Southwark Council has formally notified its intention to exit the shared IT service partnership with Brent and Lewisham by March 2028. The decision is linked to a wider recommissioning exercise aimed at bringing together IT, Digital, and Resident Experience into a single combined function and to consolidate and reduce spend.
The announcement was made at the Brent, Lewisham and Southwark IT Committee meeting on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Southwark Council issued its formal notice on January 27, 2026, with a target completion date of March 31, 2028.
A dedicated transition manager has been appointed by Southwark to coordinate the exit, and the Shared Technology Service (STS) is also looking to appoint one. Joint planning sessions are scheduled to develop a detailed plan covering scope, dependencies, resourcing, and stakeholder engagement. The exit programme will be structured around three workstreams: People, Contracts & Commercial, and Operations.
The impact on employees currently working within the shared IT service is being considered as part of the 'People' workstream, which includes workforce planning, TUPE considerations, and staff engagement.
While Southwark's exit may affect some procurement benefits, the meeting summary suggests there may still be opportunities for economies of scale through joint procurement.
Fabio Negro highlighted that at times It may We get a lot Of savings From Procuring together So we get The economies of scale And And so forth.
Discussions are ongoing regarding the procurement pipeline, where Southwark may choose to reprocure services independently or continue joint procurement with Brent and Lewisham to achieve economies of scale.
Cybersecurity remains a high priority during the transition. The STS has strengthened its cyber security posture by implementing a formal third-party supplier assurance framework, introducing Risk Ledger for continuous monitoring, and embedding robust access, audit, and incident response controls across all supplier engagements. This focus aims to maintain the data security and integrity of the shared IT systems.
More details on the shared IT committee meeting can be found in the Public reports pack 17th March 2026.
