Press Statement on the Council's Shared Services Review

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council has made an interim announcement to employees regarding its Shared Services Review. The review is part of a long term service development programme aimed at maintaining and improving services and value for local people, in an ever tightening financial climate.

For over four years the Council has been achieving significant year on year efficiency savings and cost reductions, in order that it can invest more in the things that matter most to most people.   The Shared Services programme is part of this ongoing drive for efficiency, in its current phase looking at further savings options and drawing up business cases to support them.  

Subject to formal approval over the next few weeks, the following services will go forward for market testing and/or further organisational change.  “Organisational change” can mean exploring things like internal business process improvements, flexible working, home working, hot desking, collaboration and sharing with other authorities, merging services, reviewing and reshaping operational practices to maximise efficiency and demonstrate value for money.

The service areas being recommended for outsourcing are:

• Contact Centre, Switchboard and Reception
• Council Tax
• Benefits
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

The service areas being recommended for further organisational change are:

• Merging premises and Estates into a single service area
• Human Resources including Training
• Legal Services including Conveyancing  and Litigation
• Accounting Services including Payroll and Insurance
• Audit
• Procurement

Background to the Shared Services Review

All councils are expected to challenge and review services and choose the best options for delivery, to quote the guidance:  “all public service providers must deliver the best possible services in the most cost-effective way.  It is up to local authorities to decide how best to achieve this, but there is a changing financial climate and they must think fundamentally about how they can achieve improved efficiency, service performance and outcomes”. 

Michel Saminaden, Chief Executive said:  “I would like to be clear about why we are undertaking this latest in a long series of service reviews.   It is not because the council does not value the very good services currently provided by all employees who work in them.  On the contrary, it is widely recognised that our dedicated employees work extremely hard to ensure the residents of Welwyn Hatfield receive a very good level of service.

“But ambitious efficiency gains are being required of us, greater service collaboration between councils and greater ‘contestability’ through the use of fair and open competition.  That is the backdrop.  There is therefore, a fundamental process of change going on, driven not by service team underperformance, but by the Council’s need as an organisation to find demonstrable, substantial and ongoing financial savings”. 

Next Steps

By aggregating services within an outsourced framework, the Council hopes significant savings can arise through economies of scale, without loss of service effectiveness.  Other savings and service efficiencies are also possible from a range of internal business process improvements and other opportunities for merging and sharing.

There are still many unknowns – bids for outsourcing need to be put together and many detailed discussions need to be held with the teams involved.  This will start to happen once the relevant decisions have been formalised over the next few weeks.

John Dean, Leader of the Council said: “Based on clear business principles the Council has identified which of its services are strong candidates for outsourcing and which services might be best approached through a variety of organisational change processes.  My aim is to find ways to provide the best possible services at the lowest possible cost to residents.  To achieve this it is necessary to explore every avenue for the most economic and efficient methods of provision.  By doing that going forward, we give ourselves the best chance of investing in the things residents are saying are most important”.

Michel Saminaden said:  “It goes without saying there will be major changes ahead for the future shape of the Council and in the way we provide and commission our services.  I have let all our employees know that I will do all I can to make the transition as smooth and inclusive as possible”.