Councils opt for different ways to make shared service savings

Councils are using different methods to achieve the government’s target of cutting back office costs by 20% by sharing services.

The Society of IT Management (Socitm), the trade body for local government IT professionals, has examined shared services at seven different councils for its report, Shared services – bigger, cheaper, better?.

The largest shared services project was Surrey County Council’s creation of an internal shared services centre to save the council £46m over 10 years. Surrey spent £10.3m implementing MySAP R/3 in its shared services centre.

The council finished moving its different services onto the MySAP R/3 system this April with the successful migration of its adult social services provision.

The report also identifies Hampshire County Council’s project with Isle of Wight Council to set up a contact centre for the launch of a single non-emergency number in July this year.

Soctim has identified nine different models for councils to share services: in-house centralisation, outsourcing, informal collaborations, joint ventures, using public consortia (such as London Connects), setting up partnerships, becoming a lead client, a prime contractor or setting up a trading company.

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