Southwest One Joint Venture Partnership
14 April 2008
Southwest One is a joint venture between Somerset County Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council, Avon & Somerset Police Authority and IBM. Over the past two years Somerset County Council and Taunton Deane Borough Council have been embarking on a transformation initiative called ISiS (Improving Services in Somerset). The goal is to improve services in the area by bringing increased efficiencies through sharing the procurement of corporate support services.
Avon and Somerset are the first Police Authority to participate in a major joint venture with local authorities in this way. The Burges Salmon team included partner John Smith, Matt Ramus, Al Goodwin, Ben Wootton, Caroline Swale, Dan Bower, partner Adrian Martin on TUPE issues, partner John Houlden and Gustaf Duhs on procurement and virus issues and Stephanie Pritchett on IP and Data Protection issues.
Commercial Partner John Smith commented, "We are delighted to be involved with long-standing client Avon and Somerset Police Authority on this innovative and ground breaking transaction which we hope will improve services for the Police. We see many more shared services projects of this type at Local and Central Government level being carried out in the near future."
Shared services programmes are a major priority within Central and Local Government at the moment in order to bring cost savings and improvements in core services, provide more joined up government and to enable more investment in front line services.
In a deal worth up to £185m over 10 years, the Police Authority is joining with its local partners Somerset County Council and Taunton Deane Borough Council to share in the delivery of corporate support services by Southwest One. The innovative transaction will not only see current services provided at reduced cost but these services will also be greatly enhanced and expanded.