ERSS – Eastern Region Shared Services

What is Eastern Region Shared Services (ERSS)? 

Local government across Australia is increasingly exploring shared services.  

For local government, shared services involve two or more councils collaborating to deliver external services (like libraries or waste collection) or back-office functions (like HR, payroll, or IT) to achieve cost savings, improve efficiency, and enhance service quality.  

For the Eastern Region, shared services include: 

• shared delivery of function(s) by a separate entity  

• shared delivery of functions by one council on behalf of other ERG councils 

• joint procurement 

• other collaborative initiatives 

ERG Member Councils have entered an Eastern Region Shared Services Memorandum of Understanding (ERSS MOU) to progress shared services, consistent with the ERG Strategic Plan 2025-29. The MOU is a 4-year agreement with implementation commencing in 2026. Further information about the MOU is available in the ERSS Playbook, which includes tools and templates to support ERSS delivery.  

The initial focus of the ERG is on developing this implementation plan and Playbook to enable consistent exploration of candidate projects (opportunities) identified in the Schedule to the ERSS MOU.  

We hope this leads to a number of shared initiatives that will serve as pilots to enable processes and Playbook tools to be further refined. 

Why pursue shared services and what do we hope to achieve? 

Shared services present opportunities to maintain and improve council services in a rate-capped, fiscally constrained environment. The benefits for ERG councils in combining resources are: 

• greater efficiency through economies of scale 

• reduced cost by removing duplication and lower operating costs 

• higher quality, more consistent service delivery 

• access to specialised skills and shared expertise 

• improved resilience to better manage challenges 

• increased innovation in service delivery 

• creates career opportunities fostering specialised skills and career paths. 

Section 9 of the Local Government Act 2020 provides overarching principles that include the desire for Councils to collaborate with other Councils, governments and statutory bodies. 

There are known (and potentially unknown) challenges to implementing shared services including data limitations, multiple technology platforms, potential resistance to change and service standard differences which the ERG considers to generally be surmountable with potential benefits exceeding the risk. 

Active engagement by CEOs and Directors will assist to build the broad based support to identify and realise innovative opportunities across the region.