Local authorities to take part in non-binding collaboration agreement
West Berkshire Council and Oxfordshire County Council are planning to share various IT developments and experience under a new digital collaboration agreement.
A blogpost by the digital services team of West Berkshire indicates that the agreement falls well short of a shared service; but says it is a non-binding collaborative agreement on which they will meet every other month and share elements of their work at the discretion of each team.
This is likely to include sharing code and other developments for common platforms and systems, where there is no impact on intellectual property rights or other legal restrictions.
The two councils will also share advice, and support each other in demonstrating developments they have delivered.
“We're hoping it will save both councils time and money, whilst offering support to our colleagues who are transforming services for their citizens,” the blog says.
It also cites the influence of LocalGov Digital, the network for digital practitioners in local government, of which Phil Rumens, digital services manager at West Berkshire, is chair.
Image: Berdea through Wikimedia, Creative Commons, Attribution Share-Alike 3.0
