Given the current additional pressures on local authorities to make savings, we have been engaged by a number of local authority clients in relation to shared services. Authorities that are keen to engage in shared services have instructed us to prepare outline business cases for them. These include an assessment of the various options from loose collaboration to a fully merged and co-located service, analysis of the cost base of the authorities’ current service, both the “cashable” and qualitative benefits that might arise from a shared service, the potential risks and a range of other issues including those relating to structure and governance.