OXFORDSHIRE County Council is looking at moving some of its back office education and customer services jobs over to its Hampshire counterparts to save money.

The council is exploring a partnership with Hampshire to provide the services from the two departments, which employ about 150 people.

County council leader Ian Hudspeth says the move could save money and mean fewer jobs are lost than if the service was outsourced to a private company.

Officers at the authority are recommending that a business case is put together for forming a partnership with Hampshire County Council to provide various services within customer services and its education department. The number of job losses is not known.

Mr Hudspeth said: “Obviously it is reducing costs by making savings in the back office, and by working with Hampshire we will be working with another public authority, which has got to be good news.

“We have got to make sure we are sharing services in the right areas and that you don’t become so big that you lose that local connection.”

Philip Wilde, of Oxfordshire Unison, said: “We will always work with the council to minimise job losses wherever possible and anything that can save jobs is a good thing. Anything that makes services more efficient and is beneficial to our members is a good thing.”

Hampshire has proposed a transfer of Oxfordshire staff in April 2015 for a fully operational service by that June.

Hampshire County Council would not comment.