I'm one of the authors of a new
@instituteforgov
report on outsourcing.
We've undertaken a detailed review of the evidence to assess what's worked and what needs reform.
Tl;dr - Govt has oversold benefits but blanket insourcing would be a mistake
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Excellent thread from
@tom_sasse
on the key findings from
@instituteforgov
's new report on outsourcing
Today we’ve published a new
@instituteforgov
report on government outsourcing – what’s worked, what hasn’t and why. We find successive governments have been guilty of repeated outsourcing failures but bringing services in-house by default risks throwing away the successes/1
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@NJ_Davies
@instituteforgov
Are there any patterns according to sector? Eg does
#localgov
outsourcing work better? Looking at your list, I suspect the answer is really that the best services to outsource are relatively simple, repetitive and easy to measure.
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@SimonFParker
@instituteforgov
Yes, definitely fair to say that simpler, transactional services have been outsourced more successfully. No clear trend on local vs central govt from academic evidence but likely that deeper cuts to local govt have had an impact in terms of commerical capability and focus on cost
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@NJ_Davies
@ianmulheirn
@instituteforgov
V interesting report. But don't understand why 1 of your criteria for success is existence of 'competitive market'. Competition often v inefficient way to regulate market provision. Indeed competition often leads to huge detriment. Why not use public value or some other measure?
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@MickMcAteer
@ianmulheirn
@instituteforgov
I absolutely agree that there are limits to competition and that public bodies should consider public value but the evidence suggests that outsourcing is less likely to succeed where there is no competitive market of adequate suppliers
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@NJ_Davies
@instituteforgov
Really interesting, thanks! Currently working on local authorities corporatisation (local authorities setting up trading companies instead of outsourcing). Did you find any examples where this was considered an alternative?
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@piotrweg
@instituteforgov
Thanks. It's not something that this report looked at in detail. However, the next phase of our work is on insourcing and that will include an assessment of the use of trading companies. We'll likely publish spring next year. Would be interested in your research when published
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@NJ_Davies
@instituteforgov
My dissertation research would entirely concur with a red status on probation. Provision for rehabn. and recividism reduction looks appalling.
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