Survey reveals central government needs to consider new ways of working to achieve the stipulated savings

A survey carried out amongst civil servants by Civil Service World and in partnership with Capita reveals civil servants’ views on public service delivery and the perceived impact that Government’s planned expenditure reductions will have on public sector services. Civil servants surveyed currently believe that the Government can only reduce departmental budgets by an average of 11 per cent without affecting services.

The areas identified by civil servants where savings can be initially achieved, without affecting services, included smarter procurement, a reduction in the spend on consultants, collaboration across central government bodies and the abolition and mergers of ‘quangos’ and NDPB’s. However, to bridge the gap between the identified 11 per cent and desired 40 per cent savings, more innovative, collaborative and radical service changes need to be considered.

Outsourcing is one of the levers that the Government can use to create savings and deliver quality services. While 41 per cent of civil servants surveyed believe innovation to be one of the strengths of the private sector and an essential ingredient to deliver transformation, 38 per cent feel a lack of trust towards the private sector and 25 per cent perceive the private sector to be poor managers of staff. 

Paul Pindar, Capita’s Chief Executive, commented: “Capita works in close collaboration with many different national, local government and voluntary bodies. Listening to the opinions and combining the knowledge and skills of the public sector with our own breadth of expertise allows us to make step changes in service. We always find it helpful to gauge the opinions of civil servants and other public sector workers. Over 70 per cent of our employees transferred to Capita under TUPE with contracts and acquisitions and now play a key role in transforming the quality and efficiency of the services we deliver for both the public and private sector.

Mr Pindar continued: “Should the Government seek to open up more front and back office public services to market competition, it is clear that organisations like ours have more to do in building greater awareness of and trust in our abilities. There are good examples of public private collaboration out there. Birmingham City Council and Capita’s joint venture company, Service Birmingham, will deliver savings of £68.4m in 2009/10, taking the overall total of savings to the Council up to £151.8m since the beginning of our partnership in 2006. The joint venture also sets aside surpluses to some local charities, has created local jobs and continues to engage with local suppliers. This demonstrates that partnering with the private sector allows efficiency and service quality targets to be met while upholding a public service ethos. A clear and consistent appreciation of the inherent and respective strengths and weaknesses of the delivery capability of public, private and voluntary sector bodies’ is crucial to success.”

Councillor Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat – Conservative led Birmingham City Council, commented on the results: “The findings of this survey are very interesting and it would be helpful to run a similar survey of workers across local authorities. In Birmingham, the Council has had a positive experience of collaboration with the private sector through Service Birmingham. Around 500 employees transferred from Birmingham City Council into Service Birmingham and the partnership has been very successful in achieving its aims of balancing service improvement with cost savings. This goes to show that collaboration across sectors can and does work, as long all parties show commitment, flexibility and clarity over how savings are to be delivered and who is best placed to do so.”

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Notes to editors:
The survey was carried out amongst 1,400 UK civil servants by Civil Service World and in partnership with Capita.

For further information:
Capita press office: 0207 654 2399

The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions.  With 36,000 people at more than 300 sites, including 59 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its clients’ services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2009 of £2,687 million.  Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: http://www.capita.co.uk