East Sussex And Surrey Share Services To Save “Millions”

East Sussex and Surrey Councils have officially launched a shared services partnership which will be known as orbis.

orbis will see the two local authorities share resources to improve services with the aim of saving millions of pounds every year.

The partnership will cover services such as human resources (HR), property, procurement, finance and IT.

With expected savings of £8m annually within the next four years, it is hoped orbis will pave the way for other public services to join in the future.

“This is an exciting opportunity and signals the strength of East Sussex and Surrey’s relationship which gives us the confidence to launch this compelling alternative for the public sector,” claimed East Sussex chief operating officer Kevin Foster.

“The public sector should be seen as one team cooperating to save money wherever possible and orbis is all about using our collective buying power and streamlining processes to provide better, more efficient services,” added Surrey’s strategic director for business services Julie Fisher.

Increasing Importance Of Shared Services

Shared services for local government appear to be growing in popularity, with Havering and Newham Councils recently announcing they would be sharing the same budgeting and forecasting software.

Last year, the Local Government Association (LGA) claimed that UK councils had made savings of £350m in 2013 via shared services initiatives.

With local government budgets get smaller each year, many people claim that cutting costs by joining up services between councils is the way forward.

However, authorities have been warned that all organisations involved in sharing projects must be on exactly the same page.

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