The UK labour market is currently highly competitive with unemployment at an historically low level. This means that all employers have to compete harder to attract and retain staff. Within this context, there are widespread reports of recruitment and retention problems across local public services. There are concerns about shortfalls in the number of staff, with fewer younger people being attracted to work for the public sector in the first place and a potential 'demographic time bomb' with 27 per cent of the public sector workforce now aged 50 or over. There are also concerns about skill shortages, both in terms of basic skill levels in the workforce, and in the key leadership, management and technical skills that are needed to deliver public service improvements.
There is an extensive body of research on recruitment and retention in public services, but most of it addresses specific professions or sectors. Our study takes a different approach by looking across the public sector as a whole, offering new evidence and bringing together the findings from existing work.
This study began with a series of interviews with key national stakeholders. Many of those we interviewed thought that the size, nature and causes of recruitment and retention problems in the public sector are already well known and that the Commission's study should focus on exploring solutions to a clearly understood problem. But while it is clear that many employers are struggling to recruit the staff they need, our analysis did not show a shared understanding about how big the problem is, where problems are most or least acute, or, critically, about why there is a problem in the first place.
This report is designed for local leaders and managers. It focuses on the action that local leaders can take now to increase recruitment and improve retention in their organisations, and on what Government and other national stakeholders can do to help to create and sustain an environment in which local leaders are able to satisfy the aspirations of their staff.