Efficiency and Reform Group to benchmark shared services

The team will report to the Cabinet Office in November 2011

The Efficiency and Reform Group (EFG) has launched an exercise that aims to outline the projected costs and benefits from the sharing of back-office services and set up a central government oversight function.

A team will work with government departments and report to the Cabinet Office in November of this year.

The move was announced in a report called Government Shared Services: A Strategic Vision.

The central government oversight function will be part of a new governance structure as the body will oversee a number of Independent Shared Service Centres (ISSCs).

The approved ISSCs will operate independently and "provide outcome-based services, using standardised simplified processes, to regularly publish performance data against established benchmarks," according to the report.

The central government oversight function will also approve departmental strategies and provide support as they move to a shared services model.

According to the report, departments can continue using standalone back-office corporate services, but performance of these will be measured and monitored against agreed benchmarks provided by the oversight function.

Over time, if a standalone back office continues to show better performance than the ISSCs, it may begin to offer services to other departments.