Council jobs could be lost

Dec 2 2010 by Alastair McNeill, Hamilton Advertiser

A BID by a number of councils to save money by sharing services could cost hundreds of jobs.

Clyde Valley Partnership, a grouping of local authorities that include South and North Lanarkshire councils, are looking at ways of bringing together services such as human resources, business support and information systems.

The move could save £77m over five years, but also lead to 1000 job losses over the eight council areas.

South Lanarkshire, however, has questioned the partnership’s ‘business case’ for sharing services in these areas.

It also points out the financial benefits of the ‘shared services’ initiative will not be realised for five to 10 years after implementation.

Nevertheless, South Lanarkshire is to continue participation in the Clyde Valley Partnership scheme to cut £1.4bn from the costs of Social Care, which employs 15,000 people across the eight local authorities.

Chief Executive Archie Strang told the authority’s executive committee this week: “Due to the demand-led nature of these (Health and Social Care) services, there are significant resource pressures, with social care typically representing 30 per cent of the total resource available to any council.

“This work stream has sought to achieve efficiencies through collaborative procurement, service redesign and reviewing training opportunities.”

Referring to the implementation costs of shared services like human resources, business support and information systems, Mr Strang pointed out that savings would not be seen for five to 10 years.

He told councillors 3885 full-time employees working in the shared support services – costing £155m – across the Clyde Valley area would be affected by any merger.

Models developed for the sharing services, he said, would “involve significant employee transfers to the new organisation.”

However, the viability of the business case for sharing HR, business support and information services, according to Mr Strang, was weak.

He said: “The extent to which South Lanarkshire would gain from any long-term benefits is also unproven given the work already undertaken by the council to date, to rationalise and drive efficiencies from the functional areas under discussion.”

The authority has also declined to take part in the development of a detailed business case for the establishment of a single Clyde Valley waste treatment and disposal authority.

However, South Lanarkshire continues to support a working group to examine further “sharing opportunities” in this area.

South Lanarkshire will also remain part of the Social and Transport Fleet, Common Charging and Joint Economic Strategy working parties under Clyde Valley Partnership.