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An increasing number of local authorities, mainly districts, are sharing chief executives and management teams. The MJ and SOLACE recently hosted a roundtable discussion with chief executives who are heading up two councils. Dermott Calpin reports. The immediate short term may be overshadowed by the threat of budget cuts, but in the long term, it is likely that changes in the organisation of management will have the most profound effect on the future of local government. Taking part: David Incoll has been chief executive of West Devon DC since 1997, but in June 2007, took on the additional role of chief executive at South Hams DC Adur DC chief executive, Ian Lowrie, became joint chief executive at neighbouring Worthing BC in September, 2007 Hambleton DC first appointed Peter Simpson as its chief executive in 1996, and in January 2008, he also took on the role of joint chief executive at Richmondshire DC In April 2008, Suffolk Coastal and Waveney DCs decided they too would adopt the new approach, with Stephen Baker taking on the role of shared chief executive This was followed in July with the appointment of David Buckle as chief executive of a shared management team at South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse DCs Teignbridge DC chief executive, Nicola Bulbeck, took on the role of interim chief executive at Torridge DC this January – an appointment, made all the more notable by the fact that the two councils are both geographically and politically distinct More recently, Paul Lankester, who joined Stratford-on-Avon DC as chief executive in 2001 used his column in The MJ to outline discussions with the near neighbour Warwick DC on plans for a shared senior management structure Also present, David Clark, director general of SOLACE, and Andrew Coleman, managing director of SOLACE Enterprises In the chair, Michael Burton, editor of The MJ. Close to the top of the agenda for many authorities is the hope of unlocking the door to significant savings and greater efficiencies by tapping into the expertise of their chief executives and senior managers to establish shared management teams. There is nothing new in councils sharing the knowledge and abilities of their senior managers, but the present financial climate has given a special significance to the trend towards sharing a chief executive and senior staff as part of the strategic choices available to them. Whatever the fiscal constraints, for many councils – managers and councillors alike – the holy management grail is still low council tax and high levels of service performance. What began as a trickle with West Devon and South Hams DCs in June 2007, and was followed shortly afterwards by Adur and Worthing in September, now seems a steady stream of local initiatives, with more and more councils keen to forge partnership agreements and develop more collaborative ways of working. For many senior councillors, there is clearly a strong expectation that a joint chief executive and senior management team will help develop new approaches to shared service arrangements which can pave the way to significant financial savings by reducing costs and improving local efficiency. The importance of the trend is underlined in a report last year by the IDeA, which examined 10 joint chief executive arrangements and found councils taking an ‘increasingly creative' approach to developing shared services, with the pooling of senior managerial talent now providing a real ‘model for the future' among many authorities. There are, of course, plenty of earlier examples where councils have shared chief executives – Michael Frater, for instance, took on the interim role of chief executive at Walsall MDC, while still chief executive at Telford and Wrekin Council, specifically to help kick-start an improvement programme. In contrast, Staffordshire Moorlands' chief executive, Simon Baker, initially took on the temporary role at East Staffordshire DC when its chief executive was away because of ill health. Once that arrangement ended, he went on to forge a new-style strategic alliance with High Peak DC, and then became joint chief executive on a permanent basis. There was a lot more than just a rhetorical flourish to the recent SOLACE/MJ web discussion which asked, ‘Shared management teams: Are these the way forward?' and brought together a panel with first-hand experience of forging and running successful shared management arrangements. From the very start of the discussion perhaps the most striking feature was the widespread agreement – not only that shared management was here to stay – but a deep conviction that it offered councils the prospect of securing clear win-win solutions and long-term value for money. By a clear majority, the question that really should be addressed is, ‘Why don't more councils adopt shared management arrangements?' And, for many smaller district authorities in particular, where senior management costs are a significant overhead, the panel had little hesitation in endorsing and promoting the initiative. service arrangements can offer real long-term savings on top of the initial reduction in costs from smaller management teams. For smaller districts, in particular, one of the major attractions of effective shared management arrangements is the ‘critical mass' it can bring to the councils – with shared budgets and combined populations opening up new options in service development, and giving councils more organisational options and a bigger say in negotiations with business partners. In careers terms, too, shared management teams can open up new opportunities and responsibilities for staff who might otherwise look to larger local authorities for professional development and greater job satisfaction. That said, there are pressures and demands inherent in the shared service arrangements which make them difficult to navigate for both managers, and local politicians and the panel were clear the focus at all times must be on ‘effective partnership working' – not the merger of two or more councils which most agreed would be a ‘deal-breaker'. Although most shared arrangements have, so far, been between neighbouring councils, there is nothing absolute in this model, with general agreement that shared services might well take two to three years to be embedded effectively. For senior managers and councillors alike, the lesson is that a long-term and pragmatic approach to local circumstances are likely to prove far more important than any dogmatic, one-size-fits-all agenda. Strong political leadership and respect for the individual character of the partner authorities were also seen as key ingredients to success, with chief executives and management teams able to provide professional advice and services not just to two different councils but, on occasion, the leaders of different political parties. Good working relationships are clearly a major asset with the three-way relationships between the chief executive and two council leaders at the centre of effective organisation Click here for further details of the SOLACE/MJ roundtable discussion on shared management. Shared chief executives and joint management: A model for the future?

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Are shared management teams the future?

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