The new Conservative Government is pressing ahead with a programme of austerity, including ‘significant’ public expenditure cuts, for at least the next few years. Indeed, the ‘emergency’ budget on 8 July is now expected to herald further ‘in-year’ cuts for 2015/16.
Across the public sector, senior leaders (political and executive) are inevitably wondering how they can possibly balance their budgets,...
Public expenditure on public service outsourcing has almost doubled from £64bn to £120bn a year since 2010, according to a recent report from Information Services Group (ISG) as reported last week in the FT: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/244f0bd8-eccb-11e4-a81a-00144feab7de.html#axzz3Z4JoHSzj
In fact, public service outsourcing has not only grown in terms of volume of expenditure but also in the scope...
Greater devolution and decentralisation to the English cities and sub-regions must inevitably be a critical element of the public policy for the next few years. This is a given.
However, it is essential that such a policy is developed in partnership with local government, at both a national and local level. There should be no top-down approach, and all areas...
The outcome of the General Election has significant implications for the voluntary and community sector (VCS). At both a local and national level, it must now respond - in a constructive but principled manner.
Over the next two years, there will be deeper public expenditure cuts than over the last five years, and even by 2018/19, it is unlikely that...
There are strong reasons for profit capping and sharing in outsourcing deals, including bolstering moves to introduce universal accounting standards for all public service contracts. However, there will also be challenges that need to be overcome.
When Ed Miliband announced at the start of the general election campaign that a Labour government would cap the profits for firms with NHS...
Public procurement represents an ever-increasing proportion of public expenditure. Surprisingly, however (or perhaps not given its apparent ‘non-sexy’ nature), the topic has featured very little in the pre-General Election discourse or even the draft party manifestos.
Of course, there is ‘some’ political debate, which impacts on (and occasionally even mentions) procurement. Specifically, there is fierce public debate on the role...
All major political parties fighting the general election are committed to extending localism and decentralisation of power.
While this is a welcome sign that national politicians recognise that there is life, energy and the ability to find solutions outside SW1, it would be unfortunate if their vision of localism was about shifting responsibilities without some equivalent decentralisation of resources.
There needs...
As the general election campaign gathers pace over the coming weeks, it is vital that charities and other civil society organisations actively involve themselves with the campaign.
This engagement is core to their responsibility to their beneficiaries – as well as their duty to hold true to their missions.
Of course, it is not for charities to show bias towards or...