Advisers sought for shared services plan

OLDHAM and Rochdale councils are moving ahead with plans for joint working after advertising for consultants.

The councils set up a joint advisory committee last month, with five members from each authority, and are in talks about sharing a chief executive.

Now they have advertised for external advisers as they plan to save at least £20 million through shared services.

The intention has been advertised on The Chest, a North-West web portal which allows companies to express interests in council contracts.

The advertisement says: “The benefits of integration are currently being assessed, although at this stage there is no intention to integrate at a political level as the two organisations will retain their separate democratic mandates.

“However, integration is being assessed at all other levels, from a joint chief executive to a joint management team and integrated service delivery.

“There is a limited precedent for this level of radical integration in the local government sector.

“However, it is not unusual in the private sector where this type of collaboration and integration takes place regularly.”

In a joint statement, Charlie Parker and Roger Ellis, chief executives of Oldham and Rochdale councils respectively, said: “This is not a tender document — it is simply a market-testing exercise.”

“Its purpose is to seek expressions of interest from partners who may be able to support and offer their expertise in helping to deliver the joint-working proposals.

“The figure of £20 million mentioned within this document merely refers to the anticipated savings that we will hope to make to the public purse — although we expect the actual figure to be greater than this.

“Any decision to proceed with joint-working would have to be taken by members of both local authorities. There is no firm political or financial commitment to anything at this stage.”