Shared services ‘saved councils £350m last year’

28 Apr 14
Council shared service initiatives saved more than £350m in the last year as more town halls agreed to work together in areas such as adult social care, school support and back-office functions, figures from the Local Government Association have indicated.

By Richard Johnstone | 28 April 2014

Council shared service initiatives saved more than £350m in the last year as more town halls agreed to work together in areas such as adult social care, school support and back-office functions, figures from the Local Government Association have indicated.

Publishing the latest figures on shared services, the umbrella group said the amount saved had increased by £83m in 2013/14 compared to the previous year. There were now 337 councils, or 96% of those in England, involved in 383 shared service arrangements with other authorities or public sector bodies, the LGA stated.

According to the figures published today, the greatest savings have been made through collaboration on environment, waste and transport services since 2012, where nearly £84.5m has been cut from costs. Shared back-office services have contributed more than £75m, while joint customer facing services has cut costs by over £72m. 

The biggest year-on-year increase was in adult services, where costs were reduced by more than £5.8m. 

Peter Fleming, the LGA’s improvement and innovation board chair, said that, at a time when local government funding was being cut, councils were taking action to save money. 

‘Over the past year, the amount saved by sharing services has increased by £83m, to £357m, an increase which demonstrates the extent to which councils have taken sharing services on board,’ he said.

However, he added that councils’ cost cutting endeavours were unable to match the scale of the cuts being imposed on local government.


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