In early 2009 Scottish councils were asked to provide a list of shared service projects which they were involved with and were provided with examples of projects that were knew were in existence. Details of around 2000 projects were submitted by 27 councils. This list is neither definitive or exhaustive.
When the submissions were reviewed, a number of key themes emerged across all service areas. These themes are listed below with links to information about the projects grouped under each one:
- Co-location of services - joint use of assets but separate service provision, e.g. social work office located within health centre.
- Joint provision of services - services are provided jointly by two or more organisations or through a separate new organisation, e.g. Community Health and Care Partnerships.
- Provision of specialist services - specialist services are provided either more effectively in a larger geographic area (e.g. GGILES or EQUIPU projects for independent living equipment) or scarce skills and resources are used to cover services across a wider area (e.g. Trading Standards officers in Stirling cover Clackmannanshire, occupational health services in the North-East, or the national 'Scam busters' scheme for dealing with rogue traders).
- Provision of emergency or out-of-hours cover - services at specific times are provided across a wider area to make better use of a scarce resource, e.g. out-of-hours homeless cover, social work cover and emergency crisis helplines.
- Cross public sector provision - services are provided to community planning partnerships or other public sector organisations within spare capacity of the lead organisation, e.g. councils cleaning police offices, provision of financial and treasury services to police and fire services).
- Process simplification or standardisation - organisations working together to streamline or simplify processes, e.g. cross-Ayrshire process for fast tracking Building Warrants.
- Training - While training is being shared in a number of ways that could fit into some of the other categories, the number of different methods of sharing training suggests it may be a category in its own right. Examples range from specialist training in areas such as trading standards or child protection to wider initiatives such as the Clyde Valley project.
Further information
For more information on the survey of collaboration or shared services in general, contact Paul Dowie on 01506 775561.
