North Tyneside Council has ditched plans to go for shared services in favour of outsourcing in a bid to save 360 jobs that would otherwise be at risk.
The aim of the local authority’s four-year plan is to save £47 million and two preferred bidders have already been selected to pitch for its business.
Balfour Beatty was chosen as the preferred partner to provide HR, finance, procurement, revenues and benefits, IT and customer services, while Capita Symonds is the preferred bidder for providing technical expertise in property services, planning, engineering services, customer protection and environmental health.
Borough mayor, Linda Arkley, said: “The partnership options we have selected are by far the most advantageous for North Tyneside. They will enable the council to invest in services, safeguard employee jobs and deliver further growth and investment for the borough, as well as achieving the stringent efficient targets we have set.”
A shared services option was dropped because the Council believed it would not deliver the level of savings required. The outsourcing contracts would run for an initial ten years, with the possibility of five-year extensions if the partnerships continued to deliver value for money and improved performance.
