3 Using internal staff instead of
consultants
12. While it will sometimes be the case that departments
need to purchase specific expertise from consulting firms, more
generalist requirements can often be met more cost-effectively
by internal resources. The Ministry of Defence, for example, can
supply internal consultancy staff for half the cost of external
consultants.[20] Public
bodies do not have adequate mechanisms or information to find
appropriately skilled internal staff (from within the organisation
or from other public bodies), nor to understand the costs of internal
staff, or make firm commitments to resource these posts on time.[21]
Without this information they are turning to consultants.[22]
It is important to maintain accountability for work programmes,
which is at risk if key programme roles are not held by internal
staff.
13. Departments do not have an adequate understanding
of their medium to long term requirements upon which to base their
recruitment and training plans, as well as their use of consultants.[23]
Recruitment of full-time personnel and training
of existing personnel can provide better value for money than
continued use of consultants. The same skills are being purchased
again and again from consultants. For the past three years, for
example, IT and project and programme management skills have consistently
been the top two consultancy skills purchased.[24]
14. Departments need to be clear why it is that they
need to use consultants. 40% of clients acknowledge they have
used consultants when it was not necessary.[25]
In some cases, particularly when an independent view is required,
consultants can be the most appropriate resource option. Consultants
can however be used for inappropriate reasons, such as to re-assign
blame, to compensate for the perceived poor quality of civil service
management, to substitute for civil servants who have been made
redundant, and to delay implementation of policy.[26]
lnternal staff can feel threatened or pushed aside by consultants
if the Department fails to communicate the reason for their use.
15. The reason for using consultants will affect
how they are used. For example, if consultants are brought in
to implement an IT system that the department will maintain in
the long-term, it is appropriate to have mixed project teams with
clients and consultants working side by side and to put an emphasis
on transferring skills from the consultants to the client team.
However, this approach will not be appropriate if consultants
are brought in to provide an independent perspective.
16. Departments do not adequately identify opportunities
for skills transfer from consultants to their own staff to increase
internal capabilities.[27]
Although the transfer of skills is often encouraged in departmental
guidance, it is not consistently carried out by project teams.
Three departments were rated as having made little or patchy progress
for achieving skills transfer and the other two as made only 'some'
progress in the C&AG's Report.[28]
20 C&AG's Report, para 4; Q 71 Back
21
C&AG's Report, Figure 2 Back
22
Qq 26-30, 89 Back
23
Q 84 Back
24
C&AG's Report, para 2.8; Q 72 Back
25
Public and private sector clients as reported in Perceptions
of consultancy in 2005 (MCA,2005) Back
26
Qq 77-79, 124, 127-133, 140 Back
27
Qq 52, 92 Back
28
C&AG's Report, para 4, Figure 2, Appendix 1 Back
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