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Housing Seminar: Partnerships with the Public Sector – Avoiding the pitfalls
Thu 31 May 2012
Minerva House, 5 Montague Close, London, SE1 9BB
Spending cuts fuel interest in shared services
Fri 11 Mar 2011
The use of shared services looks likely to become more commonplace in the public sector this year, a new survey suggests.
K2advisory carried out a poll of chief information officers at local authorities across the country and found that four in ten are looking at adopting shared services.
Many of the respondents cited the government's ongoing cuts in public spending as the principle reason behind this move.
Sarah Burnett, an analyst at Ovum, has therefore insisted that strong leaders with substantial decision-making powers are put in charge of the shared services.
Speaking to Computing magazine, she said decisions need to be made for the greater good, rather than to appease individual managers.
She added that "joint procurement and joint running of services" could generate "economies of scale" and ensure growth continues during 2011.
Bury Council in Greater Manchester is among the authorities to consider sharing services and outsourcing other functions to external bodies.
Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster councils have meanwhile outlined plans for a merger - an idea that has been backed by communities secretary Eric Pickles.
Richard Tinham, a specialist in procurement law at Winckworth Sherwood, commented: "People have been talking about the use of shared services for a couple of years now, but the public expenditure cuts have led us to engage in less theory and more real life situations and examples, particularly where local authorities are looking for innovative ways to save money.
"The recent decision of the Supreme Court in Brent LBC and Harrow LBC v Risk Management Partners Ltd could not have come at a better time in this regard. In overruling the Court of Appeal's earlier judgment, the Supreme Court has confirmed that the law looks favourably on local authorities who collectively exercise control over a shared service vehicle for the purposes of delivering services efficiently and effectively."
