The Use of External Management Consultancy in the NHS

The use of external management consultants in the public sector is growing, with UK spending around £2.8bn in 2022.

Organisations use consultants to help with strategic advice, organisation and financial planning and change implementation. Their explicit aims are typically to help improve organisational performance, boost efficiency and achieve cost savings. 

However, research suggests that the use of external management consultants can lead to inefficient outcomes. It is also possible that public organisations ‘over-use’ external consultants to substitute external management capacity and may benefit more from investing in their own in house expertise.

The research

Funded by the Research England (QR Policy Support Fund), a team of researchers from the Universities of York, Bristol and Seville (Spain) are working with an NHS Trust to explore opportunities for and co-develop new or improved practices and guidelines on ‘blended’ consultancy. Our research suggests that NHS organisations are more efficient when they combine (or blend) the use of external constants with improved internal management capacity. In particular, we look at 

• Governance gaps and policy challenges – How should public organisations make decisions about the use of external consultants and what forms of regulation are likely to work best?

• What balance of external and internal consulting expertise is most optimal in public organisations and why?

• How might public organisations develop their own in house capabilities in management consultancy?