Government outsourcing: what has worked and what needs reform?

Government outsourcing: what has worked and what needs reform?
Institute for Government 16 September 2019

• Outsourced services are those delivered by the private or voluntary sector. This report ranks which have been outsourced using red/amber/green scale. Outsourcing is said to be green in waste collection, cleaning, catering and maintenance; green/amber in Back office (HR and IT); and amber in Health care (clinical services by private providers).  The report examines why outsourcing succeeded or failed through a series of case studies.

Alternative models of service delivery by LAs

Local government: alternative models of service delivery
Commons Briefing papers SN05950 (updated 27 April 2016)

• This briefing paper contains examples of new forms of service delivery being implemented by local authorities, including shared services, outsourcing, 'insourcing', and the use of mutual.
• The briefing also includes notes on research that has been conducted on shared services, outsourcing, and trading, plus links to relevant statistical sources.
• Contents:

1. Service delivery in local government 
2. Shared services 
3. Outsourcing 
4. Trading, council companies, and income generation 
5. Community budgets 
6. New models of service delivery: accountability

NHS commissioners must learn from external consultants or lose local skills

What do external consultants from private and not-for-profit companies offer healthcare commissioners? A qualitative study of knowledge exchange
BMJ Open 2015;5:e006558

• A study of eight case studies (including 4 CCGs and 4 external providers) which examined the impact of external providers on the quality of commissioning concluded that “NHS commissioning will be disadvantaged if commissioners both fail to learn in the short term from the knowledge of external providers and in the longer term lose local skills. Knowledge exchange mechanisms are a vital component of commissioning and should be embedded in external provider contracts.”