The UK's leading recruitment industry body, The Recruitment and Employment Confederation, (REC) has called for the public sector to embrace flexible working.
As part of the government spending cuts, thousands of jobs stand to be lost within the public sector, and the REC believes that these new stringent measures need to be adapted to, by the rolling out of more effective flexible working patterns.
Rather than sticking to the more traditional method of employing permanent staff, employing flexible workers, or allowing more movement in the working lives of contractors, is essential.
REC's director of policy and professional services, Tom Hadley, gave the example of the shortage of midwives in the NHS.
"The squeeze on public expenditure will inevitably impact on the workforce but we must avoid knee-jerk cuts that not only impact on patient care but also place unsustainable pressure on remaining staff," he explained. "One solution is to make more use of flexible staffing arrangements such as temporary and locum staff in order to meet peaks in demand and provide essential cover in emergency situations such as complicated births." 
