Increased collaboration with the private sector will harm staff morale and and mean that key skills, experience and knowledge is lost, public sector bosses have warned.
A new study by management consultancy Hay Group has highlighted widespread opposition and resentment towards the trend, driven by concerns over the potential risks, which include damage to public service delivery and brain drain. The report entitled 'Relationship Counselling' was based on research among 200 senior leaders from local government, healthcare, uniformed services and universities who are involved in partnerships with private firms today.
The study revealed that, as the public sector grappled with dwindling budgets, the number of deals it struck with the private sector was expected to more than double. Although a mere 17% of public sector organisations deliver more than 40% of their services through such partnerships at the moment, this figure is forecast to more than double to 38% in three years’ time.
But the problem was that almost half of respondents did not believe such arrangements would deliver value for money, while 37% were not confident that they would hit objectives. A further 44% feared that they would damage the quality of service delivery, three out of five felt that it would harm employee morale and half were concerned that key skills, abilities and knowledge would be lost.
