Sharing and collaboration between public bodies is not a new idea but there are real grounds for optimism that it is an idea whose time has come.
The burning platform is provided by the significant reductions in funding, which most if not all public bodies are anticipating post the general election, irrespective of its outcome. The big challenge for public sector decision-makers is to manage with less – much less – without damaging or withdrawing critical frontline services to the public.
Sharing and collaboration is not a complete solution to this conundrum. It’s not a silver bullet. But it is a critically important weapon in the armoury – and at this stage an underused weapon.
CIPFA’s report published yesterday – Sharing the gain – shows what can be achieved. Our report focuses on financial services within district councils, but the lessons from this work are by no means restricted to the finance function or to district councils.
We see sharing and collaboration as appropriate in other ‘back-office’ functions – like information technology, personnel management, legal services and property management – and in frontline services too. And we see real advantage in the use of these techniques across the full breadth of the public services, including other parts of local government, central government, the police and health services.
Collaboration can deliver both savings and service improvements. The latter may come in a variety of shapes and sizes – recruitment of specialist staff, state-of-the-art technology, improved business processes – all of the drivers of service quality that a larger organisation is better placed to address. Service sharing will also bring a stronger focus on the customer because smart providers will quickly spot the opportunity to grow the business.
If we can deliver a great service across say, two public bodies, in due course we can attract a third and a fourth and a tenth and a twentieth. That dynamic – growing the business – is relatively rare in the public sector. We know from the private sector that it can be a very powerful incentive – and we would be foolish not to try to exploit its potential.
The big challenge for us is to make collaboration and sharing more the rule than the exception. I began by suggesting that it is not new. Our challenge is to make sure that it is news. We need every public body to recognise that this is a key weapon in the armoury and to make use of it to deliver the savings while maintaining or, hopefully, improving the services. What a fantastic outcome that would be and, if we do it at scale, what an important contribution to the challenges facing the country.
Steve Freer is the chief executive of CIPFA. The Sharing the gain report can be ordered from the CIPFA website
