“Simplifying Complexity”

Simplifying the Organisation of Shared Services

The Complexities

Delivering interdependant services to the citizen that can involve different types of organisations is highly complex. Organisations must work together at every level to ensure provision to acceptable levels of quality and a consistent approach across all service areas.

Shared Service Partnerships

The LGA, CLG, IDeA and Cabinet Office came together in 2006 to sponsor the Front Office Shared Services (FOSS) programme of research. The programme took as its guiding assumptions that “the public services are most effective when they work together in a truly integrated way” and that most public services are ‘consumed’ locally. The detailed results are available at www.idea.gov.uk/foss.

Local Government

The Government continues to encourage partnerships between public service agencies. The proposals to extend Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Area Agreements and to introduce Multi-Area Agreements are all part of this trend, as are recent reports on the role that the Third Sector can play in service delivery.

Counties and districts are increasingly working together to provide local citizens with an integrated ‘shop front’ where the citizen can access a range of county or district services without knowing who delivers what.

Emergency Services and others

Some partnerships may involve a range of partners from the local government, the police, fire service, coast guards, central government, the health service and the voluntary and private sectors.

Virtual Contact Centres

Many authorities are still working on getting all their services to operate through a corporate call centre or one stop shop – what might be called internal shared services projects. The aim is to join up services internally within the authority itself.

The Requirement for Strategic Leadership

"Strong strategic leadership – typically reflected in effective partnership relationships based on trust – is required to ensure that the integrity of the partnership is maintained and that the different partners stay focused on meeting the needs of their common citizens. As regards outcomes, there is a need, at this level, to understand the demand for and costs of services, to promote innovation in the way that services are packaged and delivered via different channels and to address areas of underperformance across the partnership, all issues a good customer services strategy will address." from the white paper 'Joining up around the citizen' - see Further Information

IIZUKA Citizen Services Manager enables strategic planners by by providing:

• a structure and configuration that supports the customer service strategy

• a reporting facility that tracks success and highlights areas for improvement