How Government Fails Us
Use of Management Consultants

Contents

Home.
Only Half a Democracy.
How Government Fails Us.
  How the System Works.
  Government and the Private Sector.
  Failure to Learn.
  Use of Management Consultants.
  Political Decisions.
  Headline Grabbing Initiative.
  Accountability.
Government and Environment.
Global Context.
Citizens and Corporations.
Taking Liberties.
Why Parliament Fails Us.
Remedies.
Barriers to Reform.
The Local Dimension.
A New Kind of Party.
Your Issues.
What's New.
References.
Help Needed.

Contact David Smith at:


savingdemocracy@googlemail.com

How Government Fails Us - Use of Management Consultants

When New Labour came to power they were worried that civil service inertia would prevent them implementing their policies. They badly needed advice however and so they turned to management consultants on a far greater scale than the Tories had done. Ostensibly management consultants were used to improve public services through the injection of competition and private-sector managerial skills, and through the use of modern IT systems. This has led to the following consequences:

  • Introduction of inappropriate targets, especially in the NHS, which have badly skewed priorities.
  • Selling of schemes like PFI which benefit consultants and their clients, not the public.
  • Selling of expensive IT systems, which do not perform.
  • Waste of money which could have been used to support front line services.
Management consultants can be useful, but they cannot be regarded as dispassionate analysts whose priority is to give the public sector good value. They are there to make profits. They will sell expensive fashionable methodologies, overcharge if they can get away with it, and often supply consultants with no experience of the public sector and its unique challenges. They have to be managed by the client, if they are to give value.

Basic navigation on this site is by clicking the relevant item in the contents list.

Page Last Updated 19 August 2007.