Share and sharealike

摘要

There was a time in local government when you knew a council was in trouble when it had to call on neighbouring authorities for help. The practice started when some of the bosses running 'excellent' councils were called in by the Government to bail out failing counterparts. But now, things have changed. It is not necessarily problems which have made councils keen to share an executive in the top job. As the need for greater efficiency savings bites, the chance to cut ever-growing executive salaries has been just one of the reasons the practice is on the up. A recent IDeA report, based on interviews with those chief executives who have held two posts, found local authorities were willing to share their bosses for a number of reasons. The most common were: 1. to turn around a failing authority. 2. to cover the sudden loss of a chief executive through illness or dispute. 3. to explore closer working arrangements and shared services. Although in the first instance, the first two reasons were most common, there has been a recent increase in shared chief executives.