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Jayne Jones, Director of Corporate Services at South Derbyshire District Council, explains how In this age of austerity, innovative partnerships are needed to open the doors to new ways of working. These should focus on delivering immediate cashable savings and sustainable improvement to services in the long-term. Here, at South Derbyshire we have found the way to deliver better for less. Last month we commenced our ground-breaking partnership with Northgate Public Services. It is based on an innovative risk and reward model linked to Northgate's track record of transformation where fees are only paid to our partner out of cashable savings delivered to the council. Our seven year partnership provides more than savings to the people of South Derbyshire. They will benefit from improved service delivery and much-needed investment in technology. A total investment of £1.9 million has been pledged by our partner to transform services and to upgrade IT systems and services. Northgate has taken on direct responsibility for managing and improving the Council's Corporate Services – Finance, Organisational Development, IT and Business Improvement, Revenues, Benefits and Customer Services. Our former employees, now Northgate employees, work alongside council employees delivering services in our Civic Centre. They will benefit from the improved investment and support as will their skills and capabilities. Our partnership not only delivers protection for our former employees, their jobs and pensions, but also delivers new jobs – for we have opened our door quite literally to Northgate. Using the Civic Centre as a base, Northgate has created a regional centre of excellence. This is a market-facing business open to the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. The centre of excellence is the local base from which each of the functions in the Corporate Service partnership will be delivered. It will also act as a centre of excellence for public services efficiency, service integration and service quality, delivering services and expertise to authorities across the region. These are exciting times for us as we embark on our journey with a new partner. It has taken over two years to reach this point. Over this period we have had to address concerns openly and honestly. We have been clear about our objectives and highly focused on delivering better outcomes for our residents and employees. Now, we believe that this is a win-win situation for all those involved. Our partner is one that we know we can trust. It shares the same public ethos as us. South Derbyshire has a reputation for providing good services. By taking action early, we will not only maintain the current high standards of services that our residents expect, but bring much needed jobs into the town through the centre. Other councils are ideally placed to gain from the services now on offer from the centre of excellence. So we urge them to open the door to new opportunities. This is innovation as it should be. For further information about the South Derbyshire partnership please ring 07956 052705

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WHITEHALL

South Derbyshire shows the way

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