Saving councils funds & improving productivity through collaboration
SHOROC is working with our four partner councils to implement a Cost Saving and Efficiency Program to help make our councils, and in turn our region, even stronger into the future.
Already an estimated $2.13 million in direct cost and productivity savings for councils has been realised in two years, the latest quarterly report in September 2012 shows. This is a fantastic result and council staff have worked together well to achieve these results for their councils. More detail on these savings can be found here (see November 2012 Board minutes – page 16).
A key focus to date has been regional purchasing, with 10 regional tenders completed including: Road construction services, Line marking and Signposting; Cash Collection; Stationary; Hygienic services; Hardware; Ready Mix Concrete and Traffic signage. In addition, collaborative projects such as a Regional Waste Stream Composition Audit were conducted and 7 projects established focusing on areas such as records digitization and storage, HR recruitment and training and compliance and certification.
The projects being delivered under the program were identified after a strategic analysis of council operations by senior staff from all four councils. They were chosen by analysing where and how additional efficiency or cost savings can be achieved without impacting on council independence and the services being provided within our local communities.
Three areas being implemented under the Program so far include:
- Strategic Approaches to Regional and Joint Tendering
- Collaboration projects for cost savings and efficiencies
- SHOROC’s Innovation and Cost Savings Challenge
This Program was developed because many councils across Australia are under increasing financial pressure. Increasing capital, operational and maintenance costs are outweighing revenue, meaning councils must begin to seek better, smarter ways to run their operations.
In its 2007 guidance paper on collaboration and partnerships between council’s the NSW Department of Local Government recognised the increasing demands and complex community expectations facing local councils. The paper emphasised the importance of councils working to find new ways to plan and deliver services as a way of being sustainable and being able to flourish with strategic collaboration being a key in responding to this challenge.
Research widely shows that resource sharing and collaboration are not new concepts to local government in fact the SHOROC councils have some excellent examples of how working together produces results, such as the formation of Kimrbiki Environmental Enterprises, our e-waste ban and our regional strategy Shaping Our Future.
Working together also delivers results to the bottom line. Through collaboration we can reduce costs by avoiding duplication, saving through economies of scale and cost efficiencies or delivering projects that might otherwise be too big or too small for a single council to deliver.
With great progress to date the four-year goal is for the program to deliver over $5 million in savings to councils. Stay tuned as we look forward to providing you with regular updates on the progress and results from the SHOROC Cost Saving and Efficiency Program.
Read related posts including media stories on Council Efficiency & Cost Savings
- 2012 Annual Report:: Value & results for councils through partnership
- $1.6 Million in Cost Savings for Councils Through SHOROC
- Regional Waste Audit Supports Planned Common Waste Collection System
- Big Results in 2010/11 Annual Report
- SHOROC’s Newly Elected President Keen to Build on Strong Results of Past Year
- New Common Waste Collection System Planned For SHOROC Region
- Council Cost Savings & Productivity
- Hundreds of Thousands Saved Through Strong Council Partnership
- Strategic Approaches to Regional Joint Tendering
- SHOROC’s Innovation and Cost Savings Challenge
