09.09.11
Public sector job cuts achievable, say Reform
The Government target of cutting 400,000 public sector jobs is ‘easily manageable’, according to think tank Reform.
It has issued a report called ‘Reformers and Wreckers’, including eight case studies which demonstrate public sector companies delivering improved services with fewer, better staff.
The TUC Congress next week will oppose any public sector job cuts, yet Reform suggests that the high rate of turnover means that if public sector organisations only replaced nine workers out of every ten that leave, they would achieve the figure set by the Office for Budget Responsibility of 400,000 job losses by the end of this Parliament.
Andrew Haldenby, director of Reform, said: “The best public sector managers change the way they employ people to make their services better and cheaper.
“The TUC recommendations would stop these improvements in their tracks. A smaller, higher quality public sector workforce will mean better public services.”
The report also includes recommendations to the Government, including reform of NHS pensions, regular fitness tests for police rather than only on recruitment, all schools to have the same freedoms as academies and free schools and to abandon the ban on government departments from taking consultancy advice.
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