Public sector consulting

Leaving aside the outrage we may feel as tax-payers at the money wasted by government through fragmented procurement, Sir Philip Green’s report is a model of clear, uncompromising communication. In contrast to much government-sponsored material, the 33-page document is short, sharp and shocking, with each argument evidenced by a small number of salient facts.

Our latest survey of quarterly buying trends gives an idea of just how fast public sector consulting is changing.

It’s a point we’ll be exploring further in a report to be published later in the autumn, but we included a few extra questions in our standard quarterly survey, just to test the water, with interesting results.

There was a big fuss in the UK last year when the findings of a report by McKinsey on cutting costs in the National Health Service were leaked to the press. It was proposed that 137,000 clinical and admin posts would be cut in order to save £20bn by 2014. Vilified by the press, the government announced that it had rejected the report’s recommendations.