Bridging the accountability gap - Audit Commission

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Governing partnerships | Partnerships and value for money – the costs and benefits
Box B
Integrated back-office functions
The services use a BT Call Line Concentrator to prevent 999 calls getting lost in the
infrastructure. Whereas each service previously had three such call lines, each costing
approximately £100,000, there are now four in total for all three services.
A common Geographic Information System.
Joint use of buildings. Ambulances now operate out of fire stations, which has led to
reduction in building maintenance costs of £750,000, against the additional cost of
£350,000 involved in moving vehicles around.
Common procurement of vehicles, which are now jointly managed from one site and
with new focus on outcomes (for example, reliability).
Source: Audit Commission
What benefits do partnerships bring
67 There are no performance indicators to measure the performance of partnerships directly.
The Audit Commission’s quality of life indicators are the best attempt yet, and are based
on published and widely available data. However, their use is at local authorities’
discretion.
68 We recognise that it is only possible to measure the outcomes of some initiatives on a
long-term timescale; for example, better outcomes for children and young people. While
short-term benefits may dissipate, investment in prevention may pay off later in a young
person’s life; but it is difficult to track this or to ascribe the difference to any one particular
intervention many years previously.
‘I suppose what I’m getting at is that if you wanted to look at how good a
partnership is, perhaps you can’t go right to the outcome. Perhaps there’s as much
value in looking at have things changed as a result of partnership (and) what you
have done differently as a result . . . What has changed in either your priorities (or)
how many decisions have you made that have hurt to accommodate the needs of
the partnership and what working practices have changed’
Chief executive, metropolitan borough council