A cash grant of almost £367,000 has been awarded to three neighbouring councils in recognition of their on-going efforts to minimise expenditure through the continual review of shared services.
On Wednesday, 9 October the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) awarded a £366,932 share of the £6.9million Transformation Challenge Award to Cherwell District, South Northamptonshire and Stratford-on-Avon District Councils.
The award was presented by Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis to authorities which demonstrated an innovative approach to best practice resulting in financial savings and the preservation of council services.
In a joint statement council leaders Cllr Barry Wood (Cherwell) and Cllr Mary Clarke (South Northamptonshire) said: "All three councils are delighted to have had their efforts recognised through the Transformation Challenge Award. It has been almost two years to the day since Cherwell District and South Northamptonshire Councils set up a joint management team and this has resulted in £2.8m financial savings per annum across both councils.
“At that time, we also made a commitment to actively explore further options for collaborative working with other public sector bodies."
Stratford-on-Avon District Council leader, Cllr Chris Saint, added: “Stratford quickly became a third partner, equally committed to exploring the opportunities presented by joint working. Since then a number of areas have been identified, where collaboration may be to our mutual advantage and could bring tangible benefits for each of the three districts."
Despite the obvious challenges of operating across different county and regional boundaries, this has not prevented the three authorities working together where possible to ensure public services are protected and best practice is being shared. The councils have already demonstrated successful collaboration across their human resources and procurement teams. Further opportunities for shared services are also being discussed for the economic development and ICT departments.
An application to receive funding for the Transformation Challenge Award was submitted earlier this year, under the Multi Authority Award category which champions joint working.
The money is then provided to help councils with the initial outlay to get projects established and provide successful models for other authorities to follow.
