Leaner and fitter - boosting productivity in public services
18 March 2010
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Our public services face a real challenge - becoming more productive. This new report sets out ten key lessons showing how they can achieve more with less and still raise standards, drawing on the successes achieved by private providers of public services.
As private sector productivity has improved, so in the public sector it has declined - on average by 0.3% a year. The extra resources provided over the last decade haven't resulted in the expected improvements in service quality. Yet if public service productivity had increased by just one per cent a year over the decade to 2007, spending on public services could have been £31bn lower without any loss of quality. Clearly, getting more from our public services is essential to tackling the deficit in public finances and restoring confidence in the UK economy
Leaner and fitter identifies what public services need to be doing to operate more productively and improve quality. Its recommendations include:
- A readiness to rethink processes and jobs
- Measure performance on achievement of outcomes, not targets
- Recognising that small changes can make a big difference
- Stopping the ring-fencing of budgets
To be effective, any steps in improving productivity must go hand in hand with fair and transparent markets, more innovative ways of designing services and more effective government procurement.
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