Sharing out pain of cuts

These are only the start and there can be little doubt further and much more painful changes will follow as savings become harder and harder to find.

Yet there remain many areas of public expenditure which are simply wasteful and the new age of austerity brings an opportunity to question spending decisions which in truth should have been tackled years ago.

Plans by 12 Yorkshire councils and police authorities to set up a shared public services network are among ideas which should be taken up by many more public sector organisations.

The initiative to create a shared internet service for public services could save many millions of pounds – but it should have more profound implications.

It is certainly time that different publicly-funded organisations looked to work together more collaboratively, with the potential in some of our cities for local government, the NHS, emergency services and even universities to work jointly.

Clearly enhanced front-line integration between council-run social services and the NHS will bring patients better care and save money.

But sharing so-called “back office” functions such as payroll and human resources services could also deliver major savings.

The public services network could mean police officers working from council buildings but there must be other opportunities for different staff to work from the same premises to generate efficiencies. A recent review of health services across North Yorkshire, for example, noted the county’s NHS estate ran to more than 260 buildings and urged officials to consider sharing their premises with other public services.

Traditional boundaries between different public sector agencies need to be broken down.

They can no longer pay such scant regard for value for taxpayers’ money by operating in isolation.

Through more collaborative working, there is an opportunity to deliver better, as well as cheaper, services.