News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 10th September 2014

 

The emerging citizen-centric collaborative transformation continues to gather pace. The LGA’s Ernst & Young Report last year confirmed that maximum savings from shared services is about £500m, but from collaborative transformation it could be up to £20bn.

 

Yet collaborative transformation, if not done skilfully, is the most disruptive and most difficult change programme that exists in the public sector. It blurs – or even smashes - the boundaries between health, social care, council and housing structures with immense people, power and politics issues. We hope you will contribute your collaboration skills into that space to help it be successful – including empowering the communities to engage in the change.

 

The following three news pieces begin to emphasise the role of partnerships and community participation to deliver transformation – the subject of our Collaborative Leadership Across Communities workshops…

 

15 regions share £82m to tackle social isolation

Money from the Big Lottery Fund will help local partnerships of voluntary, statutory and private sector organisations to tackle social isolation and test whether services are effectively planned, co-ordinated and delivered. Read more >>>

Think Local - Act Personal

This sets out a vision for the Integrated Personal Commissioning (IPC) programme, starting from April 2015, which will bring together health and social care funding around individuals, enabling them to direct how it is used for the first time. Read more >>>

Open door to volunteers and reap the benefits, councils urged

Volunteers provide support to public services worth £34bn a year, but could do even more if councils gave them the chance – a report says. Read more >>>

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Welsh Local Government

 

In Wales the local government sector is still grappling with the squeeze by the Welsh Assembly to reduce them from 22 to a smaller number. Maybe they could learn from local government in England and by-pass the usual shared services debate and move directly to the collaborative transformation debate – it will save more money and probably less arguments…

 

Leaders demand debate over cuts that are ‘dismantling’ public services
Leaders of all 22 Welsh councils have urged politicians to recognise the impact of continuing austerity on public services. Read more >>>

Council merger would be ‘a step backwards’, argues town hall

A council in South Wales has insisted it can ‘stand alone’ amid proposals to merge it with two other local authorities. Read more >>>

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Blue Light Collaborations

Was there a sharp intake of breath, as Police Superintendents' Association President Irene Curtis said there were "too many chief constables and too many police and crime commissioners"? From our current experience working across the blue light sector there was more likely to be just a knowing  shrug.  Most police forces are collaborating with another force, Fire & Rescue, or both already.

Police force numbers should be cut, superintendents' leader says

The number of constabularies in England and Wales should be cut to save money, a senior police leader has said. Read more >>>

The question that is not being addressed is: Do the Blue Light organisations in a locality transform to create a “first responder” organisation for their citizens, or do they continue to merge with the mirror organisation next door? Hampshire, Northants and the Welsh services are pioneering locality transformation work and we will be tracking their progress for you.

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