Herefordshire looks at shared legal service in NHS tie-up

Legal services are likely to be among the first set of corporate functions to come under consideration for sharing in a proposed joint venture between Herefordshire Council, NHS Herefordshire and Hereford Hospitals Trust, it emerged this week.

The council’s cabinet agreed proposals to create the new joint venture last Thursday, although the arrangements still have to be approved by the boards of the PCT and the county hospital.

Other corporate functions under consideration for the public services partnership in the first round include human resources, payroll and expense, finance and purchasing.

Herefordshire Council and NHS Herefordshire already share a number of central services, including IT, communications and emergency planning. “Other areas in scope to share across the three bodies include internal audit, transport and estates,” the council said in a statement.

The proposals originally looked at three models:

• A joint venture set up by the three organisations (now the recommended way forward)
• Outsourcing many corporate functions to the private sector, or
• One of the organisations providing the services for the other two.

The local authority said the move, which could save up to an estimated £5.4m a year, “is prompted by the need to protect services to the most vulnerable members of the community, including Herefordshire’s ageing population, disabled people and children looked after by the local authority”.

It added: “Local government and health will also focus on how together they can manage contracts, purchase goods and services and achieve further economies of scale across the three organisations.”