Wed 16 Apr 2025
By David Finlay
It is a fact we cannot ignore. We are simply not productive enough.
In many different ways. Even our UK birth rate is falling which means that with people living longer we will, over time, have a smaller workforce to look after an increasingly ageing population.
And that is only part of the problem. We are just not finding ways to make sure that those scarce financial resources at our disposal are used to the very best effect. Since the 2008 banking crisis overall UK productivity has only improved by around 0.5 per cent a year lagging well behind that achieved in France, Germany and the USA.
It is a particular issue in the public sector where productivity has slumped to 8.5 per cent below that achieved prior to the COVID pandemic. A clear example of the problem is that, although government funding for the NHS has increased by 17 per cent in recent years, the number of patients treated during the same period only increased by 4 per cent.
Factor in the 2.8 million people off work due to long-term sickness and around a million young people who are not in work, education or training and you have a double jeopardy affecting public service delivery: not enough people in work and not enough productivity from those who are in employment. A picture made even more challenging by the constraints on the public finances putting pressure on how much can be spent on each area of public activity.
Central government departments have been challenged by the Treasury to justify all proposed spending in the current spending review, many local authorities are in financial difficulties and NHS Trusts have been told to significantly improve productivity.
The common need is to achieve More for Less with the public funding which is available. But how can you get More for Less? And how can you find time to seriously consider this critically important issue?
To help teams gain insights into securing More for Less and to give them the space and opportunity to draw up action plans for achieving this I am pleased to be launching in partnership with Dods Training an innovative new workshop: More for Less: improving productivity in achieving strategic objectives.
Each workshop will be for one particular team or group of colleagues so they can focus on issues relevant to their particular area of public service delivery. Key principles for achieving More for Less will be outlined including how to prioritise the use of available funding in areas which will maximise the achievement of strategic business goals, how to improve value for money from suppliers and how to identify and implement better ways of working. Then it will be over to the team attending the workshop to determine how these principles for achieving More for Less can be applied in their own area of public service delivery. By the end of the workshop those attending will have drawn up an Action Plan for achieving More for Less and will take away a specially designed scoresheet to enable them to track their progress.
Last December Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer set out a Plan for Change to make the country stronger. We all have a part to play in achieving that. And More for Less will be central to making it happen.
David Finlay is a former Director of the National Audit Office with ten years of experience on the boards of national and regional public service organisations.
For further details on the workshop More for Less: Improving Productivity in Achieving Strategic Objectives, get in touch customer.service@dods-training.com
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