News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 17th June 2015

Our colleague, Alasdair Robertson SSAf, who lectures on the Postgraduate Certificate in Collaborative Transformation, has been unpacking the stats in the 2015 LGA Map of Shared Services and they make compulsory reading for us all.

Alasdair tells me that, “Some authorities are achieving clear cost savings but this isn't the case for all. Some may be, to quote The Kinks, 'dedicated followers of fashion' and may be putting their efforts into areas that are less effective but more 'popular'.”. Click below to see Alasdair’s study:
Shared services are saving costs for Local Authorities, but not all are created equal
Shared services in Local Government is big news. But who is achieving best results and how are they doing it? The LGA have published the latest results showing the savings being achieved already. Read more >>>

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Welsh Local Government

If you are at the WLGA conference on Thursday, then please come over and say hello to me at the SSA stand. In Wales, the political dance continues around the merging of Welsh councils and it’s all in the language.

The Minister, Leighton Andrews, is applying logical, hierarchical leadership, focused on telling councils how to make £151m savings through process reform and redundancies. Leanne Wood of Plaid Cymru is evidencing nuanced collaborative leadership, by favouring regional combined authorities with no additional employees required to make it happen…

Welsh councils could save £151m on admin finds report

Councils in Wales could save £151m a year in administrative costs if they transformed back office services in line with English authorities, a new report has concluded. Read more >>>

Party of Wales in new push for combined authorities

Plaid Cymru is set to reject the proposed council mergers in Wales in favour of regional combined authorities. Read more >>>

Labour row breaks out over local council reorganisation

Senior Labour council figures have asked ministers to water down plans to slash the number of Welsh councils. Read more >>>

I will let the rest of the news speak for itself…

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Housing

Housing association merger talks enter next phase

Two housing associations have today confirmed their intention to continue talks about forming a new 56,000-home group. Read more >>>

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Local Government

Council rules out combined authority referendum

Coventry City Council has ruled out holding a referendum on its decision to consider joining the West Midlands combined authority, saying it would be too expensive and difficult to organise in the timeframe available. Read more >>>

South East councils make devolution bid

Three councils in the South East have presented the government with a list of ‘devolution offers’ to help mitigate the pressures of economic growth. Read more >>>

'City deal' for Cardiff is 'once in a generation opportunity'

A multimillion-pound "city deal" of major investment for Cardiff is a "once in a generation" opportunity, Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb has said. Read more >>>

NSW government outsources shared services

The NSW Government has announced outsourcing the functions of shared service provider to over 6,000 public servants, ServiceFirst, which will transfer to Unisys and Infosys by the end of 2015. Read more >>>

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News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 10th June 2015

Straight to the news about one of your fellow Shared Service Architects. 

Congratulations to Cllr Gary Porter (SSAf), Leader of South Holland District Council, on becoming Chair of the Local Government Association.

Gary graduated in 2011 with a Postgraduate Certificate in Shared Services (now the Postgraduate Certificate in Collaborative Transformation) and gained SSA recognition.

Gary has been an excellent supporter of skills and knowledge development in collaborative working across local government. Gary was awarded Shared Service Architect Fellow (SSAf) recognition in 2013 for his contributions to the body of knowledge in collaboration and shared service working.

So, if you are an SS(PRAC) or SSA, be proud that the Chair of the LGA is one too!

Here is the rest of the collaborative news…

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Collaborative Leadership Across Communities

Survey shows strong voices build strong communities

Residents want a stronger voice to help transform their communities, according to a survey released today. The survey, commissioned by the charity Local Trust, shows that the majority of people want to be more involved in decisions which affect their communities, and would like more opportunities to help their neighbours. Read more >>>

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Housing

Joint housing delivery plan for Scotland

The Joint Delivery Plan, developed by the Joint Housing Policy and Delivery Group, identifies priority actions that representatives from across the housing sector agree need a specific focus to ensure we are able to deliver the strategic objectives set out in Homes Fit for the 21st Century, and other subsequent Scottish Government strategies with a bearing on housing. Read more >>>

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Local Government

Council leaders invited to City Deal summit

Local authority leaders have been called together to push forward plans for a new Cardiff City Deal. Welsh secretary Stephen Crabb has invited representatives from 10 councils in the capital region to this Thursday’s meeting. Read more >>>

 

Machine-to-Machine technologies could save councils £400m a year says research

Councils are failing to utilise Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technologies, missing out on over £400m a year in potential savings, according to new research. Read more >>>

Councils with slow adoption services will have to merge or outsource them

More councils could be forced to merge or outsource their adoption functions to speed up the placement process. The government says the powers in the new Education and Adoption Bill “would only be used if councils failed to take action quickly enough”. Read more >>>

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Health

NHS SBS acquires McKesson Shared Services

Business support services company NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) has acquired McKesson Shared Services for an undisclosed sum. Read more >>>

Stevens issues clarion call to NHS leaders to redesign care for patients

The head of NHS England has issued a clarion call to health care leaders to redesign the care of patients across the NHS so that it is sustainable for the future and better able to meet the needs of patients. Read more >>>

£2.2M boost for health and wellbeing research in Wales

Cardiff University, alongside partner universities Swansea and Bangor, has been awarded £2,249,927 to lead the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research (NCPHWR), an all-Wales Research Centre. Read more >>>

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News Summary of Collaboration and Shared Services from 3rd June 2015

Let’s start with important SSA news!

The 200 SSA tools, templates and techniques are now available online for unlimited download and use within your organisation and across your partnerships.

It means that hundreds of project staff across your organisation, or partnerships, can have access to the tools, for about the cost of each partner sending three people on an SSA programme! Click here for more details.

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Combined Authority Working

Last week we discussed whether combined authority mayors, could result in the end of Police and Crime Commissioners. In Greater Manchester’s combined authority, the PCC has successfully stood for the position of temporary mayor. Maybe jumping before being pushed..?

Greater Manchester selects interim mayor

The police and crime commissioner was chosen over Lord Smith, the leader of Wigan Council and the current chair of the combined authority, after two hours of deliberations. Read more >>>

George Osborne’s (Conservative Policy) demand of a mayor for combined authorities, doesn’t seem to be putting some of the other Northern Powerhouse Labour council clusters off the idea…

Northern city leaders to bid for “game changing” devolution package

The Government’s Northern Powerhouse project is a step closer to being backed by West Yorkshire leaders as ministers are told to make the region a “game-changing offer”. Read more >>>

The key point is that if these massive collaborations are to work, then the skills of collaborative working that you possess, through the SSA programmes, will be integral to the success of the devolution agenda. Start getting involved now.

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Making Difficult Collaborative Working Decisions

One of the skills of an SSA, or SS(PRAC) is to have the courage to state  that  a collaboration or shared service should not go ahead, because it’s not going to work. For example…

Council drops joint venture plan

Middlesbrough Council has dropped plans for a joint venture to deliver key services. The council's executive decided in January to explore an 'alternative delivery model' with the Norfolk County Council-owned Norse to deliver services in the environment, property and commercial services department. Read more >>>

Meanwhile, after many years of denial, our Australian shared service cousins are finally taking the beleaguered ServiceFirst project to the vets to be put down. This is a 1+1=1 ½ shared service in which, “…government agencies attempted to save money on technology and services procurement by consolidating their resources into a centralised provider that was usually outpaced and out-priced by competing private sector plays”. It makes you wonder how many back-office shared services in the UK public sector are just building larger ICT, HR, Finance, etc silos based on yesterday’s needs and legacy laden technology…

NSW swings axe on troubled shared services

The New South Wales Baird government has finally come good on its promise to swing the axe on its unloved internal public sector technology and services provider ServiceFirst, announcing that what is left of its legacy workload will be carved-up between outsourcers Unisys and Infosys. Read more >>>

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Third Sector

Shared services in Scottish charity sector are boon to Annodata

Managed service provider Annodata has signed up its 400th customer in the Scottish charity sector, through its collaboration with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). Read more >>>

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Housing

North west landlords merge to form 17,300-home group

City West Housing Trust has merged with Villages Housing Association and For Works – its former direct labour organisation (DLO) – to form For Viva. Read more >>>

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