprehensive spending review next year, meaning shared services will be important for meeting spending targets.’
Neil Fairhurst, assistant director for IT services at Preston City Council, said: ‘Shared services should be seen as the way forward, but only where it can be proved that they are applicable.
‘Just doing it because it is the flavour of the month would be a recipe for some sort of disaster. But when planned well they are a really good thing,’ he said.
Doug Maclean, consulting manager at the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm) Consulting group, says the report achieves a balance between encouraging councils to examine shared services and not forcing new arrangements onto them.
‘It is about getting different partners in an area to think harder about how they can work together,’ he said. ‘In practice, it means district and county councils will seek ways of sharing services and service delivery in workable and useful ways.’
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