The Cabinet Office has appealed to local government to contribute to its programme to develop shared services principles.
Director of the shared services transformation team David Myers told delegates at the IDeA e-champions network conference that the public sector had to develop its own sharing principles to avoid repeat buying of systems and processes. Speaking to local authority representatives for the first time since taking up his post, Myers said it was his aim that the public sector would only pay for something once to avoid being exploited.
"We want to engender a debate on how to verge processes to avoid paying the private sector whenever we want to put in processes," he said on 20 September 2005. "We need to establish what good is."
Myers said his team was actively seeking the many examples of good practice that already exist within local government to add to those in other areas of the public sector. "We want to share the experiences," he said.
There would also be help, freely available, for councils sharing services, he said. His team plans to provide thought leadership, pathfinder programmes, and a set of tools to help local authorities develop this area of their organisation.
"The challenge of shared services is huge, but the savings are significant," he said. "Everyone believes they are different and they can't share, but the onus is on us as public servants to share.
"There is clear evidence that sharing services does work – it reduces costs and improves services to the public."
Myers said the Shared Services Transformation Team had a three year programme after receiving funding by the Office of Government Commerce and the efficiency agenda.
Quelle: KableNET, 21.09.2005
