Category Archives: public sector

Labour’s proposals for an outsourcing revamp reflect a trend of insourcing

Reviews of outsourced public service contracts – as proposed by Labour – should involve a range of stakeholders, says outsourcing commentator John Tizard. John McDonnell and Andrew Gwynne announced this weekend that Labour will reset the default for local government services to be publicly owned, publicly managed and publicly accountable. The policy proposal with its associated guidance… Read More...

Local government must surely be up for a shift to insourcing

Labour’s call for the ‘Democratisation of Local Public Services’ and its ‘plan for 21st century insourcing’ – http://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Democratising-Local-Public-Services.pdf – should be of interest to local authorities of all political persuasions; and welcomed by most. After four decades of outsourcing, more outsourcing, and even more outsourcing of public services, there are signs that local authorities are now beginning… Read More...

Summer reflections

It has been another challenging six months for those working in the public sector, as it has in other sectors too, but the accumulative effect of over ten years of austerity is taking its toll. Local authorities are reporting that they cannot guarantee to meet their statutory duties and are struggling to respond to increases… Read More...

Sector leadership must be robust and focused

Charities do not exist for the comfort of executives and staff but to maximise outcomes for beneficiaries, members and communities argues the chair of Navca Being invited to speak on leadership at this week’s Merton Voluntary Service Council’s conference on Leadership, Innovation and Partnership has required me to reflect more broadly on leadership, both within… Read More...

A Domesday Book for outsourced public sector contracts is needed

Better data collection on outsourced public services would mean an improvement in assessing their value for money, says outsourcing consultant John Tizard. The National Audit Office has slammed the government’s failure to invest in recording quality data. The NAO is right to call for better contemporary and accurate data across government and the wider… Read More...

John Tizard: Let’s radically strengthen the Social Value Act – let’s change culture, not just the rules

The Government is currently consulting on the future and potential strengthening of social value legislation and regulation. John Tizard This is to be welcomed. When a public body spends public money, whether through directly managed services, campaigns to influence public or business behaviour or procuring services and goods, it should always seek to maximise public… Read More...

The language of the market has distorted strategic commissioning Procurement

The language of the market has distorted strategic commissioning Procurement and contracting with the VCS is an option, but should never be the default choice While preparing to speak at a conference on the third sector and commissioning this week, I was struck by the extent to which practitioners and policymakers appear to have swallowed… Read More...

We should call time on the marketisation of public services

The current situation means the expertise and representative voice of the sector is lost Over the past decade or so, the voluntary and community sector has too often accepted without challenge the prevailing ideology and practice of applying market mechanisms to public services and the associated view that the key role of the VCS is… Read More...

Time for an overhaul of public audit

The crisis in company audit has knock on consequences for public audit – and now is a good time to review the remit of the National Audit Office, say John Tizard and David Walker Sir John Kingman hit the Financial Reporting Council hard in his report on the professional watchdog a couple of months ago. His… Read More...

Beyond contracting: public service stewardship to maximise public value

In this blog, John Tizard, co-author of our latest report Beyond contracting: public service stewardship to maximise public value, introduces some key issues and arguments. This is part of our series on public procurement – find out more here. The public sector in Wales spends over £6bn per year on the procurement of services, works and goods.… Read More...