News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 21st October 2015

Here is another example of a public sector shared service failing to sell its services to others…

CoSocius shared service firm owned by Cheshire West and Chester Council to be shut

A council-owned company with a curious name is to close, putting an end to its ambition to save millions of pounds by sharing back office functions. Read more >>>

Almost all of the local authority shared services, who have attempted to sell to others, have found it very hard going. A key reason is that potential customers do not want the service delivered in the way that the seller wants to deliver it.

The result is that the seller would have to run two, or more, shared service systems; one for its established partners, and bespoke versions for the new customers. The cost of complexity then kicks in, employee numbers need to be increased to provide the bespoke services and profitability starts to go out of the window. Don’t avoid them, but be cautious of business cases that talk about selling the partners’ shared service provision to others but don’t take account of the cost of the complexity. Drop me a line if you would like to know more.

Here is the rest of this week’s news…

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Devolution and Combined Authorities

North east devolution deal set to be signed this week after fruitful talks

Devolution plans worth over £1bn for the north east region are expected to be signed this week, which will also see a metro-mayor elected in 2017. Read more >>>

Solihull signs up to combined authority

Solihull Council has voted in favour of joining the West Midlands Combined Authority as a constituent member. Read more >>>

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Local Government

VIDEO: East Lindsey District Council joins shared CCTV project

East Lindsey District Council has joined up with North Kesteven and South Holland District Councils to share a single CCTV control room in Boston. Read more >>>

Top officers could be shared as Great Yarmouth and North Norfolk councils eye savings

Talks over Great Yarmouth Borough Council and North Norfolk District Council sharing services have been going on for months. Read more >>>

County begins consultation on future of support services

Dorset County Council has started its consultation on how support services such as HR, IT and legal should be delivered in the future. Read more >>>

Management merger between Malvern Hills and Wychavon must be "watched like hawk", says councillor

Malvern Hills and Wychavon councils could save hundreds of thousands of pounds by merging senior management teams, say council leaders. Read more >>>

Shared waste solution agreed for Clyde Valley councils

A joint project run by five councils — including East Renfrewshire — has appointed Viridor Waste Management as the preferred bidder for a new way of processing household waste. Read more >>>

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Blue Light Transformation

Cambridgeshire police will explore sharing more services with neighbouring police forces in bid to save cash

The three forces will put together a business case for sharing custody, criminal justice and IT services, with the potential for jobs to be lost as departments’ services are shared across the forces. Read more >>>

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