Competition killed the cat
“Serco is certainly guilty of a lack of imagination. It has grown to where it is on the back of years of outsourcing, with successive governments of every colour looking to use contracting in order to cut the perceived waste in public sector delivery.” Richard Johnson looks at the experience of Serco in the outsourcing of public services.
Doing the Ministry’s bidding
“The Ministry of Justice is absolutely desperate to give its TR omnishambles planned for probation some semblance of credibility by making sure that not all the ‘prime’ contracts are awarded to the questionable big boys…” Jim Brown looks at how charities and mutuals are trying to pick up probation contracts.
Collateral damage
“We know without any shadow of a doubt that there is absolutely no evidence or professional argument that can be advanced to support this Transforming Rehabilitation omnishambles that is being imposed upon us.” Jim Brown looks at what the lessons of the Work Programme could mean for the outsourcing of probation.
Grayling in a corner
“It’s becoming ever more clear …that there simply aren’t going to be enough bidders for the probation contracts being advertised this week, and as a result peace is breaking out between the minister and naughty Serco and G4S.” Jim Brown wonders how the MOJ will outsource probation service without the involvement of the ‘big boys’.
Capita, Serco, G4S, government and the rise and rise of electronic tagging
“It seems that Capita has positioned itself (with three other companies) to take over the dire electronic tagging system run by Serco and G4S for the Ministry of Justice. By “dire,” I mean “very likely fraudulent”…” Kate Belgrave is concerned about Capita’s expansion into the electronic tagging market.
It’s political stupid!
The march of outsourcing or privatisation of public services appears to have few boundaries, with whole new sectors being announced at regular intervals. Many felt that the announcement by Michael Gove that Doncaster Borough Council was to be stripped of its children’s services for at least five years was in effect a trial run for the whole […]
Omnishambles update 9
Another day, another report saying that outsourcing is going wrong and that civil servants are simply not up to the task of writing the contracts. This time it’s the independent think tank the Institute for Government as reported here in the Guardian:- The government has been told to pull back its large-scale programme to outsource public services, […]
Things are turning toxic
You sort of know things are going pear-shaped when you start seeing influential people like Dame DeAnne Julius, a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Affairs Committee, rushing to the aid of outsourcing. As quoted in this Public Service website, she remains confident that a little difficulty over G4S and Serco shouldn’t put anyone off […]
Grayling turns on G4S
Just as it seemed not a lot was happening, it looks like Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has forfeited any chance of one day being invited on to the Board of G4S by referring them to the Serious Fraud Office over the electronic tagging contracts dating back possibly as far as 1999. Suspicions were raised several months ago that G4S […]
The NHS at 65: the Coalition are retiring our public health service
The National Health Service (NHS) celebrates its 65th birthday today. While coalition politicians cut ribbons, they are also busy cutting the lifelines that make the service viable. Ceaseless scare stories, never ending costly reorganisations, rampant commercialisation and privatisation, and deliberate loading of unsustainable debt onto hospital balance sheets. It is time for a reminder of what […]
Contract negotiations begin
I notice that the Ministry of Justice held a ‘Probation Marketing Opportunity’ on Thursday for all those privateers interested in putting bids in, like G4S and Serco and Napo turned up to greet them. Now there are those that feel MoJ officials would have significant difficulty arranging a serious group libation in a brewing facility, let alone sorting […]
Omnishambles announced
Following the Queens speech yesterday, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling intends to seal his political fate later today by publishing a draft bill that not only privatises the majority of probation work, but also lays the foundations for a perfect omnishambles. Even before the announcement was made, I notice that another new organisation has entered the […]
The killing zone
“Primes not delivering and a ‘killing zone’ [exists] for the third sector. What amazes me is that faced with all this blindingly-obvious and damning evidence, the ‘primes’ continue to be bullish about their ‘success’ and the DWP says things will get better. It’s utterly surreal.” Jim Brown worries that the adoption of payment by results in probation services doesn’t look too promising.
Squaring the circle
“Unfortunately the big contracting boys, G4S, Serco, Amey etc all hate it. So how can the circle be squared? How can the contractors be reassured that they can make lots of money without fiddling the payment measure?” Jim Brown responds to a Policy Exchange report on how payment by results is introduced in criminal justice, and senses a commercial agenda at odds with the supposed Holy Grail of public service reform.
Selling public services - where’s the evidence for outsourcing?
In posts over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at the issues of accountability, transparency and reliability raised by the Government’s ‘open public services’ agenda, in particular its plans to outsource more public services. We’ve focused especially on how outsourcing threatens to undermine another recently announced Government initiative, that for ‘open policy making.’ If the Government […]