Four councils in Greater Manchester have joined forces to implement an innovative new procurement scheme that increases buying power and minimises costs, in what they claim to be the first partnership of its kind in the public sector.

Stockport, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham councils have entered into a joint legal services partnership and selected north-west law firm Cobbetts as their preferred supplier.


The councils have negotiated a special rate with the firm, which will be the sole legal provider for work that cannot be done in-house, for all fields in which the firm has expertise. It will handle major project work, and provide emergency cover and spare capacity in other areas.


The project was spearheaded by Paul Stonehouse, director of legal and democratic services at Stockport Council, who led the tendering process. Some 28 law firms submitted partnership proposals.


Mr Stonehouse said: 'The scale and diversity of work for local authority lawyers is such that it is no longer sustainable for a relatively small in-house legal department to try and do everything itself. We will be developing the partnership arrangement in the future in order to maximise our mutual capacity and expertise.'


Cobbetts partner Ross Griffiths said: 'The councils were able to procure in parallel, so they only had to conduct one set of interviews. They will come to us first for things that they do not have the capacity to deal with in-house because of volume or skills, for example large IT contracts. But we will not supply work in areas outside our expertise, such as childcare.'


He added: 'This new partnership is the first of its kind in the UK and united the common legal interests of the four councils to best effect.'