Socitm advises measured approach on shared services

Socitm warns that a government push for shared services could make life harder for local councils

The government’s push towards shared services could make it more difficult for local councils to provide personalised, community-based services to residents, the newly-appointed president of public sector IT body Socitm has advised.

Rose Crozier told IT Week that the rollout of shared services across the public sector required “qualifiers” to ensure there was a balance between efficiency improvements and quality of service for individual communities.

“You can’t just drive shared services through at all costs to improve efficiency, as you may put into question personalised and local services,” Crozier argued. “It’s also very early days in shared services, it’s just starting to be explored as a delivery mechanism.”

However, Crozier added that as efficiency rises up the public sector agenda, that will increase the need to consider how to use resources more effectively.

While Crozier signalled a cautious approach to shared services, she welcomed the rollout of e-government services. “Local authorities have forged ahead in this area, and many now have transactional web sites,” she explained. “It’s going to be a continuous journey, and we’ll always need to keep a face-to-face channel open. But we need to assess the extent to which that is needed and get online as much as possible.”

Crozier also encouraged local councils to consider new delivery channels for their services, such as digital television. “IPTV offers an exciting route for service delivery. People could make a complaint or request a service through their digital TV,” she said. “If your bin collection was missed, you can use the red button to get that rectified.”