Faced with declining budgets and rising demand for public services, many governments are looking to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their organisations - to 'deliver more with less'.  A promising reform strategy, and one which has received growing attention in recent years, is for public organisations to share their corporate support services with one another, rather than providing HR, finance, procurement and other 'back-office' services 'in-house'.

Following a successful conference on the opportunities and challenges of 'shared services' held at the Blavatnik School of Government last autumn and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, today the Blavatnik School publishes a new policy memo with advice for policymakers considering implementing this type of reform. Authored by postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Thomas Elston, the policy memo argues that, while sharing services can be advantageous in some situations, excessive sharing can actually increase costs and undermine effectiveness. The memo also suggests strategies for determining the appropriate balance between shared and in-house corporate services in public agencies.

Over the coming three years, Dr Elston will be undertaking further work on shared corporate services and other methods of 'collaborating for efficiency' as part of a wider research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust.  The premise for this work is that governments face dilemmas and trade-offs in designing and managing public organisations, and often struggle to find 'middle-way' solutions. The research asks whether a combination of new information technologies and gradual cultural change can help deliver such organisational compromises.

Read more about the policy memo