Whitehall faces skills shortages in government competition agenda

Whitehall civil servants say they don’t feel they have all the necessary skills needed to deliver on the government agenda for more competition and private sector involvement in public services.
Fri, 31 Aug 2012
Whitehall civil servants say they don’t feel they have all the necessary skills needed to deliver on the government agenda for more competition and private sector involvement in public services.

This is according to a report from the Institute for Government (IfG) entitled ‘Commissioning for Success: how to avoid the pitfalls of open public services’ based on the views of civil service workers.
Among the findings is the suggestion that those writing contracts “often concentrate too much on securing a good price upfront rather than over the life of the contract”.

IfG director and co-author Tom Gash comments on the skills shortage: “Unless government addresses some of these problems quickly, there is a risk that some of the mistakes of the past will be repeated.”

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