Seems that the Conservatives are planning a radical cut-back on overpaid wankers on local councils, by makingthem go the well establish private sector route of "shared services". Makes a whole heap of sense to me.
It just needs to be spread rapidly through the rest of the so-called "civil service" (fuck all service and no civility of late). I'm sure that there could be one centralised Payroll, for example, one Personnel Department (Not in favour of the revolting phrase "Human Resources") and so on. We know from the wonderful "Yes, Minister" shows that the upper ranks could and should easily be culled. Lots of savings to be made!
And of course, all the fucking quangos. Plenty of dead wood for the axe.
Not to mention the reduction in Labour's client state voter roll.
The Penguin
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3 comments:
Shared sevices do not save money. This is a big business, back-office myth.
Have a read of "Systems Thinking in the public sector" by John Seddon, or check his website: http://www.systemsthinking.co.uk/home.asp
The Met Office has a service that purports to save lives though weather prediction. It can inform local PCTs in advance of particular types of weather that can cause breathing problems and wotnot.
The Met Office ( part of the MOD ) charges for this information.
It has to present its commercial case to each and every one of the 140+ Primary Healthcare Trusts re-arranging the data and re-doing the powerpoint display to suit the particular requirements of each PCT. Lots of meetings, lots of chat X 140.
Why is that ? Should they not all reach the same conclusion ?
Shared services done right DO save money by avoiding duplication. My first job as audit junior was Taylor Woodrow's centralised Bought Ledger, where all purchasing and paying for the whole huge group was in one big room in Ruislip. Taylor Woodrow Plant another example - they only hired their own kit, saving a fortune and getting known quality of maintenance etc.
Plenty more examples out there. But like everything else, it can be done well or done badly.
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