Improving corporate functions using shared services

This report, based on a National Audit Office (NAO) review, details the NHS Shared Business Service (NHS SBS), as well as the Prison Service Shared Service, and argues that it is on course to deliver savings, demonstrating that it is more efficient than the arrangements it replaced. However the NHS SBS is not currently performing to levels of efficiency achieved in leading practice private sector organisations. The report argues that central government was initially slow to adopt shared services, and while the momentum has picked up, it is not clear that the shared services initiative is yet on a scale sufficient to deliver the level of savings possible.
(NAO - press release)