OC&C Strategy Consultants, through new research and analysis, has found that the outsourcing of public services in the UK is set to grow by at least £20 billion by 2020.

OC&C’s research also found that departmental spending on outsourcing has increased from 22 per cent to 28 per cent over the course of this parliament. However, ISG recently released a report stating that the UK outsourcing market has been in decline this quarter, most likely as a result of uncertainty caused by the upcoming general election.

Of course, the growth of public sector outsourcing over the next five years could be largely dependent on which party (or parties) achieve political power: the Conservatives have demonstrated a brighter outlook on outsourcing, while certain representatives from the Labour party have scolded the industry as a whole.

Vivek Madan, a partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, commented: “Controversial cases of public sector outsourcing risk overshadowing the overwhelming number of examples where outsourcing is working well. With innovation in technology and a new wave of research into areas like criminology, there is more opportunity than ever to reduce costs and increase the quality of public services.

“Outsourcing neither fundamentally guarantees nor fundamentally prevents the delivery of world-leading public services. What we’ve seen all too often is successive governments and organisations committing one of the three deadly sins of outsourcing – focussing on inputs rather than outcomes, devolving too much or too little control to the contractor, or letting politics rather than reason drive decision-making.”

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