Tim Knox has a useful CAPX piece on public sector productivity.
Public sector productivity is dragging the UK down – is Jeremy Hunt the man to fix it?
At the Centre for Policy Studies’ Margaret Thatcher Conference, the Chancellor announced the creation of a new productivity task force, to be led by his deputy John Glen to review the performance of government departments and the NHS, amid fears the public sector is failing to keep pace with the private sector...
The worry is that Jeremy Hunt was too polite to set out the scale of the challenge, of how bad public sector productivity actually is. The figures speak for themselves: since 1991, productivity in the private sector has increased by over 26% while ‘Government Services’ have seen productivity fall by 16%.
The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that worthwhile political oversight isn't happening and our main political parties are not a solution.
At the Centre for Policy Studies’ Margaret Thatcher Conference, the Chancellor announced the creation of a new productivity task force, to be led by his deputy John Glen to review the performance of government departments and the NHS, amid fears the public sector is failing to keep pace with the private sector...
The worry is that Jeremy Hunt was too polite to set out the scale of the challenge, of how bad public sector productivity actually is. The figures speak for themselves: since 1991, productivity in the private sector has increased by over 26% while ‘Government Services’ have seen productivity fall by 16%.
The whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that worthwhile political oversight isn't happening and our main political parties are not a solution.
As it stands, ministers – nearly always with limited management experience – have the impossible task of managing organisations larger than most FTSE 100 corporations. And they stay in office for less than a couple of years. Consider, for example, the Department for Education: it is one of the UK’s largest employers with nearly 11,000 administrative staff and more than 200 roles with the title of Director General, Director, or Deputy Director. But since 2010, it has had, on average, a new secretary of state every 17 months. How can they possibly get anything done?
In addition, central government should do far less. Power, accountability and finance should all be pushed down to the lowest possible level so that the citizen can know who to blame when anything goes wrong.
The Chancellor is right to appoint the taskforce to investigate the issue of failing public sector productivity. The question is whether he and his team will be bold enough to challenge all the vested interests which will defend the status quo. We can only wait and see whether his plans for reform match the size of the problem.
In addition, central government should do far less. Power, accountability and finance should all be pushed down to the lowest possible level so that the citizen can know who to blame when anything goes wrong.
The Chancellor is right to appoint the taskforce to investigate the issue of failing public sector productivity. The question is whether he and his team will be bold enough to challenge all the vested interests which will defend the status quo. We can only wait and see whether his plans for reform match the size of the problem.
6 comments:
And the answer is 'No'.
You might stand a chance of achieving something if a special Minister for Productivity was appointed on the understanding that they would be in post for the duration of the Government.
But even then they would be up against vested interests and Spanish Practices fielding enormous resistance to change. Political oversight is happening, but it is in the hands of the clerisy, not elected MPs. Just as 'publish or die' has driven activism into academia, 'don't rock the boat' has driven surly resistance to change into the Civil and Public Service.
Am I alone in wearying of the announcement of yet another "task force"?
One basic problem is that there are so many people involved in the public sector, and they have been so successful in subverting and creating official narratives that there is little we can do about it. Even making those productivity figures public to win the debate would lead to a hysterical outburst and the ending of political careers.
DJ - I agree, a Minister for Productivity would face enormous resistance to change even if he or she were to be in post for the duration of the Government. Somehow the power of senior officials has to be more responsive to national interests.
dearieme - no you are not alone - it's a dreary, tedious tactic.
Sam - yes, sheer size seems to be a major issue. It isn't easy to see how it could ever be corrected with the Labour party as it is.
Obvious, innit. Create a new Department to interface with all the other Departments, holding meetings to discuss an approach to deciding how to implement a strategy for future reduction of staff numbers.
Each existing Department will divert existing staff to become a suitably diverse Working Committee which will interface with every other Department and the New Department.
In a couple of election cycles a Report will be issued for consideration.
Or they could just revert to having a "lockdown" and thus see who is really useful.
Doonhamer - one attraction of your idea is that a new Department set up to interface with all the other Departments will also need another offshoot Department to interface with itself, to validate the interfacing. This in turn will need an Interface Validation Department to interface with all interfacing departments...
Post a Comment