News
£7.2bn spend could be halved
Published on 7th July 2010
An article in todays Guardian newspaper claims that the £7.2 Billion spend in the public sector on finance, human resources and procurement could be halved if every agency was as efficient as the top 25%
An article by the Guardians public services editor David Brindle today states that the cutting of back office costs through sharing overheads is often mooted but very seldom realized. The Labour government sought to shame poor performers into taking action but the coalition may well take a more directive approach to this
The public sector has long discussed the idea of pooling all public resources and rethinking how they may be used to better effect. Under the Labour government this was known as 'Total Place' but the new government refers to it as "placed based budgeting"
This parallels with the work carried out by the commission on 2020 public services are clear. The commission is an inquiry into how public services need to adapt over the next decade to ensure the reconnection of funding to the purposes of public services.
As public services come to terms with the age of austerity, there will be pain and controversy at every turn
Guardian 7/7/10