Gershon Predicts Deep Cuts will

Drive Public-Sector Collaboration

Government efficiency guru thinks bottom-up support for fresh approaches will grow as organisations strive to protect key services

UK public-sector organisations are likely to see a bottom-up momentum for truly radical changes to the way they procure and deliver services following this autumn’s spending review, leading Government advisor Sir Peter Gershon has predicted.

Sir Peter, who conducted the Government’s 2004-5 Efficiency Review and who now sits on the Cabinet Office Efficiency and Review Board, made his comments on Monday at the latest in Fujitsu’s series of ‘Partners in Government’ dinners in London, at which speakers and delegates explored the topic of public-sector collaboration and integration.

Sir Peter said the reality of 25% to 40% budget cuts would prompt managers and staff of affected organisations to push for totally fresh approaches rather than see services irrevocably damaged. “Previous efficiency initiatives have been driven top-down from Whitehall. I believe in the wake of these unprecedented cuts, there will be more bottom-up pressure to find ways to protect the delivery of key public services,” he said.

He also outlined the critical success factors for the kind of collaboration and integration that will be necessary. These included: the need for a common set of requirements among the organisations collaborating; some “lubrication” in the form of central (but not necessarily Government) funding; top management support from the affected organisations; and a recognition by all parties of the need to move to a new platform.

But journalist and public policy commentator Michael Cross, also speaking at the event, disagreed. “As well as critical success factors, there are critical fail factors at play,” he said. Cross believes Government battles with unions and professionals over the cuts - spurred on by a hostile media - will most likely scupper any hope of collaboration and integration efforts being supported by the organisations concerned (or the public) in the short term.

“Bottom-up desire for this will only come if the Government really has the nerve to let local organisations - especially democratically elected local government - call the shots. But it’s going to take a long time for that culture to spread and for the benefits of working together to show through. Frankly, I think there’s a lot of grief on the way first,” said Cross.

The meeting was held on the same day the British Prime Minister relaunched his ‘Big Society’ initiative to give communities more power over public services. Cross made the point there seemed to be a contradiction between this agenda and the drive for shared services and procurement. “I’m in favour of shared services - but there is a fundamental gap between the idea of local empowerment and the drive for collaboration and integration,” he said.

But as one of the delegates pointed out in the subsequent discussion: “We need to question what the public sector should itself be providing and where we should look to communities. The key to finding the answer is to empower ordinary individuals to make those decisions. As we give people opportunities to spend resources in the way they choose fit, we’re finding the types of services they purchase are very different from those we previously commissioned. ”

Sir Peter Gershon Member of the UK government’s Efficiency Board, and formerly chief executive of the Office of Government Commerce, managing director of Marconi Electronic Systems, and a board member at GEC

Michael Cross Business and public policy journalist and commentator, contributing to publications as varied as The Guardian, the British Medical Journal and Law Society Gazette

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