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While many councils in two-tier areas are talking about sharing services, the six districts and one county in Worcestershire have forged ahead and launched not one but a multitude. Michael Burton talks to some of the partners With some £75m expected to be cut from the seven authorities in Worcestershire over the next four years, the impetus for sharing services has gathered pace. But this is no one-size-fits-all programme. The councils dip in and out of a variety of shared services and informal arrangements with each other, including, in the case of two of the districts, shared management teams. And they believe joint working is helping not just reduce costs and protect services from the Comprehensive Spending Review downturn, but also improve them. Their most ambitious shared service, and one to which all the councils subscribe, is the Worcestershire enhanced two-tier partnership, known by the acronym of WETT, based around regulatory services across the district of Worcester City, Wyre Forest, Redditch, Bromsgrove, Wychavon,Malvern Hills and the county. The business case, laid out last November, proposed ‘bringing together three professional disciplines [trading standards, environmental health and licensing] from the seven councils and across two tiers of local government into a unified transformational service provision.' Its preferred model option envisaged revenue saving of £1.26m on current costs by year three, including a £440,000 saving in year one, 2011/12, and savings in overhead costs in the medium to long term of up to 20% of current internal recharges. Aggregate direct gross spending on the regulatory services across all seven councils in 2009/10 was £7.3m (£5.7m net) of which 76% were staff costs or 165 full-time equivalents. It envisages 17% savings on existing budgets, with staff TUPE-ed over to the host authority, Bromsgrove, on its terms and conditions. Any shared service, according to the chief executives and leaders of all councils, has to include improved delivery to customers, resilience, savings, cost reduction, economies of scale, consistency, and business transformation. The project team took legal advice about governance, and appointed a joint committee of councillors to oversee activity, with a central management structure as well as a chief executives' panel from all the councils, while a programme managers group deals with the detail. According to Steve Jorden, formerly head of environmental services at Wychavon and now head of Worcestershire Regulatory Services in the WETT, the joint working ‘reduces duplication, and is the best chance of fighting the Spending Review challenge. The service is more resilient than if we stayed separate.' He adds: ‘Job losses are through natural wastage ,and we aim to reduce 164 staff down to 120.' Steve sees the process beginning with the creation of one service out of seven followed by transformation, adding: ‘If councils can harmonise terms and conditions, it makes things smoother. We aim to reduce the budget but also increase business. This is not about slash and burn.' John Scarborough, head of governance and corporate support, Worcester City, led for his council on the enhanced two-tier programme, and told The MJ: ‘All of the seven councils had decided not to pursue the unitary option, but to focus on getting better value for money out of the two-tier system. ‘What we haven't gone for is an over-arching strategy. If it's good for the customer then that's fine, but key is that councils retain their identities. Shared service failures have occurred, but they have tried to do the big picture. ‘We've recognised the respective strengths and identities of each council. For example, in property, three districts didn't want to be involved, but we still had the critical mass to go ahead.' WETT itself formalised some existing joint working as well as adding to other shared services and informal joint arrangements which exist on an ad hoc basis, sometimes not involving all the councils together. For example, Worcestershire Hub was created in 2002 to provide customer services for all councils, although only Malvern Hills and the county are in a formal shared service. In April 2009, Worcester City, Malvern and Wychavon launched a shared service covering revenues and benefits, IT and building control, while Worcester City and the county launched a shared service covering museum and arts. Last June, internal audit and property was added to the WETT regulatory service. Bromsgrove and Redditch have shared a chief executive in Kevin Dicks since 2008. The councils created a single management team last January, and over the next three years, aim to share all services although, as Kevin explains: ‘We'll still have separate political identities but one workforce.' He adds: ‘We've taken £500,000 out of the two councils' management costs a year, but we have to look at the full range of service delivery.' As John says: ‘We've recognised we can do better together, and we're in a much better position to respond to the external challenges.'

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WHITEHALL

There's nothing wet about WETT

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