News
Government outsourcing: what has worked and what needs reform?
Institute for Government, the think tank aiming to improve Government by the use of research and analytics, has ranked outsourced services (those delivered by the private or voluntary sector), indicating which they believe have been outsourced successfully and which need reform.
They highlight the fact that consecutive governments have overstated the benefits of outsourcing, where senior politicians regularly claim that outsourcing can still deliver 20–30% savings. They claim there is no evidence to support this.
The report notes that outsourcing waste collection, cleaning, catering and maintenance services has delivered significant savings and benefits to citizens, whereas offender tagging and probation, welfare assessments and other high-profile contracts like security at the Olympics have failed.
These contracts have wasted millions of pounds, delivered poor services and undermined public trust. The outsourcing of probation failed on every measure, harming ex-offenders trying to rebuild their lives.
You can read the report summary here and the full report here