By Richard Johnstone | 1 December 2014
Councils in Hertfordshire are drawing up plans to create a single integrated ‘civil service’ across all the county’s local government bodies to make savings, Public Finance has been told.
They are developing proposals for a unified workforce covering 10 district councils, the county council, and its police and fire authorities.
The plan was revealed by Roy Wilsher, the county’s chief fire officer and also chief executive in the Police and Crime Commissioner’s team. ‘Because everyone in local authorities
has got to save money, we’re starting to talk about a Hertfordshire civil service,’ Wilsher said. ‘This would go across the districts, the county, the fire, police – all those people in Hertfordshire.’
He said the creation of single human resources, finance, procurement and property functions are among areas being considered. The organisations are comparing working practices and sickness absence levels to see how workforce harmonisation can be undertaken, he told PF.
‘We keep being told in local authorities that we’re only half way through austerity, so we’ve got to find more and more innovative ways to save,’ he added.
A spokeswoman said Hertfordshire County Council is working on the unified workforce concept, but no details had been confirmed. ‘It’s something that we are looking to do going forward,’ she said.
Sarah Lamont, an employment partner at law firm Bevan Brittan, said the scheme could represent the broadest attempt at integration so far tried in local government.
‘We get arrangements where certainly legal is shared, and back-office functions like facilities management might be shared across an area, but to do it as one big change would be a step beyond what has been done,’ she said.
