The Government’s announcement that it plans to tackle the horror of child slavery by making UK companies responsible for the employment practices of their supply chains surely raises wider opportunities for public sector procurement.
There is every reason why the public sector as a purchaser of goods and services should require their suppliers, and in turn those suppliers’ suppliers throughout...
Local government seems set to be a big loser in the 2015 Spending Review.
It will have to be innovative and resolute in its response.
It must act strategically with a long term focus.
The Government is seemingly placing great store by more outsourcing of public services to the business sector as a means of reducing expenditure and closing the deficit.
Should local...
Across the country in both urban and rural areas, local communities and families are experiencing increasing levels of poverty, greater inequality and less security in employment.
The consequences of welfare reforms, structural changes to both the public sector and industry, the growth in zero hours contracts and cuts to core public services are leaving an increasing number of people worse...
A National Audit Office report on open-book accounting creates the opportunity to develop new measures for greater transparency and accountability for outsourced public services
Published last week, the National Audit Office’s Open-book Accounting and Supply-Chain Assurance report was a welcome contribution to both the enhancement of public sector procurement and public accountability.
When a public body is spending significant sums...
When speaking to many friends and colleagues across the public sector (and indeed often to those in the social and charitable sectors), I am increasingly finding that the word ‘commercial’ creates some very strange and generally defensive reactions.
“We are not a business.” “We are not commercial.” “We are not about profit.” “That’s for the business sector – not for...
The news that Carolyn Downs is heading to Brent LBC set me wondering what my pitch would be if I were applying to be the next chief executive at the Local Government Association (LGA). Any applicant will need to consider the fact that unless something very dramatic and unforeseen were to occur, there will be a majority Conservative Government...
The government is about to announce £12bn of cuts to social security benefits. Although during the election campaign there was a commitment from the Conservative Party to make cuts of this magnitude – but there was no indication of where the axe would fall.
It now seems that the likeliest and biggest cuts will be to in-work benefits such as...
I was recently invited to contribute to two New Economics Foundation (NEF) workshops in London and Birmingham on the theme of ‘beyond austerity’.
Given the general election result on May 7 and the government’s stated policies, I have been pondering what realistically can be beyond austerity for at least the next five years.
However much we may wish the government to...
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,...