By David Bicknell
An improvement and efficiency local authority-owned mutual has been set up to help England’s councils save money.
Created from the South East region’s improvement and efficiency partnership, iESE is now setting out to help councils and other local public services that are struggling to cope with the public sector financial squeeze.
Although some services will be free, the bulk of the new company’s income will be generated by fees charged to councils levied from efficiency savings. Surpluses generated will be reinvested back into iESE ‘to further improve the sector’.
Neil Blake, who is Aylesbury Vale District Council’s representative on iESE’s board, said: “Councils can no longer rely on existing ways to meet their tough savings targets. That’s why we were the first council to sign up to iESE Limited’s shared procurement service as a fresh way of helping to deliver our savings. Only by exploring new avenues like those offered by iESE Limited will councils achieve the scale of savings required.”
iESE, which works with local authorities and other public sector organisations in the South East and beyond, believes it has built knowledge and expertise in complex service areas such as Waste and Resource Management; Social Care; Procurement and Construction. It argues that rather than creating unnecessary additional bureaucracy or process, it provides a fresh perspective to challenges to release savings and improve services for citizens.
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