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Advisor Contact Details
Why Share Services?
Why are treasurers fussed?
Sovereignty – the no. 1 killer of shared services
Distrust – the number 2 killer of shared services
What can the Society do to help you?
Useful Links
Advisor Contact Details
Lead Officer:
Steve Bishop
South Oxfordshire & Vale of White Horse District Councils
steve.bishop@southandvale.gov.uk
01491 823831 or 01235 540332
Other Officers:
Alan McFarlane
Waveney District Council
alan.mcfarlane@waveney.gov.uk
01502 523330
Why Share Services?
Sharing services and working jointly is THE leading edge of local government transformation. With 238 district councils, 25 county councils, 20 metropolitans and 30 unitary councils in England and Wales there is massive duplication between councils, costing the taxpayers billions of pounds annually. The annual round of salami slicing budgets doesn’t work strategically, and many councils are beginning to become unsustainable on their own. Recognising the merits of shared services, the Secretary of State has thrown his considerable weight behind the shared service approach and allocated £200m as part of the CSR announcement to assist in the development of further shared initiatives.
Gershon was right – we need to cut out this wasteful duplication and save public money. The main tool at our disposal is sharing services, the voluntary partnering of two or more organisations to create joint teams and/or jointly procured services to gain economies of scale and efficiency savings.
Why are treasurers fussed?
District councils are leading innovators in this field and treasurers have a vital role to play as a financially robust business case should be at the heart of any exploration into shared services. The finance function needs to be a key player in establishing the business case, not least because the sharing of costs and benefits may not be the neat 50:50 split envisaged by many.
And in many councils the finance service is often one of the first to be shared. District treasurers therefore have a double role to play in their organisations.
Sovereignty – the no. 1 killer of shared services
So why have less than 10% of all districts embraced shared services ? The answer is sovereignty – the voluntarily giving up of sole / local control over one’s destiny. Instead of calling all the shots in your own council, you have to compromise, collaborate and concede. When you disagree with your counterpart sometimes you have to give in and accept their preference over your own.
This is hard for politicians but also for many officers. Often politicians won’t want to be seen to compromise their own residents’ perceived best interests in favour of the residents in another district. Often two officers are facing a ‘turkeys at Christmas’ scenario whereby if the shared service agenda progresses they will personally be at risk of competitive selection and redundancy.
These views are understandable on a human level, but should they be allowed to waste billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money ? No of course not, and the treasurer’s professional objectivity and business focus are key skills in combating opponents to shared services.
Distrust – the number 2 killer of shared services
And why is there such a high failure rate for councils exploring shares services who never make it through to successful implementation phase ? The answer is distrust arising from a lack of clarity of vision around required outcomes. At the heart of every council decision – be it officer or member decision – are people. Shared services involves two or more sets of people from councils which had previously competed for applicants, grant money, etc. They are natural opponents and therefore enter into any new relationship with scepticism and distrust. The clarity of vision together with the commitment of Leaders and Chief executives is paramount.
Add to that professional rivalry, political opposition and locally-created service differences and the scope for disagreement rises exponentially. Then you start negotiating to try to converge and harmonise the approach to service delivery and the local flavours dominate the debate. Anyone with an axe to grind – politician or officer – has opportunity to drive wedges into the fledgling partnership before it has got close to taking flight.
And so, many partnerships wither and die. Once again, the treasurer has a key role to play in keeping the partnership focussed on the shared service vision and key objective – namely delivering harmonised approaches to achieve the business case. All local flavours are expendable for the greater good of squeezing out wasteful duplicated resources and freeing up resources from replacing inefficient processes with efficient harmonised processes.
What can the Society do to help you?
Those districts with the most experience of successfully delivering shared services are keen to spread the word and help others. In particular, the treasurers at those shared districts will help their peers to share experiences, good and bad, provide solutions to the same old problems (e.g. is it legal ? what about HR differences ? how can a person wear two separate s.151 hats ?)
So, if you want general advice, detailed problem solving or a shoulder to cry on (well perhaps not the last!), contact Steve or Alan at the addresses or on the phone numbers in the Advisor Contact Details section and they will love to help you.
Alternatively, if you need more extensive advice or a comprehensive tailor-made shared service consultant, you can make use of a new service offered by the Society in alliance with the Centre for Public Service Partnerships (part of the LGIU).
Further details are in the attached flyer. UPLOAD!!!!
Useful Links
The LGA has published a range of products on shared services designed to assist councils in progressing their joint working and shared service agendas. These include:
- a comprehensive toolkit (useful for those councils just starting out and wishing to learn from others’ successes and failures)
- multi-layered maps displaying existing shared service arrangements (useful for identifying particular reference sites you can then approach)
- a compendium of existing shared service arrangements (a useful list of real-life case studies)
Follow the following link to access these: