Wednesday 31 August 2011
UNISON Scotland tonight (Wednesday) welcomed the decision of West Dunbartonshire Council to opt out of shared services scheme for support services. The plan would have involved considerable upfront investment and disruption, which would have delivered only modest savings - in the unlikely event of targets being met.
UNISON has analysed the full business case for the Clyde Valley Shared Services scheme. There is very little evidence to support the sweeping financial assumptions in the proposal. Savings are based on current delivery models, not the systems that will be adopted in this massive shared services operation.
There has also been a lack of staff engagement and involvement in the development of the scheme – this is a ‘one size fits all’ solution covering many different Council areas. It is no surprise that individual councils will not think it meets their requirements.
UNISON’s Scottish Organiser Dave Watson said:
"We are glad that West Dunbartonshire has backed away from taking a risk with people’s services and council taxpayers money.
"This shared services plan was based on a poor business case and flawed assumptions - it had Edinburgh trams written all over it.
"If councils are serious about reform they will engage with their staff before drawing up schemes. Reforms will only be successful when they are driven from the bottom up with the aim of improved services, not from the top down with the aim of meeting cash targets. A proposal developed in darkened rooms without any meaningful staff or trade union engagement was unlikely to stand up to proper scrutiny. Tonight’s decision proves that."
Note to editors:
UNISON Scotland analysis of Clyde Valley Shared Services full business case is at
www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/
b009_BargainingBrief_ClydeValleySharedServicesBusinessCase_August2011.pdf
For further information / comment contact:
Dave Watson 07958 122 409, Stephen Low 0795 685 2822
.
UNISON. Scotland's biggest and liveliest trade union, representing members delivering public and related services.
Showing posts with label Clyde Valley review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clyde Valley review. Show all posts
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Friday, 10 June 2011
Public service factories are not the key to reforming public services, says UNISON
UNISON, Scotland’s largest public service union, today warned of the high cost of setting up ‘public service factories’ in a bid to save councils cash.
The union said shared services are not providing the answer to modernising public services and warned that services will suffer as a result of the top-down approach to change.
Dave Watson, UNISON’s Scottish Organiser, said: “Co-operation between public services is essential, but that doesn’t mean setting up vast public service factories or bringing in the private sector. Shared services are often pushed by private consultants as a way to improve services and save money. However, these schemes come with huge upfront costs and evidence shows that initial savings are not delivered in many cases – so we would warn against the belief that there is a pot of gold to be released through shared services.”
The drive towards shared services, both within organisations and between them, is based on economies of scale and a view that front and back office functions should be separated. However, there is increasing evidence from the UK and internationally that this approach is wrong. Few services actually delivered in this way have realised the claimed savings and real costs are simply displaced onto frontline services. There is also a massive increase in transactional costs as systems drive activity rather than addressing user demand. UNISON believes services should be organised so that staff who meet users are able to deal with most of their needs, without artificially splitting the work up.
The union has also been critical of the Clyde Valley Review, which has involved no consultation with either trade unions or with the staff who deliver services.
He continued: “Bright ideas are never the result of discussions which take place in a darkened room. For positive changes to happen, managers have to adopt a bottom-up approach and involve staff in decision making.
“Job concerns are sometimes hailed as the reason for shared service failings, however, this is simply not the case. We fully support partnership working and efficient delivery of services, however, we are sceptical as to whether this type of shared service will deliver savings and, most importantly, whether it will deliver a better service.”
See the Briefing at http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/100611Bargainingbriefingsharedservices.pdf
The union said shared services are not providing the answer to modernising public services and warned that services will suffer as a result of the top-down approach to change.
Dave Watson, UNISON’s Scottish Organiser, said: “Co-operation between public services is essential, but that doesn’t mean setting up vast public service factories or bringing in the private sector. Shared services are often pushed by private consultants as a way to improve services and save money. However, these schemes come with huge upfront costs and evidence shows that initial savings are not delivered in many cases – so we would warn against the belief that there is a pot of gold to be released through shared services.”
The drive towards shared services, both within organisations and between them, is based on economies of scale and a view that front and back office functions should be separated. However, there is increasing evidence from the UK and internationally that this approach is wrong. Few services actually delivered in this way have realised the claimed savings and real costs are simply displaced onto frontline services. There is also a massive increase in transactional costs as systems drive activity rather than addressing user demand. UNISON believes services should be organised so that staff who meet users are able to deal with most of their needs, without artificially splitting the work up.
The union has also been critical of the Clyde Valley Review, which has involved no consultation with either trade unions or with the staff who deliver services.
He continued: “Bright ideas are never the result of discussions which take place in a darkened room. For positive changes to happen, managers have to adopt a bottom-up approach and involve staff in decision making.
“Job concerns are sometimes hailed as the reason for shared service failings, however, this is simply not the case. We fully support partnership working and efficient delivery of services, however, we are sceptical as to whether this type of shared service will deliver savings and, most importantly, whether it will deliver a better service.”
See the Briefing at http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/100611Bargainingbriefingsharedservices.pdf
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