As we have all now seen, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak presented his ‘Spending Review 2020’ to Parliament on Wednesday 25 November 2020.
While there were many announcements, such as billions or funding for COVID-19 support and £100 billion capital spending to drive the UK’s recovery and support jobs, it was the increase in funding to deliver stronger public services that we wanted to take a look at.
The government has stated, “The Spending Review delivers on the government’s promises to support a high quality, resilient healthcare system, level up education standards, continue tackling crime to keep people safe and support local authorities in their efforts to serve local communities.”
These improvements include a £6.3 billion cash increase in NHS spending as well as funding to invest in new diagnostic equipment, support training for the NHS workforce, refurbish and maintain infrastructure. There is also a £2.2 billion uplift for the core schools’ budget. In addition, the Spending Review will fund investment in Further Education and continue delivering opportunities for lifelong learning.
There will be an additional £400 million to help recruit 20,000 additional police officers, £63 million to tackle economic crime and £337m extra funding for the criminal justice system, along with establishing a world-leading Counter Terrorism Operations Centre.
While these are just a few headlines, what is the real impact that’s going to be felt by the public sector organisations charged with making these changes happen while ensuring that the services we all know and use continue to be delivered and enhanced as our needs change?
To look at this and how the people and technology will be key to these changes, we are joined by Charlotte Henigan (Enterprise Channel Manager for Central Government at Microsoft), Aaron Prior (Industry Executive at Microsoft) and Keith Martin (Sales Director at Phoenix).
