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 $1,703,241 in direct cost and productivity savings for councils has been realised since the program began in May 2010, the latest quarterly report in March 2012 shows. This is a fantastic result and shows the collaboration through SHOROC is getting results. More detail on these savings as reported in December 2011 can be found here.
A key focus in 2010/11 was regional purchasing, with 9 regional tenders comepleted including: 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 focussing 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
We developed the Program 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.
We’ve already exceeded the four-year goal to deliver over $1 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.
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