Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy



Public Money & Management

Press Releases

Council managers cautious of consultants, survey shows

The overall opinion of council bosses towards management consultants is one of ‘general suspicion’, a survey by a team of academics released today reveals. Publishing their findings in the latest issue of Public Money & Management, the team from the University of Birmingham claim council managers feel ambiguous about the value for money offered by consultants. There is also doubt over the abilities of consultants to make organisational change happen.

The poll of senior managers in 20 English local authorities found the main reason for employing consultants in the first place was either to make up for a lack of in-house skills or to get a specific job done quickly.  However, a large number of respondents felt their council was using consultants for policy advice.

One of the organisers of the survey, Robert Dalziel, said:

“Underlying the reasons for employing consultants were generally positive views of consultants’ skills. Respondents said it was appropriate to use external consultants to fill gaps in organizational capacity, knowledge or skills. But it was inappropriate to use them as a substitute for key staff, necessary organizational resources, or capacity. The issue of knowledge handover was considered important if a local authority does not want to become dependent on consultants.”

The majority of council managers said they preferred using external consultants for well-defined technical projects when the purpose of the assignment could be clearly agreed, and where the outputs desired could be easily quantified and measured. However, respondents to the survey showed a marked reluctance to use consultants in an advisory capacity.

The survey is just one of a number of articles in September’s PMM focusing on the relationship between academic advisors and public sector practitioners in which senior policy analysts evaluate the effectiveness of external advice to local and central government.

As Robert Dalziel, concluded:

“Experience does influence attitudes towards working with management consultants. Managers’ experience appears to have reinforced the view that consultants are best used on completing routine, narrowly-defined, managerial or technical projects effectively and efficiently. However, even in those circumstances, respondents had experience of consultants failing to understand the complex political environment in which local authorities work—or the delicate political interface between officers and members. This might ultimately mean consultants made inappropriate or unrealistic recommendations.”

ENDS 

Contact: Guy Roberts, Richard Taylor or Vicky Onslow
      CIPFA Press Office, tel: 020 7543 5712/5687/5645
email: pressoffice@cipfa.org

Notes to Editors:

  1. The survey was carried out by Michael Hughes, Robert Dalziel, Keith Baker and Pam Fox of the School of Public Policy, Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham
  2. Copies of the latest issue of Public Money & Management are available from the CIPFA Press Office – Richard.taylor@cipfa.org   tel. 020 77543 5687
  3. Public Money & Management is owned and managed by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), www.cipfa.org.uk. The journal is published on behalf of CIPFA by Blackwell Publishing. It has a multidisciplinary and international audience. It publishes articles which contribute new knowledge as a basis for policy or management improvements, or which reflect on evidence from public service management and finance in order to suggest topics for research. Readers include: officials in all types of public service organizations; academics; consultants and advisers working with the public services; politicians; journalists; and students on both academic and professional courses. www.cipfa.org.uk/pt/pmm.cfm