The commentary in recent weeks on securing significant cost savings to help fill the reported £20bn in the public finances has brought familiar rhetoric around cutting back on the use of consultants.
As a humble contractor supporting public sector organisations find short- term leadership capability and specialist skills needed to improve performance or deliver complex transformational change, I wonder at the feasibility of achieving this purely as a cost-saving measure.
Previous attempts to wean public sector organisations off consultants have met with mixed results, as the fact remains that the specialist skills and leadership capacity needed to deliver complex transformational change in the public sector is in short supply. Equally, an increasing number of local authorities we work with would not be able to function without the introduction of short-term specialist skills and experience, particularly in areas such as social care and housing. This is exacerbated by the fact many in local government leadership positions are coming close to retirement, and this demographic timebomb will not be solved quickly. You can't then suddenly switch off access to short-term resourcing solutions in these areas without serious consequences.
Thankfully, the rhetoric this time is not one of austerity, but trying to find a measured approach. The chancellor has also confirmed measures such as lifting civil service headcount cap, to help departments make value-for-money decisions about how to resource work and introducing much-needed pay rises in education and health. All of this will help skills and resourcing pressures in the longer-term.
Hopefully, we will have a mature debate going forward about the use of interim managers and consultants, based on the value they bring, rather than just the cost. The danger otherwise is a yawning gap will appear in the labour market that could bring a greater cost, in terms of its impact on the quality of service delivery and efficiency.
Jason Wheatley is a partner at Faerfield
