It is being reported that ministers are going to announce today that 200 public sector bodies will be axed . The intention is to save millions of pounds.
Oh, the high minded intentions of a government with a mission.
It is worth reflecting that Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher had high intentions of cutting quangos. Both failed.
A report published in July by the Institute for Government charity warned that cutting quangos would not save large amounts of public money.
This is precisely my experience of change management programmes. There is much data that shows that most change management programmes fail to deliver the financial results which they are supposed to.
“Cutting the number of arms length bodies will not necessarily lead to savings if those functions then need to be merged in departments," the institute said,
“A simple culling of numbers alone may not achieve savings without reform and clearer understanding of roles and responsibilities”.
This is preciesly the point. One of the reasons why cutting and change management programmes fail is the fundamental absence of long term vision of both managment(e.g government) and trade unions.
Cutting becomes a “false economy” with costs imposed elsewhere and trade unions with help from lawyers fighting a battle which has already been lost.
Justin Patten