Dorset's triple billing under one roof

Advocates of an incremental approach to shared services are likely to pay close attention to events in Dorset over the coming months. An initiative founded on a handful of processes and a common software is set to expand to a more ambitious scale, as West Dorset district council and Weymouth and Portland borough council prepare to share all their back and front office services under a common management team. The process kicked off in 2006, when the two councils formed a partnership to provide a shared service to manage revenues and benefits. Partnership manager Stuart Dawson, who worked for Weymouth originally, but is now based in West Dorset, says the move was made to obtain efficiency savings and to help the two councils deal with capacity problems, "making it large and robust enough to deal with staff absences". It helped that both councils used Capita's Academy software for their revenues and benefits operations, and Dawson says the arrangement offered benefits to both sides: the company has found it easier to deal with one body rather than two in negotiations and maintenance, while the councils have gained from joint procurement. Oversight of the partnership is in the hands of a board of councillors, members of which are on the executive committee of each authority, while the councils are able to decide on the levels of service they require – such as how many days should be spent processing benefit claims. Better use of office space When the service began, most of Weymouth's revenue and benefits staff, with the exception of a few in customer facing roles, were moved to West Dorset's offices in Dorchester. It required compensation for the extra travelling time and cost, and a few people chose not to make the move, but it has enabled the councils to make better use of their office space. Over three years the results were sufficiently successful to attract a third partner, with Purbeck council joining in October 2009. While the relevant staff have remained in the council's offices, it has members on the partnership's board, and has migrated to using the Capita software. Ambitious plan Dawson says that over the past four years the service has saved more than £1m for the three councils combined, and that this has led to the arrangement being reinforced by transferring Weymouth staff into West Dorset. But it has also encouraged a more ambitious plan for the two original partners, with members of both having recently agreed to merge the full range of services to operate under a similar arrangement. At time of writing it has not been decided if the new chief executive will be one of the incumbents or an outside candidate, and the decision on this is likely to affect plans for the shape and personnel of the management team. There are also questions to be resolved about the structure, with the possibilities of separate management boards for different services, or one that will handle everything. But Dawson says the most important feature is that the individual councils will still have plenty of flexibility in how they use the service. The timetable is not yet decided, but Dawson says that it may be possible to bring some services together by the beginning of the next financial year. He also hints that the experience of the past four years may lead to a measured approach to the implementation. "If the two councils decided on a 'big bang' the fall out would be more than it if it is done by an incremental approach," he says. "I expect some services to be up and running by April, but in some areas evolution is better than revolution, and I expect the two councils will take that approach." Purbeck is standing back, having a shorter experience of the original service and wanting to see how things progress, and Dawson says this could help to make the inevitable problems with the change more manageable. But he is not discounting that in time the third council will want to take more from the partnership, and says other authorities have been taking an interest.