For those of us who advise on and set up public sector service delivery structures, there has been a noticeable shift in the last two years in how the public sector approach service delivery, particularly in respect of shared services.
This was reinforced by the results of our recent “Delivering public sector services differently” survey.
We have sought to better understand how public sector service delivery is changing to adapt to an ever changing landscape. Some of these challenges have been foreseeable such as reductions in budgets and spending, changes in legislation and an increased focus on factors such as social value and net zero, however, other events have been unforeseeable – namely the huge impact that the covid pandemic has had on businesses and the financial uncertainty caused by the war in Ukraine, political changes in the UK and soaring inflation.
Despite an increase in interest in shared services models generally, there were some very candid responses from those who were involved in existing shared service arrangements which goes to demonstrate that there are still challenges and obstacles that need to be overcome.
The aim of this toolkit is to explore the shared services models available and their legal basis and look at some of the key questions that need to be asked early on to ensure that the parties are compatible and share the same objectives.
