The first areas to receive support from the newly formed Public Service Transformation Network have been announced by Communities and Local Government.

The Network will provide dedicated support to help the selected areas develop practical reforms and deliver better services for less at a local level. The Network will spread the opportunities created by Community Budgets around the country, leading to more joint working and shared services.

The Network will be made up of people with expertise from across the public and private sectors to provide direct links between government departments, councils and local places. Departments represented in the Network include HM Treasury, Cabinet Office, Department for Communities and Local Government, Department of Health, Ministry of Justice, Home Office, Department for Work and Pensions, councils and local agencies, as well as employees from the NHS and other public bodies.

The areas that will receive support are: Bath and North East Somerset, Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset, Hampshire, Lewisham, Lambeth and Southwark, Sheffield, Surrey, Swindon, the West London Alliance (Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon and Hounslow) and Wirral.

Announcements about additional places receiving intensive support will be made later as part of a rolling programme of engagement and support for local public services in England.

This funding is part of the department’s Spending Round package of incentives that will help places across the county to transform local services. That includes funding for social care integration; an expanded Troubled Families programme; better integration between community safety and crime, and across the emergency services; as well as £100 million transformation fund for local government, and national action to improve data sharing.