Posted Jun 26, 2026
The hidden cost of a vacant corporate function.
And why public sector organisations keep paying it.
How long has your organisation been carrying a vacancy in finance, HR, procurement or operations? And what has that actually cost you? For most public sector bodies, the honest answer is more than they have ever calculated – and longer than they are comfortable admitting.
Spinwell Global · 6 min read · Offices in the UK, Dubai and Singapore
There is a conversation happening across central government, local authorities and defence that rarely makes headlines. It is not about the frontline services that face the most public scrutiny. It is about the people who make those services possible.
Finance leads. HR business partners. Procurement managers. Operations directors. Change leads. The professionals who sit in what organisations call ‘corporate functions’ – and what the rest of the workforce calls, usually affectionately, ‘the back office’.
In 2026, those roles are harder to fill than they have been in years. The talent pool for experienced corporate professionals in the public sector is genuinely thin. And the cost of leaving those seats empty – or filling them with the wrong person – is significant, measurable, and consistently underestimated.
This piece is for anyone responsible for hiring in central government, local authorities or defence. And for any corporate professional who has wondered whether the public sector could offer them something the private market cannot.
£6,125 Average cost per hire in the UK, before a bad hire multiplier is applied
1.5–3× Estimated cost of a failed hire as a multiple of annual salary
30%+ Decline in civil service new entrants from March 2024 to March 2025
Sources: CIPD Average Cost Per Hire UK 2025; PMB Recruitment, The True Cost of a Bad Hire in the UK, March 2026; CIPD Labour Market Outlook Winter 2025/26
What ‘corporate functions’ actually means
The term is used loosely and often dismissively. In practice, corporate functions are the operational infrastructure that every public sector organisation depends on to function at all.
In the context of central government, local authorities and defence, this covers:
- Finance and accounts – from transactional processing to strategic financial management, budget modelling and audit
- HR and people operations – workforce planning, employee relations, talent acquisition, learning and development
- Procurement and commercial – supplier management, contract negotiation, framework compliance, spend analysis
- Legal support and compliance – advisory functions, governance, risk management
- Programme and project management – delivery leads, PMO functions, business analysts
- Change and transformation – organisational change, process redesign, technology enablement
- Operations and administration – the coordinative and support layer that keeps complex organisations running
- None of these are back-office in the pejorative sense. They are the enabling architecture for everything an organisation delivers. When they are well-staffed with experienced, capable professionals, organisations function efficiently and withstand pressure. When they are not, the effects ripple outwards – into procurement decisions, financial controls, workforce stability and service delivery.
Why the talent market is under pressure right now
The public sector’s workforce challenge in 2026 is not simple. It is a paradox.
Demand remains despite shrinking headcount
On one hand, overall headcount is falling. The CIPD’s Labour Market Outlook for Winter 2025/26 recorded a net employment balance of -11 in the public sector, meaning significantly more employers expect staff numbers to fall than rise. Civil service new entrants decreased by more than 30% between March 2024 and March 2025 – the largest single-year drop on record. Voluntary exit schemes, recruitment freezes and compulsory redundancy programmes are running simultaneously across multiple departments.
On the other hand, the demand for experienced corporate professionals has not fallen at all. Finance and transformation roles, in particular, bucked the general trend in 2025. Organisations cutting overall headcount still need people who can implement new systems, optimise processes, manage budgets under constraint and provide the data-driven insight required to justify every pound of reduced expenditure.
“Finance and transformation roles bucked the general trend. Organisations needed professionals who could implement new systems, optimise processes, and provide the data-driven insights required to justify every pound spent.” – Broster Buchanan, 2025 Year in Review: Public Sector Finance Recruitment
The result is a market where overall vacancy numbers are falling but specialist corporate function roles – particularly at mid-to-senior level – remain genuinely hard to fill. The professionals who can do this work are not browsing job boards. They are busy, in demand, and approached actively rather than reactively.
Local government under pressure
Local authorities are operating under acute financial pressure. The Institute for Government’s 2025 Performance Tracker noted that local government spending power – even after Labour’s funding increases – will remain 2.7% below 2010/11 levels in real terms by 2028/29. That financial constraint makes experienced finance and procurement professionals more critical, not less. Yet the same constraint limits what councils can offer in salary, which tightens the talent pool further.
Defence faces similar challenges
In defence, the picture is different but no less acute. The 2025 Strategic Defence Review identified a workforce crisis across military, civil service and industrial roles, specifically calling out financial management as a key capability gap. At 1 April 2026, the MOD civilian workforce stood at 55,351 FTE – a decrease of 451 from the previous year – while the pressures of Defence Reform and the establishment of new organisational structures (the Department of State, Defence Nuclear Enterprise, Military Strategic Headquarters and National Armaments Director Group) create significant demand for experienced corporate professionals who can operate in complex, security-conscious environments.
55,351 MOD civilian FTE at April 2026, down 451 from the prior year amid Defence Reform
–11 Public sector net employment balance (Winter 2025/26) – more employers expect falls than rises
6.19m Total UK public sector employment (December 2025), up 43,000 year-on-year – with specialist gaps persisting
Sources: MOD Biannual Civilian Personnel Report, GOV.UK, May 2026; CIPD Labour Market Outlook Winter 2025/26; ONS Public Sector Personnel, March 2026
The real cost of getting it wrong
A failed or delayed corporate function hire is expensive in ways that most organisations do not fully account for.
According to CIPD data, the average cost per hire in the UK is £6,125 – and that figure covers only the direct recruitment costs. Industry estimates consistently place the total cost of a bad hire at 1.5 to 3 times the annual salary of the role, once you factor in lost productivity during the vacancy, the management time spent on hiring and onboarding, the cost of the leaver’s notice period, potential exit payments, and the disruption to team performance.
For a Finance Business Partner on a £55,000 salary, a failed hire could cost the organisation between £82,500 and £165,000. For a Head of Procurement at £75,000, the range runs from £112,500 to £225,000. These are not abstract figures. They represent the real financial exposure that public sector organisations carry when they approach corporate function hiring reactively, slowly, or outside a compliant and quality-assured process.
The Employment Rights Act 2025, implemented in stages from April 2026, has added further complexity. Statutory Sick Pay is now payable from day one. New family leave provisions, enhanced protections against unfair dismissal and changes to probationary period obligations have all raised the cost of an early-stage departure – making the quality of the original hiring decision more consequential than ever.
“The cost of replacing experienced staff is high, both financially and operationally. Vacancy rates remain high, driving reliance on agency staff and interim support – which has increased cost and reduced long-term resilience.” – Huntress, Public Sector Workforce Planning & Procurement: 2026 Outlook
How RM6277 works – and why it matters for corporate functions
For public sector organisations hiring corporate function professionals, RM6277 is the recommended compliant route to market.
RM6277 is the Non Clinical Staffing framework, managed by the Government Commercial Agency – formerly Crown Commercial Service, which rebranded on 1 April 2026. It is available to all public sector bodies, including central government departments, local authorities, the NHS, universities, blue light services and charities. There are no membership fees and no upfront costs to access it.
Spinwell Global is an approved supplier on RM6277 across three lots directly relevant to corporate functions:
- Lot 2: Corporate Functions – covering finance, HR, procurement, legal support, administration and secretarial roles
- Lot 3: IT Professionals – covering IT technicians, analysts, technical engineers and digital workers
- Lot 5: Scientific, Technical & Clinical Coding – covering environmental, scientific and specialist roles
Using a framework supplier like Spinwell simplifies the procurement process significantly. For a direct award under RM6277, you do not need to run a separate competitive tender – you can identify a supplier who meets your requirements and award directly, particularly for single or small groups of workers. This removes procurement risk, shortens time-to-hire, and ensures compliance with the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force in February 2025 and introduced enhanced transparency requirements and supplier due diligence obligations across all public sector contracting.
For organisations with higher volume needs, RM6277 also supports managed service arrangements, where a supplier manages all workforce requirements either directly or through a supply chain – with built-in discounts for volume, length of placement, and nominated workers.
What Spinwell does in the corporate functions space
Spinwell Global specialises in placing corporate function professionals across central government, local authorities and defence. Our consultants work across finance, HR, procurement, operations, change and transformation, and legal and compliance disciplines.
We are not a generalist agency. Our approach is active sourcing: identifying candidates who are not actively looking but who have the right profile, approaching them through networks built over years in specific markets, and presenting a shortlist that reflects the reality of what the market can deliver rather than who happened to apply.
For public sector clients, we operate within RM6277 as an approved supplier, providing full compliance infrastructure including right-to-work checks, pre-employment screening, BPSS compliance for roles requiring baseline security clearance, and IR35 assessment support for contractor engagements.
We also hold approval on the Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7 (DOS7) framework through the Government Commercial Agency, providing an additional compliant route for technology and digital corporate function roles.
Most shortlists are delivered within five working days of brief receipt. We maintain a pre-screened database of over 108,000 individuals across our specialist disciplines.
For hiring managers
If you are a public sector organisation looking to fill a corporate function role through RM6277 or DOS7, contact us. We can move quickly.
www.spinwellglobal.com · +44 203 510 9454
For candidates
If you work in finance, HR, procurement, operations, change or transformation and you are open to a conversation about public sector opportunities, we would like to hear from you.
www.spinwellglobal.com · +44 203 510 9454
About Spinwell Global
Spinwell Global is a specialist recruitment consultancy with offices in the UK, Dubai and Singapore. We place professionals across digital, technology, risk, security, and specialist disciplines into public sector, private sector and startup organisations worldwide. We are an approved supplier on the Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7 (DOS7) framework and on RM6277 (Lots 2, 3 and 5) through the Government Commercial Agency (GCA).
Get in touch with us
Sources
CIPD. Analysis of the Public Sector Workforce Report. September 2025.
CIPD. Labour Market Outlook – Winter 2025/26. February 2026. https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/knowledge/knowledge-hub/reports/2026-pdfs/9094-lmo-winter-2025-26-report-web.pdf
PMB Recruitment. The True Cost of a Bad Hire in the UK: A Comprehensive Analysis. March 2026. https://www.pmbrecruitment.com/post/the-true-cost-of-a-bad-hire-a-comprehensive-analysis
Broster Buchanan. 2025 Year in Review: Public Sector & Not-for-Profit Finance Recruitment. December 2025. https://brosterbuchanan.com/2025-year-in-review-public-sector-not-for-profit-finance-recruitment-in-yorkshire/
Huntress. Public Sector Workforce Planning & Procurement: 2026 Outlook. 2026. https://www.huntress.co.uk/insight/why-2026-will-redefine-public-sector-workforce-planning-and-recruitment
Institute for Government. Performance Tracker 2025: Local Government. December 2025. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/performance-tracker-2025/local-services/overview
Institute for Government. Whitehall Monitor 2026: Part 2 – The State of the Civil Service. January 2026. https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/whitehall-monitor-2026/part-2-state-civil-service
MOD. Biannual Civilian Personnel Report, April 2026. GOV.UK, May 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-biannual-civilian-personnel-report-april-2026
ONS. Public Sector Employment, UK: December 2025. GOV.UK, March 2026. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel
Policy Connect. A ‘War-Fighting Ready’ Workforce? Tackling UK Defence Skills Shortages in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review. December 2025. https://policyconnect.org.uk/blog/war-fighting-ready-workforce-tackling-uk-defence-skills-shortages-2025-strategic-defence/
Government Commercial Agency. RM6277 Non Clinical Staffing. https://www.gca.gov.uk/agreements/RM6277
PSIP. UK Government Procurement Statistics – 2026 Data and Trends. March 2026. https://psip.co.uk/blog/uk-government-procurement-statistics
Grove HR. True Cost of Hiring an Employee UK 2026. March 2026. https://grove.hr/blog/true-cost-hiring-employee-uk
