The art of spending public money wisely

The art of spending public money wisely

NAO presentations to Civil Service Live, 2015

Max Tse, NAO Director, 10 Sept, Newcastle Sue Higgins, NAO Executive Leader, 14 Sept, Manchester Sally Howes, NAO Executive Leader, 5 Oct, London Amyas Morse, Comptroller & Auditor General, NAO, 6 Oct, London

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The art of spending public money wisely

The work of the National Audit Office (NAO) is driven by the knowledge that every pound of public money spent in one way, is a pound not spent elsewhere. With changing demographics and public expectations there is growing demand for public services, at the same time that total public spending is reducing. Radical new ways are therefore needed to increase the value for money from public spending and improve the quality of public services. In reviewing the ways in which national and local government bodies are transforming public service delivery we have identified four key, pervasive issues that can block improvement in public service implementation. These `4 pervasive issues' have been the focus of NAO presentations at Civil Service Live events in 2015.

This document: To incorporate the different aspects addressed by different NAO speakers, the following pages provide a combined summary of the slides and verbal presentations, together with links to the reports mentioned.

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Growing pressure on spending

Over the last five years there has been huge pressure to reduce public spending and there is every indication that this will continue in this parliament.

Per cent of GDP Forecast

Total public sector spending and receipts:

65

Current receipts

60

Total managed expenditure

55

50

45

40

35

30

25

20 1920-21 1930-31 1940-41 1950-51

Source: Bank of England, O NS, O BR

19 60-61

19 70-71

19 80-81

19 90-91

20 00-01

20 10-11

20 20-21

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Doing more with less

There is less money for public spending and the easiest cuts in public spending

have been made. At the same time there is growing demand from demographic change and from people's expectations of services.

To make bigger savings without detriment to those using public services,

government needs to find new ways to organise and deliver its services.

It has started to accelerate delegation to local bodies and contract out more

services, create market-like ways of choosing and supplying services, and use digital technology better.

To succeed, government needs to continue to develop new skills on the part of civil

servants, new ways to engage with those using services and new innovative thinking about reforming services.

It also needs to do this while coordinating national priorities such as growth,

environmental management, demographic change and infrastructure development.

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Recent improvements

The NAO has seen real advances in the management capability of many departments in recent years, including:

Department for Transport (DfT) has improved its management of rail infrastructure programmes,

as shown in Lessons from major rail infrastructure programmes (2014)

Our work on Crossrail (2014) showed that DfT and Transport for London have so far done well to

protect taxpayers' interests, by taking early action to stop costs escalating and, during construction, tightly managing the programme.

Our recent reports on DCLG found many of its projects and programmes have been

implemented effectively, including:

? Help to Buy equity loan scheme (2014) ? Council Tax support (2013) and ? Affordable Homes Programme (2012).

In Ministry of Defence: Equipment plan 2012-2022 (2013) we found that MoD's strategy for

improving its financial management is delivering results and it has addressed the ?38 billion equipment funding gap.

In Department for International Development ? Financial Management (2011), we found, DFID's

allocation of resources has improved and it was more strategic in achieving its objectives.

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