Although there is some debate on whether 2020 is the first year of a new decade or the last of the previous one, the immediate prospects for interim managers operating in the public and not-for-profit sectors is a great deal clearer. Anderson Quigley is optimistic and much of our confidence is borne out of our 2019 experience of a healthy demand from public and not-for-profit clients, but also the decisiveness of the December General Election, the certainty now over Brexit and the general favourable economic conditions. This all suggests that interims working in the non-private sector should be positive around their 2020 prospects. Given the Governments manifesto spending commitments around increased investment in Education, Health, Social Care, Criminal Justice and Housing, this should mean interims with a track record of organisational transformation, delivery of efficient services and strong programme/project management skills will continue to be in high demand.

The proposed changes in the IR35 ‘liability’ being introduced in the private sector in April of this year, were of course introduced in the public sector nearly three years ago, so certainly the initial turbulence of the changes have passed. Dealing with the new assessment criteria has become second nature to public sector clients and the interim community has responded positively. Demand for proven interim talent never really dipped in the intervening years since the legislation changed and the more flexible an interim is in terms of the nature of their engagement, the more opportunities they will undoubtedly be presented with throughout the year.