One of the most trenchant criticisms of the Government’s proposed public sector spending cuts is that, if they really are as swingeing as the hints suggest, front line services are bound to be adversely affected. A new report by management consultancy firm Knox D’Arcy, however, casts doubt on this assertion – and helps pave the way for a large government axe to fall on up to half a million existing staff posts, a good proportion of which are contract jobs.
The new research claims that council departments could do the same amount of work with 500,000 fewer staff nationwide if they were run like private companies. This rather staggering assertion is based on a comparison of productivity rates between private and public sector employees: junior employees working for local councils are productive for 32 per cent of the time on average, whereas equivalent private sector employees are productive for 44 per cent of the time.
Paul Weekes, principal consultant at Knox D’Arcy, insisted that if local government could match private sector staff utilisation levels, productivity would rise by a third and costs could be cut substantially without harming public services.
The full scale of the government’s cost reductions will become evident in October, when the Chancellor makes a detailed announcement. If you’re an IT contractor working for a government department, it might be wise to be afraid – be very afraid. With a large fiscal guillotine being prepared behind the scenes, you’re likely to need to take your skills elsewhere in the near future. Happily, revolutionary new technology being implemented in the financial services sector, which we reported recently reported on here (see “As one big door closes on IT Contractors, another one opens” from 19th August), could provide a lifeboat for many tech-refugees from the public sector.
