Civil servants have been questioning the way they work with one another as part of an online debate on cross-government working.

A blog by cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell on the Civil Service Live website kick-started the debate, which has now seen thousands of visitors.

Suggesting that pooled budgets could help deliver cross-cutting issues, his blog has led to a much wider debate covering topics such as the interoperability - or lack of it - in departmental HR and IT systems, and the civil service culture more generally.

Officials from across the civil service and wider public sector have identified a number of existing examples of pooled budgets: they've been used to tackle homelessness in Canada, fund regeneration in Wrexham, support elderly people in local authority areas, and the Olympics.

A number of commentators have pointed out that funding arrangements are only part of the solution, with some pointing out that there are barriers to departmental working such as IT systems that don’t work together, and a slow pace of change within the civil service.

The conversation has also covered the fact that departmental divisions mean nothing to the users of public services, and participants have discussed how a much more fluid government structure might be a better reflection of the way people use services.

Join the network and the debate at Civil Service Live