Improving corporate functions using shared services
Improving corporate functions using shared services

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2007-11-29

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780102951479

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Corporate services provide often vital support to the delivery of effective and efficient public services, and cover such areas as finance and accounting, human resources, procurement, information technology, facilities and estates management. Sir Peter Gershon's review of public sector efficiency (available on the HM Treasury website, http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/C/A/efficiency_review120704) identified benefits from shared services, but found that departments' efficiency targets did not include savings specifically from shared corporate services. This NAO report has been conducted to take account of developments between the 2004 Spending Review (Cm.6237, ISBN 9780101622728) and the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review (Cm. 7227, ISBN 0101722729) on shared services and focuses mainly on finance and human resources, which are generally the more developed areas of shared service in the public sector. The publication is divided into four parts, and looks at general and specific areas, including: the potential of shared services in the public sector; the problems of customer satisfaction experienced by the NHS and HM Prison Service with shared services; the variable progress across government; the lack of a clear overview from the Cabinet Office on shared services. The NAO has also set out 9 recommendations, including: public bodies should streamline their corporate service processes in line with best practice; they should also improve how they analyse the performance of their corporate services and whether there are more cost-effective ways to obtain such services; Departments should increase public transparency of corporate service performance.

Improving Corporate Functions Using Shared Services
Improving Corporate Functions Using Shared Services

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780215514851

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Corporate services provide vital support to the delivery of effective and efficient public services. They include activities such as finance and accounting, human resources, procurement, information technology, facilities management and estates management. Shared services are designed to improve efficiency and service quality by combining such activities across different parts of an organisation, or across separate organisations. The Cabinet Office has estimated the cost of finance and human resources functions across government as £7 billion a year. It believes there is scope to save in the order of £1.4 billion annually through the use of shared services. This report examines the Cabinet Office's efforts to improve corporate functions using shared services, as well as the impact of two of the more established public sector shared services in the NHS and the Prison Service. NHS Shared Business Services is a joint venture between the Department of Health and Xansa PLC selling procurement, finance and accounting services to 89 NHS organisations out of a total of 416 potentially eligible NHS bodies. It is not yet making a profit and has paid no dividend to either the Department of Health or Xansa. It needs to attract a further 22 customers simply to break even, and approximately 180 more customers to deliver its forecast savings to the taxpayer of £250 million by 2014-15. HM Prison Service's Shared Services Centre provides finance, procurement and human resources services to all 128 Prison establishments, and the system is now working well.

Efficiency and reform in government corporate functions through shared service centres
Efficiency and reform in government corporate functions through shared service centres

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-03-07

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9780102975451

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 2004, the Gershon Review recommended that the Government pursue the sharing of services, including human resources, finance, procurement and payroll, to achieve cost savings. It has been up to individual departments to establish their own arrangements and, between 2004 and 2011, eight major shared service centres emerged. The five centres examined by the NAO were expected to cost £0.9 billion to build and operate but, to date, they have cost £1.4 billion. They were also expected to have saved £159 million by the end of 2010-11. While, in one instance Government has achieved break-even in a time consistent with the private sector, its overall performance has been varied and the two centres that are still tracking benefits report a measured net cost of £255 million. Most departmental customers have not acted as 'intelligent customers' and they will need to build in-house capability with enough business and technical understanding to manage the services and work with the centres to achieve efficiencies. Among other findings are that the software systems used in the centres have added complexity and cost; and that, as the use of the centres has been voluntary, departments have struggled to roll-out shared services fully across all their business units and arm's length bodies. The Cabinet Office has recently gained approval for a new strategy and business case. The NAO considers the approach is ambitious and has challenging timescales. The Cabinet Office is actively working with departments on its implementation.

Efficiency and reform in government corporate functions through shared service centres
Efficiency and reform in government corporate functions through shared service centres

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-07-09

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9780215046710

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Since 2004, central government has sought to reduce the cost of administering finance, human resources and procurement services through sharing back-office functions. In previous examinations the Committee found that the Government had not yet realised the potential to save taxpayers' money. The renewed focus on improving shared services is welcomed. The Committee expects the Cabinet Office to engage constructively with their recommendations. This report considers five of the eight shared service centres. Whilst performing adequately, they had cost £1.4 billion to build and operate compared to an expected cost of £0.9 billion. These five centres were also expected to have saved £159 million by the end of 2010-11. In the event, the Ministry of Justice centre broke-even, the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs centres did not track their total savings, and the Department for Transport and Research Councils UK, have reported a net cost to date of £255 million. The current strategy will only be effective if the Cabinet Office demonstrates strong leadership. So far it has been left up to individual departments and their arm's length bodies to decide whether they use shared service centres leading to low take-up. Those bodies which have become customers of shared service centres have retained their own processes resulting in over-complicated systems which also undermine the scope for efficiency. The Cabinet Office should also develop comparable data on the cost and quality of services provided by the shared services centres and should consider whether it can extend its shared services strategy to include other common functions needed by central government departments

Recruiting Civil Servants Efficiently
Recruiting Civil Servants Efficiently

Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9780102954616

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 2007-08, central government recruited more than 40,000 new staff, with 78 per cent for positions at junior grades. The NAO's analysis of how six organisations recruit identifies three common issues: the costs of staff used in the recruitment process are too high; the length of the recruitment process is too long; and the quality of the recruitment process needs to be improved. There is no centrally held data on the cost of central government recruitment programmes but the NAO has found the internal staff costs of recruiting an individual vary from £556 to £1,921 per position. There is the potential to reduce these costs by up to 68 per cent, which could deliver savings in internal staff costs across government of up to £35 million a year, without compromising the quality of the candidates appointed. It can typically take 16 weeks to recruit a new member of staff. Time could be saved by better anticipating recruitment demands, using resources more effectively and, where possible, standardising the process. There is little evidence that central government organisations systematically test the quality or effectiveness of their recruitment process. Information on turnover of staff or surveys of candidates and managers are not routinely used to identify the successes and failings of the recruitment process. The report identifies a range of possible ways of improving external recruitment, ranging from better workforce planning and the standardisation of advertisements and job descriptions, to tailoring the amount of resource used in recruitment to the type of vacancy and sifting out unsuitable candidates at a much earlier stage in the process.

Finance Bundling and Finance Transformation
Finance Bundling and Finance Transformation

Author: Frank Keuper

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-11-13

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 3658003731

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In managerial literature the challenges of ramping-up, growing and enhancing a (Finance) Shared Services Organization are regularly neglected. Therefore, the compilation will address two objectives: First, based on a generic phase model of an SSO’s development, frequently arising questions related to the management of SSOs shall be systematically discussed and practicable solutions derived. Secondly, a picture of the future of SSOs shall be elaborated, resulting in new future management implications.

The Politics of Public Sector Reform
The Politics of Public Sector Reform

Author: M. Burton

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-11

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1137316241

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first comprehensive 'bird's eye' account of public sector reform supported by references from over 400 official sources, this book is an invaluable guide to all those in the public, private and voluntary sectors grappling with the twin challenges of managing public spending austerity and the pressure in response to transform public services.

Public Shared Service Centers
Public Shared Service Centers

Author: Gerd Schwarz

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-06-20

Total Pages: 342

ISBN-13: 3834944807

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Gerd Schwarz analyzes the pros and cons of shared service centers for the implementation of IT, finance, personnel and purchasing processes and make design suggestions on the empirical study of American public companies are based at 72. It describes how through the development of shared service centers achieved cost and quality improvements and shows based on the transaction cost approach to outsourcing to the differences in detail.

Financial Management in the Department for Children, Schools and Families
Financial Management in the Department for Children, Schools and Families

Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780102954777

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Department for Children, Schools and Families has made progress in improving its financial management, with strong commitment at senior management and board level. The Department's ability to reach a high standard of financial management depends partly on successful working with local authorities, other partner organisations, and the schools themselves. It does, however, face specific challenges, including the need for better strategic management of its large capital programme, and to encourage better financial management in schools. The Department has built up a large capital underspend, which increased from £1.9 billion at 31 March 2008 to around £2.4 billion at the end of March 2009. Its capital expenditure programme will need to be carefully managed given the history of underspending and the challenge of bringing forward £924 million of expenditure from 2010-11 to 2009-10 as part of the Government's fiscal stimulus. At March 2008, schools in England had a net cumulative surplus of £1.9 billion. Only 1 in 5 local authorities reduced their total net school surplus in 2007-08. Local authorities are accountable for school spending and the Department should encourage them to redistribute excessive uncommitted surpluses in line with local needs. The Department was, in 2007, one of three departments which had not implemented in-year accruals accounting systems, which would help to improve the accuracy of financial forecasting and reporting. The planned introduction of a shared services arrangement for finance with procurement and personnel support should also help improve financial management and lead to efficiencies.