‘Productivity key to helping Scottish public sector adapt to new digital reality’ -Deloitte

As the Scottish Government prepares to announce its spending plans for 2016/17 today, global accountant Deloitte has calculated that boosting productivity and freeing up just one hour of public sector workers’ time each year can deliver savings of £7.2 million in Scotland.

Saving ten per cent of Scotland’s public sector staff time could realise £1.5 billion in efficiencies per year, which is more than Scotland’s annual police budget or the amount spent on personal social care for the elderly.

The analysis follows the release of Deloitte’s fourth annual State of the State report, which found the UK public sector faces a decade of recalibration to adjust to lower spending levels.

Angela Mitchell, head of local public services at Deloitte, said: “Taking the combined approach of embracing digital, avoiding repetition of efforts and making evidence-based reforms can help ensure staff time is spent as productively as possible delivering front-line services. Implementing this is not a one-off event: it should be seen as a continuous process.

“It’s also important that the public sector focuses on outputs rather than inputs. For example, research has shown that more bobbies on the beat doesn’t necessarily translate into lower crime. Instead, money would be better spent on using new technologies to help the police detect and combat crime.”

As well as rethinking what they will deliver, Deloitte recommended that Scottish public sector leaders need to rethink how they will deliver services. The firm said traditional project management models may not work where technology and organisations’ needs are changing rapidly, while agile working and live in-project testing are often more appropriate for digital change.

Deloitte also observed that embracing digital requires a fundamental change of mindset and that public sector leaders need to re-imagine their processes for a digital age, rather than recreate analogue activities in digital form.

Ms Mitchell added: “Changing culture will be an important area of progress. Equipping people with a digital mindset and ensuring leaders have an understanding of its possibilities will help digital adoption take hold and enable significant efficiencies. That will ultimately lead to enhanced productivity and savings for front-line service providers, freeing up resource which can be put to better use.

“Investment will also be crucial to realising the public sector’s future ambitions; but that’s exceptionally difficult to come by when budgets are stretched. Looking at ‘invest to save’ funding is one way executives could circumvent the barriers created by restricted access to finance. It’s important that while cuts are being made, funds are still found to help public sector leaders move their organisations forward.”