Date:
7 December 2009
Description:
The Good, the Bad and the Electioneers
7/12/09
Today’s Smarter Government document is a mixture of good ideas, bad ideas and electioneering.
It is good that ministers are focused on the opportunity to pursue some radical changes in how government is organised. If anything, we should be seeing more of this – the digital age, for instance, should introduce massive changes to how the public sector does its business and how citizens respond.
One of the bad ideas relates to consultancy, with the announcement that ‘Whitehall’ spending will be cut in half. I say this, not because the MCA wants to or will defend every penny of spending on consultancy. It is because a wiser government would see that consultancy is going to be crucial over the next few years in helping government to achieve all the spending and organisational objectives that are set out in the rest of this plan. Private sector leaders understand this point very well.
The 50% cut has all the hallmarks of an arbitrary and ‘make-up-the-numbers’ approach to policy-making. If it wasn’t, there would surely be more analysis and explanation – starting with an open assessment of the money involved and the likely impact on public services.