Waste in the public sector

[mumzy]

AIBU to be incensed about waste in the public sector which we all pay for?. I was listening to the news about waste in the public sector which if reined in could fund essential services. I've worked in the public sector and in my time have come across shocking amounts of money wasted. Examples include:hospitals letting thousands of pounds of drugs to go out of date because fridges were'nt checked on a regular basis. Computer systems in the NHS which are so unuser friendly they are more of a hindrance than a help. A council department paying consultants mega bucks to come up with policies which were'nt fit for purpose when a perfectly good template was available free on the internet and we only needed to fill in our details. The same department paid a marketing company to come up with a promo event which we had to redo as users did'nt understand how to use it. Has anyone else come a cross similar waste in the public sector

'I read somewhere that primary school teachers spend on average £199 of their own money subsidising school budgets'

God yeah, I spend loads of my own money on stuff!

I actually agree that trying to run the public sector like a private business is half the problem and bringing in consultants and quango's has been a complete disaster.
I shall be working for the NHS in a few years time and hope that by then the accountant will be the brown cardigan variety who realizes one cannot use both sides of a swab rather than some prat in a suit who wants to combine a phlebotomist role with that of a cleaner.

No recording of sickness is very unusual, we are given the third degree when we are off sick and life is difficult when we get back unless you have lost a limb and even then it is a close call.

Yes, not recording sickness is not something I've come across. Quite the opposite in fact.

My employer is pretty obsessive about sickness. We can barely sneeze without having to fill in a form in triplicate.

The public sector is obviously second only to the bankers in attracting public opprobrium.

I agree with MillyMollyMoo - it's trying to bring in private sector ethos which has been the downfall of the public sector in a lot of cases. Endless consultants (I know, I work for one) coming in and charging an arm and a leg for what is basic common sense.

But there is also (within some local government organisations) the fact that some people cannot be got rid of and endless bureaucracy that is absurd.

I think the combination of the two is utterly poisonous but that is not generally down to individual workers, it's a fucked up system

People are often quick to point out any inefficiency and waste in the public sector, but make no attempt to measure the opposite. Unpaid over time is a very cost effective measure (during the snow recently my hospital trebled its trauma ops for very little additional cost because staff just worked longer for nothing). I provide many of the tools I need to do my job out of my own pocket, everything from a mobile phone, which I pay the bill on, to technical equipment which will not be purchased otherwise. I employ private sector companies to carry out some services and senior management never seem to understand that if they are asked to carry out more work it will cost more - they are just too used to NHS staff just working extra for goodwill only. How much more efficient can you get than that? As for lunch hours or sick leave - my department recognises neither.

I've almost always (bar 2 years) worked in the public sector, local authority and snivel service and my over-riding experience of waste has been in misguided and mismanaged projects. These are devised to cut costs but inevitably end up going ludicrously over budget owing to shocking ineptitude.

It's been my opinion for a long time that the Government could do a lot worse than set up a department that was specifically and exclusively given over to managing public sector projects, be they infrastructure, IT, financial restructure, whatever.

The public sector, IMO, suffers from being fleeced by the private sector contract negotiators on one hand, and having their projects managed internally by well-meaning but ultimately inexperienced people. It is often shambloic and leads to the kind of wastage being discussed here. I personally think such a department could pay for itself many times over every year.

If you elect a Govt you expect them to do something.

To get the Govt's wishes implemented people will be required - either public sector employees or private sector providers. Even if private sector employees are used public sector employees are still reuqired to state what is required, run the tendering process, award the contract, monitor costs and pay the private company.

So if you're complaing that there are 2 many public servants, you're really complaining that the Govt is trying to do too much.

Myth-slay: we don't get 1st class travel - that was withdrawn last year.

Any absence over 8 days in one rolling year is flagged for formal management attention.

Some of us go home totally shagged out at the end of the day having missed lunch because we've been too busy to take it.

And yes - in both private and public sectors there are lazy sods who deserve sacking - it's probably just a tad more difficult to sack them in the public sector.

I've never had first class travel, nor do I know anyone would has ever had it.

CUNext Tuesday

I like your idea for an overarching project managment organisation but it simply wouldn't work.

The closest we have is the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) which scrutinises programmes / projects and ensures they are being managed to a satisfactory standard. One of their requiremnets is that every programme has a Senior Responsible Officer.

You had to be above a certain grade for 1st class travel (when it was available). It was usually just as packed as 2nd class - so much so that the railway staff couldn't get down the aisle to offer you the free cup of tea / coffee.

For first class travel, you would of course have to be very special. Like poster's friend must be.

I hear you wetaugust but I don't think it is the scrutiny which is lacking, more the end to end expertise and the ability to fully understand the inherent complexities and bureaucracy within the public sector. For example we are going through one at the moment (I won't say where or what as it will comprehensively 'out' me to others in the know ) and the private sector contractor has undertaken similar change programmes in, say, large international banking orgs.

Well that's just tickety boo for a scale of the task but it has become increasingly apparent that we as the public sector assume knowledge/understanding that they don't have, and they assume that we are business goal orientated. Neither of which, alas, is the case....

We need a hands on gov dept, a team of experts from procurement to final sign off to breeze in and take control. Oversight is important but cracking the whip ove the backs of the internal staff who are doing their best to manage a multi-million pound contract does not a successful outcome make.

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Must be very special indeed - in yesterday's Telegraph an Admiral was complaining that he was no longer entitled to first class travel.

Reallytired said "There is very little motivation for a public sector employee to work hard. " Yes there is! It's called taking pride in your work and wanting to do as good a job as you can, under what can be incredibly challenging circumstances.

There undoubtably is waste in the public sector. But I can tell you what it is not down to. It is NOT down to:

1. The number of frontline staff - as others have said, most public sector departments (certainly in local government) have been cut to the bone
2. Too many sickies - if staff sickness is a problem it is probably down to stress as a result of (1) or down to people coming in ill because they daren't take time off due to their workload, therefore spreading germs around
3. Too much paid leave - very many staff don't get to take their full leave entitlement in any case
4. Level of pay/pensions - with the exception of some senior management (yes I have my own axes to grind) pay levels in the public sector, especially in professional roles, are woefully inadequate compared with the private sector. The pension scheme is the only thing that makes up for it (none of us could afford to save on our own for a private pension on our salaries - and yes we do contribute to the scheme).
5. Swanning around to meetings - our travel budget has been cut and cut and cut so that we now struggle to do our jobs as we cannot make essential site visits or attend meetings that are a distance away
6. Just in any case anyone was wondering about training (I mean real CPD training, not crappy internal stuff), my only response is PMSL!!

CuNext Tuesday

Public and private can effectively work together to implement change etc if the whole enterprise is properly defined, scoped and managed by well-qualified programme / project managers. There are just too few professionally qualified PMs in the public sector. Therfeore public servants end up managing complex undertakings because they are simply the 'right' grade even f they don't have the necessary project managment skills.

Plus of course the private sector look upon us as drunks staggering down the street discarding £50 notes!

Also having to be careful not to 'out'

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Couldn't possibly comment

Still, it's better to have the lazy scroungers having to sit in a council office all day to get their pay than to sit at home watching Oprah and get benefits instead.

Well you jest but actually it is, isn't it ?
We can't have full employment it would seem and we don't want to pay a living wage to quite a proportion of the population so yes I would rather have them so something for public funds than nothing.

Oh God I do hate this impression of local government. Some of us are highly qualified, highly experienced professionals whose jobs happen to exist in the public sector!! We're not all call centre workers, dinner ladies and binmen FGS!! < at "the public" in general>

No Gaelicsheep - you have your fair share of Dormice Officers and Street Football Coordinators - only joking

My LA has attracted a lot of talent from the private sector as location means a better work
life balance for London commuters, so we have benefitted from people who know how to run a project and even have a communication strategy (wow!). We also do get rid of incompetent / incapable workers and HR are pretty good at supporting this. Perhaps the difference is around the evidence required and the support that needs to have been given, but when people's livelihoods are at stake that's not a bad thing.

I've only worked for the public sector for the last 3 months but have tried to be more efficient, for example, we have 2 departments on the same floor and it's up to the administrators to pick up an unanswered phone. If it's for the other dept, we transfer the call. So I've made an executive decision and I don't pass on call to their admin desk, I just take a message and pass it to the worker concerned and I've saved the caller (and my colleagues) about 5 minutes of their time. I know it's only a small thing but I consider it to make a real difference.

I hate the attitude that "it's someone elses problem" and would rather deal with something myself rather than palming it to another worker.

When I started I was told "not to break my neck to get things finished" by my boss.

I've worked hard and I take real pleasure out of doing my job well.