22 February 2018

Management consultancy and inefficiency in the NHS: time for an urgent review

The impact of management consultants on public service efficiency
Policy & Politics February 2018
  • Public sector organisations often make use of management consultants in policy implementation, but we know little about the outcomes. The paper reports one of the first quantitative evaluations of the impact of consulting advice on efficiency of public sector organisations. We employ an extensive dataset covering English NHS acute care hospital trusts over a four-year period. 
  • The findings show a significantly positive relationship between consulting expenditure and organisational inefficiency
  • These results lend support to critical accounts of management consulting, highlighting the need for organisations to be circumspect in deciding whether and how to use these services.
  • 2 page Summary here