How have public sector spending cuts affected Government outsourcing Essay

How have public sector spending cuts affected Government outsourcing - Essay Example The private sector is currently creating new jobs while the public sector is slashing the workforce. The UK budget deficit is still high despite councils implementing budget cuts in highways maintenance, property service and refuse collection. Most of the government departments are considering outsourcing as a viable method of attaining value-added benefits to the services enjoyed by the citizens (Flynn, 2012). Currently, the UK government outsources more than 80 billion pounds of public sector services and the figure is estimated to reach 140 billion pounds by the year 2015 if the current trend continues. The information technology department is one of the public sector departments that have experienced massive spending cuts. The UK government has axed 95 million UK pounds on IT spending thus leading to high job losses (Flynn, 2012). The UK government has reduced spending on advertising and new contracts with management consultants. The spending cuts are spread in construction, professional services, facilities management department and information and communication technology. The Efficiency and Reform Group is keen on cutting spending cutting the spending on advertising to only the essential advertisements (Flynn, 2012). The media companies such as Trinity Mirror have reported a decline in the value of the shares after the government froze new civil service recruitments. The department of Work and Pensions has made more than 70 million pounds in savings after reducing the spending on IT consultancy and marketing services. The government is also negotiating for cost reductions in the approved IT projects in order to reduce the overall costs of the projects (Flynn, 2012). However, critics of public spending cuts have warned that the current slash on spending will slow down the economic recovery. For instance, Morgan Sindall construction Group warns that reducing the budget on school construction will negatively affect the