The international case studies below have been selected to demonstrate that the scale of shared services can vary depending on the needs of the parties involved, and to highlight what can be achieved:

• Anglia Revenues Partnership: an outstanding shared service
• Tower Hamlets: proving organic is a healthy choice
• WBC Alliance: an Award winning alliance
  

Summary of the Project
This partnership was established in 2003, and is a shared service for revenues and benefits involving three District Councils in East Anglia and achieving top performance at low unit costs.

The original partnership agreement was signed on 1 August 2003 between Breckland and Forest Heath District Councils. East Cambridgeshire District Council’s operations joined the partnership on 1 April 2007. The Partnership is governed by a joint committee.

What is covered?
The Partnership provides a revenues and benefits service for the three District Councils. Through its trading operation, it also provides consultancy, training and processing support to other authorities, from the Isle of Wight to Renfrewshire. The annual turnover of the Partnership is £3.5 m with 105 staff handling £45m of payments.

What’s unique about this solution?
Recognised under the Beacon Scheme, the Anglia Revenues Partnership claims to be the first peer-to-peer local authority shared service for revenue and benefits. The partnership formed by the original two partners was driven by a desire to reduce costs and improve performance. The performance of both councils’ benefits services had been poor and, in a very short space of time, has been transformed.

Explaining the approach, Steve Knights, Strategic Manager at the Partnership, says “we believe that partnership is a more efficient arrangement than traditional outsourcing”. The Partnership has developed a reputation that has generated additional work leading to the creation of a trading company that is now competing for other work, either alone or with private partners such as the IT company, Steria.

What was the outcome of this project?
Steve Knights stresses that, although the Partnership operates in three district councils, its scale is similar to many unitary authorities, serving a population of 260,000.

Service performance has continued to improve and is in many instances in the top 5 in the country, with examples cited including:

• Time to process new claims down to 12 days in 2007 from 119 days in Breckland and 64 in Forest Heath in 2002
• Annual savings of £1m for the three authorities
• Low unit costs, confirmed in surveys of neighbouring authorities

What were the key lessons learned?
There are a number of important lessons learned by the partners:

• Focusing on keeping overheads low – savings have been achieved by colocation, reductions in management costs and by the avoidance of the need for client sides
• Attracting new partners is a challenge – the process of attracting new partners has been slower than hoped despite the high performance and low unit costs. “There must be a real desire for change from members, senior officers and people working within the service to make it happen” says Steve Knights
• Maintaining a culture of support – David Burnip, Chief Executive of Forest Heath argues “You have to have partners who are committed to making it happen. ‘Lukewarm’ is no good at all”

For more information, please contact:
Name:   Sharon Jones
Position: Strategic Manager
Authority:  Anglia Revenues Partnership
Telephone: 01842 756463
Email:  sharon.jones@angliarevenues.gov.uk
Website: www.angliarevenues.gov.uk

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Summary of the Project
Tower Hamlets Council has built a rich and varied network of cross-sectoral partnerships, based on strong and trusting relationships.

Three examples are shown here:

1. Council and PCT HR Service: The council and the Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust have appointed a single Director of HR to manage an HR Shared Service. With 130 staff, the partnership is designed to support closer working between the two organisations.
2. Idea Store: The council, Tower Hamlets College, London Metropolitan University and a range of other partners have so far created 4 newly built ‘Idea Stores’, which incorporate libraries, lifelong learning and community facilities.
3. Re-offending: The council is tackling re-offending through a broad partnership built up between the council, the police, probation service, Youth Offending Team, Drug Intervention Programme, registered social landlords and third sector partners including Toynbee Hall and St Giles’Trust.

What’s unique about this solution?
The council has a mixed economy, which includes more traditional outsourced contracts with providers such as Veolia and Greenwich Leisure Ltd. What is distinctive is the variety of service delivery partnerships within the Tower Hamlets Partnership. While some of these partnerships are bound by formal agreements, particularly when capital has been jointly invested, others are encouraged to develop more organically, with broad outcomes set out and performance targets refined and tested as new working methods evolve. Chief Executive Martin Smith stresses the need for “shared ambition and aspiration – with that umbrella you can try things out”.

What was the outcome of this project?
Tower Hamlets has just been assessed as 4 star authority that is ‘improving strongly’ and has won beacon status for its reducing re-offending programme and for a range of other partnership-based schemes. The Audit Commission concluded that “Partnership working is one of the Borough's greatest strengths and underpins everything it does.”

The reducing re-offending partnership work has had significant success with the Priority Prolific Offender programme showing an average 40% reduction in reoffending, while the Drug Intervention Programme re-offending rate fell from 28% to 13% for 2007/08.

While it is too early to objectively evaluate the impact of the joint HR service, there is anecdotal evidence that it has accelerated examination of the complex policy interactions between health and worklessness.  As the Joint Director of HR, Deb Clarke points out, adding “joint policymaking was the drive ... going for strategic gains rather than transactional gains”. Since they first opened in 2002, the Idea Stores have transformed services that were at the bottom of every league table. Now a top ten performer in the country, library visits are up to nearly 2 million – a 200% increase compared with the libraries they replaced - and adult learning participation doubled.

What were the key lessons learned?
The main lessons suggested from the council’s work are:

• Allowing partnership to evolve and mature – Martin Smith argues “there is a risk in formalising, a risk that we would destroy the fluidity and flexibility of the arrangement”
• Fostering positive relationships – Martin stresses the importance of developing “the ability to trust your partners and having mutual confidence in each other”
• Building on collective strength – “our joint working was easier because both organisations are successful and ambitious” says Deb Clarke

For more information, please contact:
Name:   Mr Martin Smith
Position: Chief Executive
Authority:  Tower Hamlets Council
Telephone: 44 (0) 20 7364 4984
Email:  martin.smith@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Website: www.towerhamlets.gov.uk

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Summary
Winner of 2 National Awards for Local Government Excellence in the last 4 years, the WBC Strategic  Alliance was formed in 2003 by Wellington, Blayney and Cabonne Councils, with  Central Tablelands Water joining in 2005.  This Alliance was formed  in response to a push for reform from the NSW State Government including the threat of amalgamation. However, the Councils involved also saw the benefits they could gain from working collaboratively, and have run 15 successful projects in the last year alone.

What’s covered?
The Alliance has 7 key priority areas in its current 2008 – 2010 Management plan covering areas such as systems and processes, asset management, environmental sustainability, HR strategies and strategic planning.The Alliance has developed a number of shared policies , processes and kits such as  a development application and Project Management Toolkits, continuous improvement documents, joint funding applications, engineering guidelines, GIS and IT systems management and procurement, shared training and the highly successful Internal Audit Kit which is now being sold to Councils across NSW.

What’s unique about this alliance?
In contrast with most shared services which involve the sharing of an operational or back office service, the WBC Alliance has focused on sharing a wide variety of policies, tools and capabilities.  Whilst this alliance has focused on “low risk” areas, it is proof that if established correctly, alliances can provide cost efficiencies for Councils, as well as plug resource gaps. The Alliance is currently considering options around shared services.

Results
To date, the alliance has made savings of around $2.4million. In addition to the financial savings, there have been significant non-tangible savings such as sharing of practice, information, policy, procedure and the networks that have been established between colleagues of the different councils.  

There are two shared positions, jointly funded by the  member councils in the area of Strategic planning and a dedicated Project Officer responsibile for the coordination and outcomes for alliance projects and initiatives. . This collaborative working model enabled the engagement of a staff member to meet their individual needs on a full time basis, which they could not have been able to support individually, as well as addressing the skills shortage issues they faced.  

The foundation for its success has been the establishment of their C.O.R.E. Principles (Communication, Opportunity, Resources and Energy), which won the 2009 National Award for Local Government in the category of “Improving Service Delivery through Collaboration” for their unique alliance model.

Key Learning Points
The partners stress a number of important lessons:

• “One of the best outcomes from our Alliance is that the individual member councils have maintained their autonomy whilst still demonstrating a preparedness to adapt and be innovative in how they operate.”, Donna Galvin,  WBC Project Officer
• Establish a set of C.O.R.E. Principles at the onset. These include a set of strategies that ensure open and regular communication, good governance, committed resources and strong leadership. These are instrumental success factors for any alliance or partnership.”
• “We have worked hard together over the last six years to ensure the sustainability of our individual Councils. Working together cooperatively across a range of initiatives is a great way for smaller councils to operate. “Bruce Kingham, WBC Chairperson 2008/09

For more information please contact:

Name: Donna Galvin
Position: Project Officer for the WBC Alliance
Telephone: + 61 (0) 419 611 204
Email: Donna.Galvin@cabonne.nsw.gov.au
Website: http://wbcalliance.nsw.gov.au