Chorley and South Ribble to share more back office functions
Wednesday 14th September, 2022
Chorley and South Ribble councils plan to employ shared staff across both central Lancashire authorities. Half of all staff working for the two councils will be employed in shared roles across both authorities.
This follows an agreement between the councils in February where they recommitted to continue exploring opportunities to share more of their back office functions, while remaining entirely autonomous authorities, each with their own decision-making processes.
“Deputy Chorley leader Peter Wilson said, I think it’s fair to say we’ve seen benefits [like] financial savings and we’ve seen resilience in shared service teams. It’s also fair to say we’ve seen some challenges…that we’ve had to deal with. So I think a step-by-step approach to future sharing…is sensible.”
Chorley and South Ribble first merged some of their back office operations in the late 2000s. Under that initial agreement, the pair combined their financial and assurance services.
They have also had the same chief executive and senior directors since January 2021 and also decided to bring together their ICT and customer services departments. According to LancsLive.