Category Archives: outsourcing

We need to know who the public sector contracts with and how they perform

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has told the Government that it needs to better understand the number of contracts held across departments by a single private company, and how it is performing in those contracts. This comes after the Committee considered the failure of the largest commercial further education (FE) provider, ‘learndirect’.… Read More...

Pip And ESA Assessments Are Failing And It Is Time To Assess All Public Service Outsourcing

The report from the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee on the operation of the outsourced PIP and ESA assessments is yet another significant blow public service outsourcing. Though in reality, these blows are being inflicted not by the Select Committee but by poor contractual arrangements, poor contractor performance and, as in the… Read More...

John Tizard: The Outsourcing Debate: strategic ‘make or buy’ decisions can protect the public interest

The efficacy and even the ethics of public service outsourcing are being seriously questioned across the political divide but especially by the left. Similar deliberations are going on amongst public sector executives. And it would be no surprise to learn that investors, staff and executives in major outsourcing companies are wondering if this business model… Read More...

John Tizard and David Walker: Time to stop the ‘love-in’ with public service outsourcing

In a new Smith Institute report, Out of contract: Time to move on from the ‘love in’ with outsourcing and PFI, we are calling for an immediate pause in all public service contracting followed by a root-and-branch review of all existing deals. David Walker This report, published on 22 January. comes in the wake of… Read More...

Let’s shed some light on public sector contracting

Carillion’s collapse shows public sector outsourcing is risky and limited. It’s time for a rethink and greater scrutiny and transparency, argue John Tizard and David Walker. If last year the charred stump of Grenfell Tower symbolised the failure of arm’s length management of public services, then the collapse of Carillion shows the limits of the… Read More...

Public service outsourcing must promote whistleblowing

Last week the Bath Chronicle reported that Virgin Care asked staff not to report their safety concerns to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) or other regulators. If this is the case, it is wrong and unacceptable. Registered managers in health and social care have a legal obligation to report issues to the CQC if they… Read More...

Public sector outsourcing and contractors must always be transparent

The BBC programme Panorama recently reported that it had seen documents suggesting that G4S has been making significant profits from running two immigration removal centres near Gatwick Airport. One of these, Brook House, was the focus of a Panorama investigation, which exposed chaos, bullying and and the abusive treatment of detainees by some staff. Panorama… Read More...

The Political Parties Should Commit To An Enquiry Into Public Service Outsourcing

It is both interesting and encouraging that senior politicians have already spoken about public sector outsourcing and contracting in the first week of the 2017 General Election. Jeremy Corbyn has committed to using public procurement to drive up standards of employment, ensure trade union membership for employees and timely payments to suppliers especially smaller companies,… Read More...

Opportunity to showcase progressive public procurement

I am delighted to be a judge for the National Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards 2017/18 (National GO Awards). Having judged these national awards on several previous occasions, I am expecting to evaluate some exciting entries. If past years are anything to go by, I expect that I will be disappointed when… Read More...

Buyer, be aware when outsourcing – check bidders’ corporate health

Over the last year or so, and most recently in the last few weeks, there has been a litany of major UK outsourcing companies announcing profit warnings and facing major challenges to their business models.

Serco, G4S and now Mitie and Capita have hit the headlines for reasons that they would not have chosen. These companies and others are very...