Cabinet Office Chief Information Officer

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Shared Services

All organisations require back office functions that provide their business and employees with access to services such as human resources, finance and procurement. Historically each public sector organisation has independently specified, developed and delivered their own back office services. This has led to comparatively high staffing levels and a number of back office IT systems that cannot communicate with each other or provide the high quality financial and resource management information required.

Over the last four years, Departments have recognised the benefits of Shared Services and many of them have moved their transactional HR/finance/procurement activities into a Shared Service Centre. This approach has saved money and headcount. The technical infrastructure required to operate a Shared Service business will be provided by the Government Cloud (G-Cloud) and will be available to Shared Service Centres (SSCs) across the public sector. This will significantly reduce the number of costly individual procurement exercises.  

The aim

• We will deliver significant savings by rationalising HR, finance and procurement delivery and by making better use of current technology such as Enterprise Resource Planning platforms.
• By 2020, Shared Services will be provided via the Government Application Store and Government Cloud.
• Traditionally, Shared Services have been used for corporate service activities such as HR and finance but there are other opportunities for sharing across the public sector such as Civil Service pension administration, Grant Payments and Security Vetting. 

Key Achievements

• Over 80% of civil servants are now supported by a shared services solution.
• Cabinet Office and Department for Schools, Children and Families now receives its day to day finance, HR and procurement support from DWP Shared Services.
• Home Office and UK Border Agency receive back office support from the National Offender Management Service’s Shared Service Centre and plans are now in place for the Identity and Passport Service, Criminal Records Bureau and Ministry of Justice to share this facility. 

What are the benefits?

Experience in the private sector has shown that a shared approach to Corporate Services can deliver efficiency savings of 20-50%. In the public sector Shared Services has also saved money and improved service levels.

• The Department for Work and Pensions runs a Shared Service Centre that supports over 120,000 Civil Servants with HR, Finance and Procurement services. By the end of the financial year 2008/09 this initiative has delivered £100 million worth of savings.
• The Department of Health runs a Shared Service Business in partnership with a private sector organisation, providing finance services to over 100 NHS Trusts.  This business is delivering 20-30% savings on like for like activity each year.
• Since 2004 six Central Government Shared Service Centres have been established supporting more than 500,000 users and radically reducing the number of IT systems and staff costs across HR, finance and procurement functions.    

Shared Services, moving Government Systems to the Government Cloud (ICT Strategy) [PDF]

Contact
For further information email shared.services@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk