General Chat

A county council has agreed to slash its £1.1bn budget by 30% by outsourcing almost all its services.

The decision by Suffolk County Council could be seen as model for other councils to follow.

Under the New Strategic Direction almost all council services will be offloaded to social enterprises or companies over the next few years.

Unions have warned the plan puts a huge number of the council's 27,000 jobs at risk.

The aim is to turn the authority from one which provides public services itself, to an enabling council which commissions other to carry out the services.

It could eventually see the council's workforce slimmed down to just a few hundred people who would manage the contracts.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11398678

Any views?

But will other councils to follow.?

I am in two minds on this... ( that makes a change ;) ) it MIGHT cut out some of the bureaucracy, but as has been said it may lead to poor services in certain areas. I haven't lived in this area long enough to know how much it would affect the services here, speaking only of those I have used they are very good here
( certainly in comparison to where I used to live) .

I was a bit side tracked on that page you gave the link to SRS by the headline at side
" Montana woman fights bear with courgette" lol

OK as long as the service is comparable. So many services contracted out in the past, cleaning services for the MOD for one, were nowhere near as efficient once contracted out, they pared down the service to be able to offer a lower price to the detriment of their services.

"Montana woman fights bear with courgette" lol

Maybe I should have started a thread with that title instead Rose lol

The last sentence:
"It could eventually see the council's workforce slimmed down to just a few hundred people who would manage the contracts."
Sums it up.

The overpaid management dreamed up this idea, and they've made damned sure they stay in position.

We all know what's happened to hospital wards since cleaning has been done by contractors - no-one has any pride in their job, and they're meant to do the job in half the time, on half the pay.
It's disgusting.
The best thing councils could do to save money would be to halve their overpaid 'senior' management!

I know a little about this.

The idea isn't the council's - it's one of this government's latest, greatest "big ideas". They are committed to it. If you doubt what I say, have a look at the Number 10 website, find the section on Structural Reform Plans, go to the one for the Cabinet Office, and then look at SRP 6.3

The nearest we've come to this to date has been in the PCT, where the "right to request" led to about 20 PCT services being outsourced. Not to private contractors, but to the very staff who have always delivered them, but acting as a social enterprise instead of as part of the public sector. IE the staff owned the company who delivered service and delivered it under contract to the PCT

There have been a few examples of where this has worked. And others of where it didn't.

The real key to this is that, where there is a genuine will amongst staff to be entrepreneurial, it can work.

Unfortunately, the budgetary pressures which local authorities are being put under has led some of them down this road. Which leads to more stick, less carrot.

If you want more info, please do pm me

Sue x

Someone wrote a very good letter to our local newspaper recently.
Our local council recently negotiated a big contract with Connaught for repairs to housing and all sorts of other services in the city. Now they have gone bust, and it was on the cards when the contract was being negotiated, things are dire in Norwich with repairs to housing being on hold and more.
Someone wrote in and suggested that instead of setting up yet another contract with a big company, the council could use several of the small local companies of long standing to get work done. Sounds worth looking at to me, but then our local Councils are never sensible.

Lizx

What Squirrel was talking about is a bit different.

The idea in Suffolk (rightly or wrongly) is that council staff who are currently delivering a service could possibly deliver the same service, but do so as a social enterprise - ie they form their own, not for profit, company and are awarded a contract to deliver said service outside of their local authority.

More "big society" or a chance for staff to do things their own way?

Sue x