| Description | The Guidance Framework for Shared Services aims to provide information, education, guidance and case study examples to those considering Shared Services and to those already on a Shared Services journey. |
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| ISBN | (Web Only) |
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| Official Print Publication Date | |
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| Website Publication Date | December 21, 2007 |
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A PDF version of this document is available from this link
Contents
o Background to Shared Services
o Successful Shared Services
o Benefits
o Non Financial Benefits
o Challenges and Issues
o Strategy, Process, People and Technology
o Shared Services Consultation Feedback
o What can be shared?
o Definition of Terms for Service Provision
o Shared Services Models
o Operational Structures
o Operating Models
o Sourcing and Location models
Ministerial Foreword
We have set a challenging new agenda for our term of administration and we will need to work together with our public sector partners to meet our commitment to smaller, simpler government. This guidance is in response to the feedback you gave during the Shared Services consultation and aims to provide all public sector agencies and their partners with the information to consider where they are on the Shared Services journey. I want to see delivery of shared services opportunities within organisation, across their sector, and across the public sector in Scotland, to ensure we can create a public service infrastructure that is efficient and effective and improves the customer experience.
Shared Services is a key element of our efficiency agenda. We must achieve good quality public services that are valued by their customers and ensure that efficiencies are applied consistently and proactively across the whole public sector, and across all corporate / common services. I expect that the majority of efficiency gains to be delivered by best business practice and business process improvement, better use of public assets, improved collaborative working and much wider application of Shared Services, ensuring that value is added in all end to end business processes. All public organisations must challenge themselves to collaborate, and engage in sharing services as integral part of their on-going continuous improvement.
Sharing procurement approaches and services will achieve significant gains. For the first time we have detailed management information and analysis showing there are significant benefits to be gained from working together on procurement. However, this is just one area where we can share. There are many examples of good practice in Scotland, the UK and the rest of the world, and I am committed to ensuring that we can maximise the potential that Shared Services can deliver across the public sector, and build on those good practice examples that will provide us with Scotland wide solutions to transform the way that public services are delivered.
I expect the public sector in Scotland to utilise this guidance framework and consider options for shared services and therefore invite you to work with me in accelerating the pace of the Shared Services agenda.
John Swinney MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth
Context
The Scottish Government purpose is to: "Focus public services on creating a more successful country, with the opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth".
Our 5 key objectives to ensure that we can collectively work towards this are set out below, with our statement on how Shared Services can contribute to the objectives:
· Strategic objective - Wealthier and fairer - Enable businesses and people to increase their wealth and more people to share fairly in that wealth.
Role of Shared Services - To support the development of Shared Services in Scotland that deliver high quality multi channel services, valued by citizens, and as cost effectively as possible to ensure that citizens and businesses contribute less of their wealth to support the State.
· Strategic objective- Healthier - to work with others to deliver better and faster access to integrated primary and community care in Scotland and to shift the balance towards independence and choice so that everyone has sustained and improved health and well being, especially in disadvantaged communities.
Role of Shared Services - To support multi channel access giving choice to all aspects of the community. To support the development of efficient, responsive high quality health services delivered on a cross-agency basis to return citizens to a state of health as quickly and simply as possible
· Strategic objective - Safer and Stronger - Help local communities to flourish, becoming stronger, safer places to live, offering improved opportunities and a better quality of life.
Role of Shared Services - To enable Shared Services opportunities which will deliver efficiency gains that in turn, allows public sector organisations to reinvest in local communities and frontline services.
· Strategic objective - Smarter - Expand opportunities for Scots to succeed from nurture through to life long learning ensuring higher and more widely shared achievements.
Role of Shared Services - To enable Shared Services opportunities which will deliver efficiency gains that in turn allows reinvestment in early development, education and lifelong learning and support multi channel access giving choice to all members of the community.
· Strategic objective - Greener - Improve Scotland's natural and built environment and the sustainable use and enjoyment of it.
Role of Shared Services - To develop Shared Services opportunities which reduce the need to make contact with a range of dispersed agencies, and develop common business processes to support multi-channel access, and virtual delivery mechanisms. This gives choice of access, and options for flexible and remote working, which could in turn, allow for a reduction in individuals carbon footprint.
Policy
In setting our policy aim we need to ensure that we can have a clear understanding of how we can support the implementation of Shared Services and in turn test policy against the implementation. Our policy aim is therefore:
To support Shared Services opportunities that will provide Scotland wide solutions, for smaller simpler Government, which improves the service to the customers.