TUC challenges perceptions on public sector ‘bureaucracy’
The perception that the public sector is choked full of bureaucrats is today being challenged by a new report.
The TUC argues that the public sector operates with “far fewer” managers than the private sector.
Private sector managers are responsible on average for six staff, while in the public sector they are responsible for 14, it says.
It comes after the Government’s Gershon Review identified £20 billion worth of savings that could be made through cutting civil service jobs – including 70,000 from central government departments.
The report Bowler hats and bureaucrats also suggests that £18 billion of savings could be made in public procurement through the better use of technology, without having to cut a single post.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “Public servants have become easy targets for some politicians. They want us to believe two things about the public services that are both wrong. First that you can make easy cuts to management and bureaucrats, without having any effect on public service delivery.
“Second that there is an easy distinction between front line staff who are all wonderful, and backroom staff who are a drag on the system. And what’s worse, in the next breath they will tell us that teachers should be given the time to teach and policemen the time to catch criminals, which of course they couldn’t do if they had to take over the vital support tasks done by the so-called bureaucrats they want to sack.”
The report is also critical of the Conservative Party’s James Review, which proposes the loss of up to 235,000 civil service jobs. This would make it impossible for the public sector to manage public expenditure or deliver services efficiently, it adds.
