Shared IT is set to support frontline services

Public sector IT sharing will reach the frontline of operations as belts tighten

Janie Davies, Computing 10 Apr 2008

Local authorities will soon start to share frontline services such as education and recycling, according to David Myers, the Home Office director of shared services.

Pooling technology is becoming more acceptable as back-office sharing boosts public service delivery, said Myers.

“Shared services are evolving to the frontline and services we never thought were sharable will be,” he said at a conference organised by supplier Agresso.

“We will be looking at sharing things such as contact services, waste management and education. We are seeing more evidence of public-to-public sharing.”

Myers has identified 37 reasons why public bodies say they cannot share services, but said they can all be overcome.

Organisations must be prepared to accept change, because a good shared service cannot be delivered without pain, said Tim Marshall, chief executive of education network Janet UK.

“If there is no bleating, you have not gone far enough,” he said. “Public money is very precious. If people are creating barriers to delivering public value, let them take their pensions.”

Organisations that do not share will need to justify that decision, said Paul Bettison, leader of Bracknell Forest Borough Council.

“It has reached the stage that we are looking at ways of saving £5,000, when 11 years ago we were only looking at how to save £50,000 or more. That is how financially tight it has become,” he said.

“It has become more a question of ‘dare we not?’”

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