Shared Services is considered to be a key enabler of public sector reform. The adoption of Shared Services models is expected to play a transformational role in delivering long term financial savings and driving up service quality and consistency across Scottish local government.

To date in Scotland, individual authorities and partnerships have made progress on specific shared services initiatives. The National Shared Services Board (NSSB) was established to maximise the realisation of benefits at a national level, with a focus on high impact collaborative projects. The work of the Board is underpinned by programme management, knowledge management and project delivery support from the Improvement Service, with the majority of projects being led by groups of local authorities. The NSSB includes representation from COSLA, SOLACE, the Scottish Government and the Improvement Service.

What do we mean by Shared Services?

Shared Services can mean different things to different people; Scottish councils and the NSSB have been exploring a number of models of sharing including collaborative delivery arrangements between councils and more traditional Shared Service delivery models. Some of these models enable distributed efficiencies where organisations can share and maximise economies of scale by simplifying and standardising processes upon on a common infrastructure without moving the physical delivery of services.

The objective of the NSSB is to support councils in delivering on the full potential of the Shared Services agenda. IS support will help all councils across Scotland to learn from national Shared Services projects and their use of leading practices.

Key developments

An information release in August 2007 provided an update on how the various Shared Services projects were progressing. Further information on a range of shared services projects taking place across Scotland, including those supported by the Improvement Service, can be found on the Scottish Government website.  Further updates on three of the Shared Services projects - Diagnostic Pathway, the recruitment portal for Scottish local authorities, and the Public Information Notices portal were published in August 2008.

In Autumn 2007, John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, announced £4.5m funding for the development of a diagnostic approach stemming from the Glasgow and Edinburgh Pathfinders. Read the news story . A shared services diagnostic update from December 2007 is also available.

The Scottish Government issued its Shared Services Guidance Framework in December 2007.

There are also a number of private online forums for people involved in these projects to discuss issues, identify solutions and share ideas on leading practice, e.g. the Scottish Government Shared Services Forum, Recruitment Portal, National CRM, Diagnostic Pathway Community, the National Entitlement Card Forum, the National Infrastructure Technical Sub-Group, the National Gazetteer Community. For a full list and links to these communities, visit our Communities section.

Contact Us

The National Shared Services Programme can only succeed through full engagement and interaction with the Scottish local government community. Please keep in touch to:

• find out more about both current and future projects
• explore the potential to collaborate on these projects
• learn more about the tools and resources we are developing to support projects and spread best practice
• tell us about your interests and needs and how we can support you.

For further information, please contact Paul Dowie, Director of Shared Services, on 01506 775558.