Some of these innovations, ­including the (wholly public) arms-length bodies that are part of the “Glasgow family”, have rustled feathers in the public sector. Ironically, though, what is arguably the most radical departure of all has attracted less attention, not least because its areas of expertise -- IT and property services -- are relatively dry and barely impact directly on the public.

This is the 50:50 joint venture between Glasgow City Council (GCC) and Serco, a ­shadowy, all-encompassing global services provider dubbed “the ­largest company you’ve never heard of”. Largely below the radar, the joint venture, called Access, can already claim considerable achievements in rationalising and modernising the IT and property estate of Scotland’s biggest city.

Behind the studied blandness of its name, it has set itself targets that are fairly sensational. On course to shave £73 million from the council’s budget over 10 years, Access can also point to a kind of attitudinal revolution in local ­government administration, drawing on the best private-sector practice and wide expertise.

Its good progress to date owes much to the management style of Duncan Mackison, the former Royal Marine officer who joined Serco in 2005 and who heads Access. Mr Mackison, a Glasgow Academy graduate whose family roots are in Tullibody, is a formidably driven figure, with the brisk air of someone trained to operate effectively in jungles, bureaucratic and otherwise. He learned his leadership skills -- based on team emphasis and example-setting -- in postings as far afield as the Caribbean, Scandinavia, Africa, wartime Iraq and Northern Ireland. After nine years in the marines, he joined a graduate-entry trainee scheme at Proctor and Gamble, where his sales job saw him negotiating over mind-boggling volumes of product with supermarket giants.

“Aged 27, I went from briefing the Commander-in-Chief Fleet [the deputy head of the Royal Navy] on Friday to learning how to sell soap on Monday,” he says. “It was quite a contrast for me, but not an unhelpful adjustment.”

As he explains it, Access has already negotiated what sounds like the trickiest terrain when it comes to reinventing public service provision, sorting out employment status and terms and conditions. This is particularly delicate in a case like that of Access, where the joint venture has been established for a finite 10-year lifespan. Workers have had reasonable concerns about what might happen to them after that.

Access, however, has short-circuited the complications of transporting public-sector employment terms into the context of a profit-making business by its ­“secondment” model, which seems to satisfy all concerned -- ­including the public service union Unison. Although it remains cynical about the long-term cost savings and accountability of outsourcing council services, it reports no problems in industrial relations. The secondment model acted “like a comfort blanket”, as one union official puts it.

“Setting up Access, and Duncan’s leadership in particular, has transformed the service the council receives,” says GCC leader Steven Purcell. ­“Glasgow is showing that by being ­radical about delivering ­services you can deliver a better service for less taxpayers’ money.

“Duncan has an ability to inspire, and has instilled a feeling in the staff that they have a big opportunity; that they have a new purpose. The workforce are no longer just a council department that services other departments. That’s more than just a structural change: it’s been a big culture and leadership change.”

The Scottish Government, not necessarily a friend to private involvement in public-service provision, seems prepared to exempt Access from any ideological strictures. A spokesman said: “We are supportive of initiatives and collaborations which deliver best value for taxpayers’ money while maintaining quality local government services.”

The public-private divide is further blurred because two elected councillors (SNP and Labour) sit on Access’s board and Mr Mackison is a member of the council’s corporate management team, which is highly unusual for a private-sector employee.

Pragmatists everywhere must acknowledge that Access seems to be working out well for all concerned, and a visit to the council’s new datacentre -- a state-of-the-art facility staffed by well-motivated, well-managed teams -- suggests why the joint venture has become a magnet for best-practice-seeking local authorities throughout the world. As one senior staffer puts it: “Nobody leaves here unimpressed.”

Mr Mackison is equally proud. “We have hosted over a dozen visits from other public bodies in Scotland, including two police organisations and several local authorities, and had a visit from Glasgow City Council’s equivalent in Milan. There is also interest in this model in the US, where Serco is bidding for a similar partnership in Memphis.”

 

HE ROUNDLY defends the public-private model, which he says imposes useful disciplines by requiring the public sector to specify what it wants, to what standard and at what cost. It is an exercise, he says, that the public sector doesn’t always go through, and he believes that thinking about how things could be delivered differently ultimately helps the sector decide what it wants.

“In the past, the standards of ­service haven’t been measured closely and [assessments] tend to have been more subjective than objective,” he says. “I am the first to admit it if things don’t go as well as planned -- but there is a lot to be said for using this model, because the service must be high quality.

“One criticism made is that ­working with the private sector means the public sector loses accountability. But in fact the opposite is true: this model increases accountability because what we are doing is measurable. We are always happy to have a debate based on fact, and that’s all we ask for -- to have the debate from the basis of solid information.

“The fact we can offer a saving of £73m over 10 years comes from a combination of factors, but from the perspective of the public purse it is clear that the procurement process done in a competitive way delivers benefits.

“A lot of the savings we can make are supply-chain savings. Glasgow City Council is a large organisation: it has 12,000 desktop users. We can use economies of scale to drive a hard bargain.”

Access’s involvement amounts to about 70% in technologies and 30% in property, although Mr Mackison expects that balance to change, as property asset management has been highlighted as an area of focus. “The public sector owns a lot of properties, and [these] could be managed in a more efficient way. One of our initial programmes is called Tomorrow’s Office, a programme to take the one million square metres occupied by 4000 staff and reduce the space by 50%, by changing the physical office environment to a more open-plan arrangement and by reducing the need for electronic systems.” Access expects to save the council £4m within the next three years.

The joint venture must perform financially for Serco. They will not reveal figures, although Mr Mackison emphasises profits are capped and subject to “gainshare” with GCC. However, the true value of the collaboration may be as an example of what internationally acquired expertise can contribute to the day-to-day public-service culture of Scotland, all the more pertinent on the eve of what is expected to be an eye-watering and long-lasting reduction in public funding. Conceived in a less austere era, Access may be one of those new ideas that arrives at exactly the right time.