Brentwood Borough Council has been working to bring together local, county and community organisations to declare their commitment to achieving greater success and joined up working by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which establishes that the participants are committed in principle to joint working arrangements.

This partnership will seek to deliver Brentwood’s first ‘Hub’, a combined location for the Police, Brentwood Borough Council, Citizens Advice, Council for Voluntary Services, JobCentre Plus and the East of England Ambulance Service.

The initial work will aim to produce a detailed business plan in 2016 that will identify opportunities for collaborative working from one site, which will deliver efficiencies in operations and facilities, and provide customers with joined up thinking and better service delivery.

Imagine a location where you can access local services, go online, search for employment or get information and advice on a range of services. The hub has the potential to improve the delivery of services and reduce the cost of delivering those services. This will be a breakthrough piece of work that will identify and then deliver in collaboration with partners a location, a real structure and modernise local services for the future.

The Leader of Brentwood Borough Council, Councillor Louise McKinlay, said: “There are numerous benefits to these proposals – the most important being all the services would be in one place and easier for residents to access. Such a move would also help to reduce running costs and overheads for each public sector body, meaning funding can be freed up for core services that matter to our residents. We are pleased to be in a position to bring partner organisations together to explore the exciting opportunities ahead”.

Nick Alston, Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex, added: “The creation of shared community hubs, located in accessible and central locations, will enable members of the public to have access to a range of local expertise under a single roof. Not only can public services be housed together under one roof but we can use that opportunity to deliver joined up responses that that the public rightly deserve and expect. I am delighted that Brentwood is helping lead the way in creating a shared community hub, and I hope this will develop into a model for local problem solving across Essex.”