Findings of a report launched today by the MCA illustrate how the public sector can learn lessons from the private sector's use of consultancy.
According to the latest MCA report Responding to austerity: How Britain’s public and private sectors used consulting in 2010 both the private and public sector reduced their total spending on management consultancy services in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Private sector organisations used consultants’ expertise during their recession to create efficiencies while restructuring their businesses and paving their way to a sustainable future. By stark contrast, public sector organisations focussed on short term gains by cutting down on those consultancy services that could help deliver long term savings and increase productivity.
Commenting on the findings Alan Leaman, Chief Executive of the MCA, said:
“Looking at the findings of our report it is difficult to avoid one conclusion: ministers and officials have fixed on the wrong target. Their short-term desire to be able to say that they have reduced spending on consultants has taken priority over the larger and more important job of delivering the large-scale changes that are needed to cuts costs in the long-term and improve public services.
What we need is a radical change in the way Government buys and uses consultancy. Their priority should be to deliver the outcomes that the public wants – lower costs and improved services. This will require a major push to increase public sector productivity. In many cases it will also make clear sense to use the skills and knowledge that management consultancies provide.”
-ENDS-
For more information, please contact:
MCA PR and Communications Officer
Konstantinos Makrygiannis
Tel: 020 7321 3993
Email: Konstantinos.makrygiannis@mca.org.uk