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Debaters Urge Broader View of Shared Services
Publishing news published: Wednesday 19th March 2008
If public sector bodies implementing shared services focus solely on cost savings they will miss chances to improve services, E-Government Bulletin's online summit on shared services heard last week.
Julie Kane, Head of Shared Services at the Scottish Government, told online debaters that organisations should try to improve service outputs and establish better processes, not just cut costs.
"Shared services benefits for the public sector should be focused on two main areas: delivering efficiency, and maintaining or improving the experience for the customer," Kane said. "Shared Services should also provide career opportunities, workforce development and introduce greater professionalism into corporate transaction functions by establishing centres of skills."
David Sainsbury of Hambleton District Council, agreed that in recent years, accountant-centred business models have tended to
overemphasise cash gains. "[The] gains in effectiveness and therefore provision of better value for money often outweigh the relatively superficial gains that can be measured in cash terms.
"For a small district council, the opportunity to employ specialists
rather the Jacks and Jills of all trades can be the single major efficiency to be gained from a shared service option, and this may be very difficult to measure in quantitative terms."
Ashford Borough Councillor Robert Taylor said a risk-averse attitude among local politicians was often a barrier to councils sharing services.
"The danger is accepting what can be called sub-optimal solutions in order to be able to claim that we have achieved shared services, without really attempting to explore new ways in which several councils could combine to give a more efficient and cost effective solution. The barrier here is not just in identifying new approaches, but for members to be prepared to take some measure of risk in what can so easily be seen as 'losing control'."
Further reporting from our online summit can be found in E-Government Bulletin issue 259, 18 March 2008. A full and final report of the summit will be launched at our 4 June conference, Shared services in the public sector:
http://www.headstar-events.com/shared-services08/
"Shared services benefits for the public sector should be focused on two main areas: delivering efficiency, and maintaining or improving the experience for the customer," Kane said. "Shared Services should also provide career opportunities, workforce development and introduce greater professionalism into corporate transaction functions by establishing centres of skills."
David Sainsbury of Hambleton District Council, agreed that in recent years, accountant-centred business models have tended to
overemphasise cash gains. "[The] gains in effectiveness and therefore provision of better value for money often outweigh the relatively superficial gains that can be measured in cash terms.
"For a small district council, the opportunity to employ specialists
rather the Jacks and Jills of all trades can be the single major efficiency to be gained from a shared service option, and this may be very difficult to measure in quantitative terms."
Ashford Borough Councillor Robert Taylor said a risk-averse attitude among local politicians was often a barrier to councils sharing services.
"The danger is accepting what can be called sub-optimal solutions in order to be able to claim that we have achieved shared services, without really attempting to explore new ways in which several councils could combine to give a more efficient and cost effective solution. The barrier here is not just in identifying new approaches, but for members to be prepared to take some measure of risk in what can so easily be seen as 'losing control'."
Further reporting from our online summit can be found in E-Government Bulletin issue 259, 18 March 2008. A full and final report of the summit will be launched at our 4 June conference, Shared services in the public sector:
http://www.headstar-events.com/shared-services08/
