Councils learn lessons from shared services

There are growing signs that local authorities are embracing the shared services agenda as severe funding cuts force better efficiency from councils. While the NLGN thinktank said this month that councils must adopt a "presumption to share" if they are to deliver required efficiencies and protect the frontline, a recent survey suggested a significant number were still far from embracing the concept. But there are others who have adopted shared services wholeheartedly. Wychavon district council, in Worcestershire, says it shares so many of its services now that it has almost run dry of more options. One of its earliest ventures to bear fruit is a three-way agreement between Wychavon, Worcester city and Malvern Hills councils that began combining their revenues and benefits departments in 2007. "Our three principal drivers were finance, continuity and resilience," says Nick Jefferies, who oversees shared services for all three councils. "There were logistical issues at the beginning, in bringing people together and merging three computer systems into one. Further down the line we had to deal with cultural issues because the way each council did things varied and not everyone welcomed changing that. We dealt with it by taking a lead and ensuring communication was clear and robust." The revenues and benefits team, which handles council tax, business rates and benefits, now has a single base of operations within Wychavon's council offices in Pershore and has downsized from 130 posts to 95. In the first year, South Worcestershire's revenues and benefits shared services operation saved £1m within the revenues and benefits contact centre, Jefferies says, and is on track to save £1m year-on-year. To put the arrangement into place, the councils had to work under a legal framework that required them to set up a joint committee to take decisions and nominate a host council in order to be able to enter into contracts and employ staff. "We needed to exist as a legal entity to do share services the way we have," says Vic Allison, lead finance officer at Wychavon. Although the host authority – Wychavon – handles pay and other issues such as HR advice, Allison says the risk and rewards of the arrangement are "entirely shared". Alison and Jefferies say new working practices were developed from scratch as so few other councils had experience to draw from or were setting up their shared services arrangements at the same time, "but many are now coming to talk to us about what we did," adds Allison. One of the main lessons was that if they had established Jefferies' post six months before they did, it would have meant that "important decisions could have been made earlier"; another lesson is that it is hard work to convince members that they are not necessarily ceding control. "The reason more councils weren't doing it was because they were scared," explains Allison. "It can go wrong, and politically, members fear losing direct control. Actually in the real world if you get governance right, you don't, it's just another level." Allison says Wychavon has embraced the shared services agenda so much so that they're almost at the end of the road. "'We share services in building control (with Malvern Hills), IT (with Worcestershire county council), audit (with Worcester city council) that we're struggling to think of what else we can do." Watch a video to see more about the South Worcestershire Shared Service agreement here . This article is published by Guardian Professional. Join the Guardian Public Leaders Network to receive regular emails on the issues at the top of the professional agenda.