Shared Services saving Councils £263m

A White Paper entitled Six Approaches to Successful Shared Services, which was commissioned by Advanced Business Solutions, has shown that Councils sharing services has saved them £263m in efficiency savings.

At least 337 Councils are now involved in 305 shared service arrangements, and this represents a growing trend as Local Authorities look to different ways to save money and minimise the impact of central government cuts on vital services.
The White Paper sets out six different approaches to sharing services including: shared software and underlying IT systems, to contracts and framework agreements, management, operations and transaction processing.

A survey found that 83% of professionals are now looking at shared services as a means of delivering substantial improvements in efficiency, without harming front-line services.
Kevin Davis, Director of Cratus Communications, said: ‘This growing trend towards sharing services shows how the shape of local government will continue to change over the coming years as budgets tighten. They will also need to think about who will run these services and the importance of including the community in shaping these services but paramount to this is getting to grips with explaining in a better way what shared services can mean for local Councillors.’

Cratus’ clients work on shared services for a number of Local Authorities and are able to provide shared services across the whole range of Local Authority functions.