Serco sauce - putting the sauce into outsourcing |
In the wake of the financial
crisis of 2007-8, Britain found itself with one of the largest budget deficits
in the developed world. In 2009/10 the deficit peaked at 11.3% of GDP, the
highest since the levels of borrowing required to finance the Second World War.
Inheriting such unsustainable levels of borrowing, the Coalition Government
came to power in 2010 on a promise to undertake a significant program of
retrenchment. But what is the effect of austerity measures on government
outsourcing?
Despite the association of
outsourcing with cutting costs, one might expect government spending cuts to
result in less outsourcing, as fewer new contracts become available. Indeed,
the surge in outsourcing predicted by many failed to materialise in the
immediate aftermath of the 2010 election; the number of government contracts
awarded actually fell by 13% between 2009 and 2011. However, the entire value
proposition of firms like Serco, G4S and Capita is that they can provide the
same level of service provided by the government for less money. Thus,
outsourcing services and functions should be seen as key to mitigating the
impact of public sector spending cuts on services. In fact, despite the initial
dip in the number of contracts awarded, the total value of government contracts
awarded has doubled since the financial crisis, rising from £9.6 billion in
2008 to £20.4 billion in 2012. Austerity, then, has quite sensibly resulted in
more outsourcing.
The scale of the cuts is also seeing
outsourcing make inroads into areas where it has not yet penetrated. Barnet
Council, for example, is in the process of outsourcing around 75% of its
functions, including core services such as planning and environmental health;
the next logical step for the government’s education reforms would be allowing
for-profit enterprises to run schools in the state sector; and in March 2012,
the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Jeremy Haywood, even suggested that it was time to
end the monopoly of Civil Service mandarins on providing policy advice to
ministers, opening the function up to competition. Austerity is thus seeing a
greater range of services and functions being outsourced than ever before.
However, with more outsourcing
will also come greater scrutiny, and a pressure for ‘smarter’ outsourcing,
especially as outsourcing firms profit while the public finances ail. In an
early example, shortly after coming to power, the Cabinet Office Minister, Sir
Francis Maude met with 19 outsourcing firms for discussions to press for better
terms. Similarly, in 2010, Sir Phillip Green’s efficiency review criticised
government procurement “for failing to leverage both its credit rating and its
scale.” Multiple contracts for services have been signed with major government
suppliers by different departments at different prices. Serco, for example,
runs prisons for the Ministry of Justice, air bases for the Ministry of Defence
and hospitals for the Department of Health on a large number of different
contracts. Austerity has brought pressure for rationalisation. As a result, we should begin to see fewer, but larger
government contracts, allowing the government to take advantage of economies of
scale.
Smarter outsourcing also means
introducing new models of outsourcing. The model currently looked upon most
favourably in Coalition circles is Payment by Results, which links returns to
outcomes. This is hoped to drive improvements in service quality, and represents
better value for money for commissioning bodies, as they pay less if intended
outcomes are not achieved; it can also ease pressure on budgets by staggering
payments over longer time periods. Payment by Results schemes are quickly
becoming entrenched, the most prominent example being the multi-billion-pound
Welfare-to-Work scheme, which links payments to providers to service users
staying in employment. Other examples include the Serco-run HMP Doncaster,
where 10% of the contract price during the first four years is conditional on
Serco reducing the reconviction rates of offenders within a year of release by
5%. Similarly, Social Impact Bonds, which promise returns funded by
commissioning bodies to private investors if certain social outcomes are met,
are currently being used to tackle homelessness in London and reoffending in
Peterborough.
In conclusion, austerity has resulted
in a greater number and variety of outsourced services, and a pressure towards a
rationalisation of contracts and new models of outsourcing such as Payment by
Results.