Return to National productivity plans

Action needed – Public sector

  • All governments must cut their cloth to what their public can afford – basic guidelines for their actions should be:

    • Ration services to only those the public deem to be essential

    • Target sector-wide improvements of 20% or more, not 1 to 2%

    • Focus on less waste before less service

  • Invest more to improve ‘core’ infrastructure, skills and R&D efforts:

    • Focus on the major long term benefits to an economy of new railways/ motorways/ airports, removal of bottlenecks and faster broadband everywhere that are on offer – not just the next general election

  • Localise power and increase service unit management accountability:

    • Let local communities set priority targets for the public services they bother most about such as local hospitals, schools and police forces – collect and publicise their views about the quality of services received on official websites – hold regular meetings between all parties to review performance levels achieved

    • Leave local service unit managers to manage their resources in their own way – minimise central micro-meddling – accept that some managers will fail but most are likely to perform much better because motivation levels will increase, customers will benefit and costs will fall

  • Employ much more AI and digital technology, faster, to transform the way essential government services are offered to the public – the Policy Exchange think tank says: “A switch from paper to on-line applications for all UK public services could save £70 billion from a reduction in staff needs and better procurement deals” 

  • Review public sector employment packages – they should be less than those offered by the private sector:

    • According to the Sunday Times: “Most UK public sector workers are better paid, have more holidays, work fewer hours, have more days off sick, are less likely to be sacked, retire younger and have better pensions than their counterparts in the private sector”

    • This is unfair and demoralising for private sector workers

    • Nor is it good for the nation which depends on the private sector for the creation of more wealth

 

 

NHS

The NHS is a great success story: On average UK citizens now enjoy much longer, healthier, pain-free lives Treatments offered are far better and time in hospital has been dramatically reduced thanks to better methods like day and key-hole surgery Nevertheless, the majority of people are now less than happy with the service they get …

Education sector

The issues: A well-educated workforce is essential if any nation is to prosper in the global markets of today: India’s university population was expected to rise from 12,000,000 to over 30,000,000 by 2020 Only some 2,500,000 study at university in the UK Education productivity levels in the UK are not good – major reform is …

Justice sector

The prison service is substantially not working, and needs to change Clearly, any villain locked away will be prevented from committing any crimes, at least personally, but over 70% of offenders re-offend within one year – about 85% in the case of younger offenders Why is this? First, most prisoners are locked up for most …

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