With little room for manoeuvre to increase spending on struggling public services, the UK government must ensure that every pound is spent well.
However, public service productivity fell both during and after the pandemic. For example, the government’s successful programme to increase the number of police officers by 20,000 has only resulted in a small improvement to charge rates. Some important hospital activity is still below pre-pandemic levels despite substantial spending increases and rising staff numbers. And ONS records show that adult social care productivity more or less stalled for the decade before the pandemic.
So with the fiscal situation unlikely to improve in the immediate future, what can government and frontline services do to improve productivity?
In this first Productivity Pitches event, a new series organised jointly between The Productivity Institute and the Institute for Government, we are delighted to welcome Cat Little, Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury and Bart van Ark, Managing Director of The Productivity Institute to discuss these questions:
The event will be chaired by Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.
