Civil Service World, the magazine for the senior civil service, is hosting a round table discussion which poses the following question: Following five years of shrinking departmental budgets, how do civil servants rise to the further challenge of the 2015 Spending Review?
The last five years have been characterised by austerity, spending freezes and budget reductions. Now, civil servants who have worked tirelessly to maintain the quality of public services within tight spending limits find themselves preparing for an Autumn Spending Review which heralds further, deeper cuts.
With the “low hanging fruit” already identified, trickier and more fundamental changes are now necessary if Whitehall is to meet the aim of returning government finances into the black by 2020. But achieving savings of billions of pounds will require a focus on more than just departmental operational budgets. If the last Spending Review was about cutting spend and sweating the “assets”, this Spending Review is about transforming government to be radically more efficient, joined-up and digitally enabled.
So what other areas can be identified to provide the necessary savings? Many departments manage the allocation of significant sums of money in the form of grants, benefits and bursaries far in excess of their operational budgets – for instance the Winter Fuel Allowance, which costs government over £2bn per year. Would more controls in the management of such funds deliver bigger savings? Can more joined-up departmental working support the deficit reduction agenda by reducing fraud, error, leakage, and the need for entitlement and eligibility checks in the system?
The timings of savings can also play an important part in the transformation journey. So how can civil servants controlling budgets implement savings early, especially when there is no “spend to save” money available?
Organised with the support of NS&I GPS, this round table will bring together civil servants and their peers in the wider public sector to explore the key issues around achieving the Spending Review objectives while maintaining high quality public services.
This is an invite only event. If you are interested in attending please contact Daisy Crisp at roundtables@dods.co.uk or on 0207 593 5664.