Southwest One: A Case Study in Innovative Collaboration

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Necessity is the mother of invention. Faced with rising costs, an economic downturn, aging technology infrastructures, and growing gaps between service expectation and affordable delivery, three public-sector entities in the UK took an unprecedented step toward the governance model of the future: innovative collaboration. Acting alone, none of the three entities - Somerset County Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council, and Avon and Somerset Police - could afford or produce the results they desired within their existing capacities. So they joined forces with IBM to leverage their respective resources and strengths toward a common purpose. The result is Southwest One, a 10-year joint venture to transform both frontline services and back-office operations of the three entities. Transformation goals include improved service delivery, greater efficiencies, lower costs and access to advanced technologies.

The Southwest One board of directors consists of members from the two councils, the police and IBM. Working with the board, an independent chairperson is responsible for implementing the overall strategy of the project and for the integrity of the private-public partnership.

Avon and Somerset Police is the first police force in the UK to use an outside service for back-office functions. And it's the first time three UK public-sector entities are collaborating with a private company in this manner.

Other organizations can participate too, sharing in the benefits alongside the four founding partners. Southwest One has created a framework agreement that allows other agencies to join in the shared services without having to independently solicit separate tenders.

Somerset County is in the southwest of the UK. The county government, known as Somerset County Council, serves more than 500,000 residents. Taunton Deane Borough Council governs one of five districts within Somerset County, serving more than 107,000 residents. Avon and Somerset Police covers the cities of Bristol, Bath and Wells as well as the more rural areas of Somerset County and the South Gloucestershire district.

After months of negotiations, Southwest One began providing services for the two councils in November 2007. The police department later joined as the fourth partner, with service delivery commencing in June 2008.

More than 1,400 employees from the three authorities work at Southwest One. All are still employees of the councils or the police, but they're now managed by Southwest One. There are 660 workers from the county council, 164 from the borough council and 650 from the police department.

Powerful Collaboration
The core of the joint venture - and the reason it's so effective - is that joining forces provides better service for the public at lower cost to government. "Where it's coming together is the way we can all benefit from the economies of scale," said Roger Kershaw, corporate director of resources for Somerset County Council. "Together we can afford a better quality and higher-impact service than we could all afford individually."

Although it's early in the life of the 10-year contract, the shared services business model has already shown strong results. The councils and police are already seeing greater productivity and lower costs. Southwest One has also won the praise of auditors. In presentations made by the Audit Commission and accounting firm Grant Thornton, the Somerset County Council was commended for arrangements established to secure value for money with the partnership, the robustness of their client arrangements and the thoroughness of the procurement process.