Government ‘has not planned for coping with fewer staff’

GOVERNMENT departments do not have long-term 
plans in place for new 
ways of working with fewer staff, a group of MPs has warned.

Savings in staff costs made through reducing departmental headcounts will only be sustainable by completing “long-term operating models for their business” beyond the spending review period, a report by the Commons committee of public accounts said.

The report, entitled “Managing early departures in central government”, suggested that without a rethink about the way departments will operate with fewer staff, numbers might increase once restrictions on recruitment and spending had been lifted.

The committee acknowledged that departments were required to make cost savings through staff reductions following the 2010 spending review, noting departments had “acted quickly” to cut employee numbers.

According to the report’s figures, a total reduction in headcount of about 35,000 was made in 2011, nearly 18,000 of which were through early departures.