Consultancy spend on the up
The public sector is the only major market that has increased its spending on consulting services, with fee income from government clients rising by 14% last year.
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According to the latest public sector survey by our sister magazine Management Consultancy, fee income from local and central government rose to £998m in 2003 from £404m in 1998.
The figures exclude activities such as procurement and outsourcing. Previous Management Consultancy surveys have revealed reduced growth in all other consultancy sectors.
In 2003, 50 firms reported fee income from the central government sector compared with 37 in 1998. And despite local government being the smaller market, 37 firms reported fees last year compared with 17 six years ago.
The survey found last year’s fee income from the NHS to be modest at 34% of the total fee income of the local government market, or £71m. However, that figure is predicted to grow considerably in the next few years due to the National Programme for IT.
Gareth Bunn, head of public sector consulting at Capgemini, said: ‘Central government departments with the biggest change agendas are likely to continue to be significant purchasers of consultancy.’