Blairs Ten Priorities conference speech puts public sector managers to the fore

The interim management industry, the dark horse of public sector management resource, may be on the verge of galloping to the rescue of three-quarters of the UK’s local authorities.

Boyden, one of the world’s leading interim management providers, is gearing itself up to help tackle massive challenges facing the UK’s councils and government departments following Sir Peter Gershon’s recommendation that 80,000 civil service jobs be cut - and Tony Blair’s Labour Conference ten priorities speech.

The Prime Minister may well have delivered his top ten priorities for a third Labour term in power, but we wonder if he’s really thought through the implications, said Clive Bennett, Director of Boyden Interim Management’s Public Sector Practice.

He’s pledging extensive improvements and shake-ups in housing, schools, training, health, childcare, benefits and crime, but that means massive change - and enormous pressure on a civil service that is already staring down the barrel of an 80,000 job-cut plan.

Sir Peter Gershon said in his Efficiency Review report that tens of thousands of civil service jobs must go, and Government watchers are saying that 1 billion spent each year on consultants is way too much - but who’s going to drive and manage the change? said Clive Bennett.

Surveys of local authorities are showing that 73% of councils simply do not have the resource or skills to drive through the level of change required to cut and reallocate budgets by the billions the Government wants.

The answer is the army of highly qualified, highly experienced and highly capable UK interim managers - who are engaged on fixed-term assignments to deliver against fixed objectives.

The highly criticised, 1 billion a year teams of management consultants retained by local authorities and government departments will research, recommend and tell their officers what they need to do to deliver change or budget cut - but that’s where the problem starts. Consultants don’t do - they advise.

Where local authorities do not have the experience or infrastructure to drive or deliver change - that’s where interim managers come into their own. Interim managers step in at short notice, research and understand the requirements - with or without the assistance of management consultants - and then dispassionately and decisively make things happen. That’s their reason for being.