Emeritus Prof Christopher MayAnd, as warned (expected) Keir Starmer (and We Streeting) are expanding the amount of work the NHS hands off to the private sector as a way of 'dealing' with the NHS crisis... of course, this is a solution that looks at capacity (which of course needs to be expanded) rather than at the costs of provision.... to expand capacity by adding high-cost private contractors, may be a short-term sticking plaster but of course 'robs Peter to pay Paul'!
WanWizard 🏴 🇳🇱@ChrisMayLA6 Nowhere,. ever, has outsourcing made things better and cheaper.
Cheaper usually means worse, if only because some of the money needs to be put aside for profits, bonuses and dividend payouts.
High costs and poor service in government is almost always caused by a combination of political meddling and people not caring about spending other peoples money (a specific breed of people that seems to be recruited for civil service and other government jobs).
Yup, my first academic job was on a business school project looking at outsourcing, and I reached exactly the same conclusion, even after I had accepted the logic of core-competences & gains from specialism - all the advantages that might be theorised were hoovered up into profits not enhanced anything!
Billy SmithAs Henry Ford said, "If you need a part, but just buy in the part from another company, you will pay for the machine to make the part, but you won't own it."
@ChrisMayLA6 I've worked for governments in IT projects on and off for over 20 years, and was a government advisor and consultant for 11. It has cost me my mental health.
The list of things wrong with a government organisation is long.
It starts with budgets, and the way they are allocated, which means it is impossible to plan anything long(er) term, as those things needs commitment from higher-up that the budget will be there.
@ChrisMayLA6
Then there's unwillingness to prioritize. Instead, they use what I call "salami tactics", and tell you there's a general cut of x%. One of my coworkers always used to say "ok, so which of the walls of the building shall we not build then?".
The costs of any project are what they are, you can't just cut x% and still do them all, you'll just end up with a long list of failures.
@ChrisMayLA6 Then there's the unwillingness to properly spend time (and money) to properly define and scope a project.
Instead, projects start without a clear plan, everything changes a million times along the way, making the cost of the projects spiral out of control (Scottish Ferries being a prime example).
And no fucks are usually given, as the money will come anyway, without haivng to put any effort in.
@ChrisMayLA6
When I started, my mentor used to say "pretend it is your money when you make spending descisions". Amongst the civil servants I worked with, you need to search for people with that attitude, most happily spend whatever budget is there, without much thought.
For some, the main focus is "spend it all", as when you don't, higher-up with think you don't need as much, and you'll get less budget the next year.
yes, the 'use it or lose it' is a frequent budgeting logic in large organisations; used to see it all the time at university (and as a middle manager adopted it myself, I'm afraid to say)
Agreed; the somali cuts (often presented as 'efficiency gains') are disproportionally difficult to resolve without warning project(s) or activities