Finance department backing needed for public sector mutuals
0Finance departments must back public sector mutuals in order to see benefits from them, according to the Government’s Mutual Support Programme partner, PA Consulting.
The Cabinet Office is dispensing amounts from the £10m programme, announced in December, to help local government services spin themselves out into mutuals. According to the government mutuals can save money by creating efficiencies. Because of their high level of employee participation and responsibility they have lower staff turnover and absenteeism and higher productivity and innovation than non employee owned businesses.
“The Government is giving out a broad range of sums from the fund,” said PA’s head of local government Colm Reilly. “It comes down to what the Cabinet Office thinks the organisation needs. We run the triage service as to which bodies fit the set of criteria.”
Finance departments have a vested interest in terms of making sure the capital is there to help groups who want to become mutuals, said PA’s local government expert Mark Williams: “There needs to be a robust business case there because unless you are going to build capability and capacity you’re not going to see the benefit.”
Councils are increasingly looking at different service delivery options, said London Borough of Redbridge CFO Geoff Pearce. “I’m not sure mutuals are a complete solution but they are part of the armoury councils have,” said Pearce. They are limited in that they are a better fit for certain areas of local government than others. “You’re going to see that employee passion and energy in care or arts or sports,” he added, “but it’s going to be a lot less applicable to something like collecting council tax.”
Eight more public services mutuals from the Mutuals Pathfinder Programme are set to launch this year.
