public sector productivity plan

So what is the Public Sector Productivity Plan?

The Public Sector Productivity Plan was announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt at the Spring Budget in March 2024. The Chancellor explained that this was to improve public service delivery and create better value for taxpayers’ money through increased productivity and utilisting technology to enable higher productivity across the public sector.

The Chancellor gave an example of funding and rolling out a large new IT system to improve productivity in the NHS (which is the largest Public Sector unit), with AI to help interpret MRI scans to a joined up IT system to help improve efficiencies in everything from staffing teams to utilising operating theatres. The NHS Productivity Plan highlights the idea of technology to help improve efficiencies, with a £3.4 Billion IT system implementation,  the Chancellor highlighted this should generate £35 Bllion in “productivity savings”.

The Public Sector Productivity Plan comes after the Chancellor announced the of the “most ambitious public sector productivity review ever” last summer, which was a Government review across all of the public sector targeting “unnecessary” admin tasks  and exploring opportunities to use innovative technologies such as AI.