There are many different estimates on the savings that could be made by the Government if it brought its total expenditure on Finance and Human Resources down to that of best-in-class organisations. Confirming a figure which is universally agreed is a difficult challenge - but all analysts agree that the savings venture into the billions. Think of how many more hospitals, teachers and police could be funded with that sort of money.

But the public sector won’t achieve best-in-class status with marginal or incremental change. What’s needed is a giant leap forward – a large scale, transformation project that shakes up the way people work and shows them a better way. Enter shared services. 

In our experience, many public sector organisations initially view shared services with scepticism. They have concerns about a large number of perceived barriers, which range from a lack of trust to workforce issues to trying to ‘sell in’ such a large-scale project. 

Deloitte has been helping organisations to tackle the most challenging aspects of shared services for years. If we look at those that have successfully achieved transformational change, we see there are some universal themes emerging and the public sector can learn from the people who got it right.  It is time for the public sector to be bold. 

Register to download our report 'Achieving success with shared services in the public sector'.