Making Public Sector Productivity Practical

In times of rising economic and societal challenges, the public sector plays a pivotal role in protecting the wellbeing of citizens, providing a path to economic recovery, and stimulating sustained growth and improvement in living standards.

In recent decades, improved public sector productivity has been proven to provide large benefits to society, not only by using scarce public resources more efficiently, but also by improving the quality of
services for everyone, and by providing more effective foundations for private enterprise and economy-wide productivity growth.

Although much has been written about public sector productivity – what it is, how it is measured, and what drives it to grow – we only have a limited understanding of how to improve it. This report, produced in conjunction with Capita, aims to connect our knowledge about concepts, measurement, drivers and barriers to productivity growth in the public sector with practical insights into improving productivity.