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It doesn't take a genius to work out that we must plan for a significant reduction in government funding for the foreseeable future. We have a national debt which is unsustainable, and councils will inevitably face unprecedented financial pressures which efficiency savings can't hope to tackle. Reaching this expected funding cliff edge in 2010 should be viewed as presenting an opportunity for new thinking – a chance to radically redesign the way public services are delivered. Joint working between councils – rather than partnership working – has been on the agenda nationally for a while, but it has taken time to translate good intentions into action. Although there has been more joint working activity recently, particularly among smaller district and borough councils, with shared chief executive appointments and the merging of some back-office functions, it hasn't been on a large scale. This is understandable, but it's inevitable things will have to change in the near future. Sharing back-office functions with a neighbouring district is probably going to be just the tip of the iceberg. In all likelihood these functions will have to be shared over larger areas and services. We could, in the not too distant future, be finalising plans to make frontline services subject to joint arrangements as well. It is easy to see the financial logic of combined operations for services such as trading standards and environmental health, but we're all likely to have to get to grips with extending this pooling to major services including social care or waste collection. We can't pretend this won't have an impact on jobs, but with councils taking on more responsibilities this doesn't necessarily mean redundancies. What is certain is that councils will work differently but, as Surrey CC leader, Dr Andrew Povey, has said about his authority, it will rise to the challenges of change. Phil Walker is director of finance at Surrey CC

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FINANCE

Money Matters

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