The trend towards ever-greater outsourcing is putting vital public services in the hands of potentially unstable conglomerates but leaving public bodies with the asset risk.
Whitehall will not be able to cut spending and bring about a more efficient state unless it improves its management of outsourcing deals, Prime Minister David Cameron has been warned.
Councils dominated by one political party achieve lower procurement savings than more competitive authorities, with the difference as much as £2.6bn a year, according to an Electoral Reform...
Labour plans to accelerate the nationalisation of rail services by using break clauses in franchises to take operations into public ownership rather than waiting until the contracts expire.
Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock has set a cross-government target for one third of all Whitehall spending to be with small businesses by the end of the parliament.
Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a change to public procurement rules that will require Whitehall departments to take offers of apprenticeships into account when awarding large government...
As austerity has pushed down on public services, a plethora of risks and uncertainties have popped up in response. A recent Public Finance roundtable debated the issues at stake
With NHS finances under pressure, there is a need for more data, transparency and consistency to fully understand the implications and role of independent providers in the provision of NHS-funded...
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
An IT project designed to extract data from GP practice computers came in three times over budget and almost four years late, a National Audit Office investigation has found.
Neither the Treasury nor the Cabinet Office currently monitor how well payment-by-results schemes work, despite £15bn being spent through the contracts, the National Audit Office has said.
Lazy and inaccurate use of the terminology around commissioning and outsourcing undermines efforts to have a mature dialogue with the public on service reform. This needs to change.
A NHS productivity review has found that as much as £5bn could be saved annually across the health service through procurement improvements and changes to rotas to minimise the use of agency...
The proposed Garden Bridge across the Thames is an object lesson in how political initiatives can rub up against technocratic process. Reforming EU procurement legislation could allow big ideas to...
The public sector procurement function does not enjoy the status that it does in the private sector. This needs to change if we are to continue to drive efficiencies and add value
Chris Naylor has moved from suburban Barnet, and the London borough’s controversial outsourcing of public services, to be chief executive at working class Barking & Dagenham, where he sees...
The public sector is spending far more than private firms on outsourced services, despite a very patchy history of delivery. What can be done to promote better outcomes, particularly in value for...
Public sector organisations like councils and colleges can do much to work with suppliers on their doorstep and stimulate local economies. In Lancashire work is underway to ‘repatriate’...
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...
