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Happy New Year to you! And, what an
exciting roller coaster year it will be for all of us.
The recent £200m+ injection of cash into collaborative working across health,
councils, police and fire will accelerate joint activity across the public
sector in 2015. Add to that Combined Councils activity and the re-emergence of
the unitary and merger debates across the UK and your value as a Shared Service
Architect or Practitioner is becoming very high.
However, the election will add an
unpredictable dynamic to much of this. Newly elected leadership in key
political posts at both national and local levels will sustain or disrupt
collaborative activities.
Through the SSA ‘60 seconds’ weekly email, we will keep you in touch with the
news and comment on collaborative activity and jobs during 2015. During 2014 we
brought you 346 news items and 206 job adverts. So let’s see what has turned up
already in the last couple of weeks…
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Local Government
I am directly involved in the next
item, delivering a series of in-house sessions in Jan/Feb on collaborative
working. I would recommend that you download the consultation document
mentioned in the article. It is a well-crafted, draft business case that is
worth adding to your example business cases…
Proposals for three councils to join forces in a ‘confederation’ model to save cash
Views are being sought on proposals Cherwell District Council hopes
will generate multi-million savings to protect council
services. Read
more >>>
The elephant in the room for local
government in England is two-tier working. Following the rapid growth in
district collaborations, it may become more complex to justify either their
existence or the counties. My guess is, that by late 2016 the first new unitary
will be announced in England…
South Bucks, Wycombe and Chiltern District Councils urge unitary rethink as Aylesbury Vale announce plans to press ahead
Bosses at Aylesbury Vale District Council have said they will look
further at becoming a unitary authority - but leaders at the county's other
three councils have urged them to wait until after the next elections. Read
more >>>
Reading between the lines, the next
article feels like the leadership assumed nothing would have to change for them
as a result of collaborative working. Rule
2 in Collaborative Working: Only step into multi-million pound,
multi-partner change management programmes, if you are willing to dramatically change
the way you work and lead too…
Talks suspended in multi-million-pound merger of Richmond and Kingston councils
Talks over a multi-million-pound merger between Kingston and Richmond
councils have been suspended. Read
more >>>
Wokingham's buildings control service to be shared with Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
A council department which makes decisions on all building work in
Wokingham will share its work with a neighbouring authority in a bid to improve
the service and save money. Read
more >>>
The
LGA is refreshing the Shared Service Map.
Please take advantage of this chance to raise the profile of your 2014/15 shared service working in local government by filling in the short survey at http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/p1840386794.aspx
Please take advantage of this chance to raise the profile of your 2014/15 shared service working in local government by filling in the short survey at http://survey.euro.confirmit.com/wix/p1840386794.aspx
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Blue Light
Collaboration
This next article reflects the ultimate economies of scale
argument. Is big cheaper, but smaller more effective? …
Alun Michael: 'Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is wrong... Wales needs four separate forces'
When the H ead of the
Metropolitan Police warns us about the future of policing, we have to listen
seriously. But this week’s article in The Guardian by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe is
a problematic “curate’s egg”. Read more >>>
…and here
is more co-location activity in the Blue Light sector…
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