Private management consultant spending at Department of Health nearly tripled last year, accounts show

Temporary staffing and consultant spending both increase after health ministry sacks hundreds of staff to cut costs

Consultants drafted in because of lack of specialists in government department (Getty/iStock)

Spending on private management consultants at the Department of Health and Social Care nearly tripled last year, despite a push to cut running costs by a third, official figures show.

The department’s annual report reveals that in 2017/18 it spent £12.4m on consultancy services, up from £4.5m in 2016/17.

This extra spending was needed to secure “specialist support not available with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)”, the report said. It comes after it cut hundreds of jobs to meet its pledge on reducing spending by 30 per cent in 2019.

Spending on temporary staffing also increased, by 54 per cent, hitting £21.9m last year, up from £14.2m in 2016/17.

DHSC is currently spending more than £4m with consultancy group EY as part of its overhaul of the NHS systems for buying equipment, goods and services, according to the Health Service Journal, which first analysed the accounts.

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, said in 2017 that £300m a year could be saved if every NHS organisation paid the lowest prices for common items like bandages, stethoscopes and bedpans.

The project is expected to be worth as much as £20m to the consultancy firm.

The wider NHS has been given caps on what it can spend on temporary staffing and also managed to reduce its management consultant spending to £358m in 2017/18, a reduction of £26m on the previous year.

An investigation last year showed how management consultants had earned nearly £18m from a national programme of NHS redesigns. With regions drawing up “transformation plans”, which could lead to hospitals being shut and services cut back.

The Independent approached the DHSC for comment but it had not responded at time of publication.