The Guardian would like you to vote Labour, so its messages are sometimes loaded against the current government. However, this is a not unexpected message they are reporting from Whitehall leaks…
Treasury asks top civil servants to find £30bn in public service cuts
Whitehall’s most senior mandarins
have been asked by the Treasury to draw up details of how an extra £25bn-£30bn
in public spending cuts could be imposed a year after the next general
election, according to cabinet insiders Read more >>>
Labour and the Lib Dems do not have the same ambition to go to surplus by 2018-20, but they will still need to implement cuts as tax revenues are down, and set to stay so. The cuts will only maintain current service levels through transformation of the public sector. That means those who are proficient in the collaborative transformation and shared service space will be in greater demand.
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Local
Government
One of the key challenges for shared service working in Scottish Local Government has been the agreement with the unions that there would be no compulsory redundancies. As shared services are about de-duplication of effort to reduce costs, the business cases have rarely stacked up if staff numbers must be maintained. However, things may be about to change…
Biggest Scottish councils have to make £150m in savings
Some of Scotland's biggest
councils will have to save at least £150m between them next year, according to
figures collated by BBC Scotland. Read more >>>
Talking of Scotland, look what their call for devolution has triggered…
Greater Manchester wins
‘momentous’ devolution package
Greater Manchester will be handed
powers over housing, transport and planning, under an historic devolution
settlement agreed upon today. Read more >>>
…and there is a “me too!” effect in play as clusters of Tier 1 authorities suspend mutual tensions in the pursuit of their share of devolution…
Councils reveal West Midlands combined authority plan
Birmingham and four Black Country
council leaders have announced plans to unite as a West Midlands combined
authority. Read more >>>
Question: In your stakeholder matrix for collaborative working (Trust & Vision Tool 3.08), where
would you put your local Chamber of Commerce? The North East
Chamber of Commerce is unhappy that it was not consulted on shared service
discussions by its local councils…
Northumberland County Council branded 'secretive and undemocratic' over decision to share services
Deputy leader Dave Ledger and
Executive Director Steven Mason agreed to share functions with councils in
Durham and North Tyneside behind closed doors. Read more >>>
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Shared Procurement
Shared Procurement
Two items in the news for shared procurement this week. You may want to download, for your Highway Code folder, this useful guide on collaborative procurement. It is a sales paper for Kahootz, but it proposes a number of valuable diagrams, processes and insights…
Collaborative procurement using the cloud: a public sector guide
In an era of ever-tightening
public sector budgets, procurement is one area that is particularly under
pressure to deliver value for money. Read more >>>
This could
be a powerful procurement partnership with Newham, Havering and the Tri-Borough
partners in the mix in London…
Procurement shared service system expands to cover two more London councils
Two more London authorities have
signed up to a procurement shared service system. Read more >>>
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Health
In their new
report on the Better Care Fund, the NAO reports that, ‘Although the
Government’s early planning assumption was that the Fund would save the NHS £1
billion in 2015-16, current plans forecast at least £314 million of savings for
the NHS’…
Planning for the Better Care Fund
The National Audit Office recognizes that a government programme to integrate local health and social care services to improve care in the community and lessen pressures on health services is an innovative idea. Read more >>>
They go on to say in their recommendations that (para 8), ‘…there was no analysis of local planning capacity, capability, or where local areas would need additional support. The departments and NHS England therefore underestimated the complexity and challenge of bringing together the different health and social care organisations around a single local vision in a relatively short time.’
So Shared Service Architects and Shared Service Practitioners are highly relevant to collaborative working in health and social care. It looks like Wales will need you too…
NHS primary care services in Wales to be transformed under Welsh Government's £10m plan
A new 10m four-year plan has today been announced which will change the way primary care is delivered across Wales. Read more >>>
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