Spending Review 2015

Following the launch of Spending Review 2015, the Government is asking public sector workers to provide ideas on how things could be done better or more efficiently. This week the Chancellor and Chief Secretary have been promoting a ‘Public Sector Efficiency Challenge’. In an open letter, the Government calls upon public sector workers to identify savings in government departments. The letter reads: You do an incredible job, day in, day out…You know better than most where we can take the next steps. You know first-hand where things are working well on the frontline of public services, but also where the waste is and where we can provide better services for less money. You know where we can go further to reform our public services and where we can devolve more power so that local people have more control and local leaders are more accountable’.  The Treasury and Cabinet Office have created an online survey – with responses requested by 4 September. A similar exercise in 2010 led to the reduction in the need for multiple Criminal Records Bureau checks by making greater use of electronic access for employers and stopping the distribution of National Insurance numbers to people with a plastic card. In June 2015 the Clockoff Survey received 3,700 responses from people in jobs ranging from social work to police and probation and from social housing to the NHS and charities. The picture that emerges is one where staff are already working long hours with few breaks – 93% of respondents were stressed at work either some or all of the time; and on average respondents put in an extra seven hours a week. With the Treasury’s/Cabinet Office’s survey, it will be interesting to see if/how the public sector can continue to ‘do more with less’.