The Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency carried out by Sir Peter Gershon, “Releasing resources to the front line”, proposed that both central government and local authorities could make efficiency savings of 2.5% per annum, year on year. These targets were incorporated into the 2004 Spending Review. The recently announced 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review has raised the efficiency targets to 3% per annum for the next three financial years.

The efficiency programme advocated by Gershon aims to achieve £21.5 billion of savings during the current financial year (2007-8) – of which £6.5 billion is to come from local authorities.

Gershon identified the following six main potential areas for savings:

• back office functions – for example: finance, human resources, information technology support, procurement services, legal services, facilities management, travel services, marketing and communications

• procurement – purchasing, for example: utilities, ICT systems and services, as well as professional services, temporary labour, construction, social housing, social care, and environmental services

• transactional services – including the payment of benefits and pensions, the collection of taxes, charges or fees, the registration of births and deaths and the calculation of benefit entitlements

• policy, funding and regulation for the public sector – for example, the Department for Education and Skills (now the Department for Children, Schools and Families) develops policy for, and provides funding to, the education sector, while the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspects performance in schools

• policy, funding and regulation for the private sector – for example, the government regulates certain industries to protect consumers’ interests, or ensure compliance with regulation, (eg environmental protection). Government also sets policy for, and funds, private sector bodies in support of wider objectives, such as productivity growth and job creation

• the productive time of front-line public service professionals – both in the wider public sector, such as schools, hospitals and the police and within government itself, reducing the amount of time that front-line staff spend away from their core activities (of delivering services to users) is an important part of efficiency

At Mott MacDonald, we’ve been working to help local and central government meet their efficiency targets and assisting the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which is tasked with transforming government procurement – and driving up standards and procurement capability.

In helping to drive forward the achievement of the government’s targets, Mott MacDonald has a Framework Agreement with the OGC under their Strategic Assignments Consultancy Services (SACS), to provide senior consultants who can work with public sector organisations to help deliver business objectives.

SACS is designed to provide expert advice and strategic direction relating to:

• strategy and business change
• programme and project delivery
• financial and commercial support
• procurement and contract management
• property and construction
• supply chain knowledge

We also provide fully trained and accredited team leader and team member consultants for the OGC’s Gateway Review programme in England and Northern Ireland, with additional contracts covering Scotland and Wales.

OGC Buying Solutions – the procurement service run by the OGC – is responsible for managing the catalist framework agreements. Mott MacDonald has catalist framework agreements in place to provide organisational consultancy, procurement consultancy, ICT consulting, HR recruitment services and training.

OGC Buying Solutions estimates that the catalist frameworks and managed services now cover £2.7 billion of public sector customer spend and are delivering over £400 million of savings.