It has certainly been a high profile couple of weeks for outsourcing.

Headlines such as ‘outsourcing: can it ever work?’ and 'humiliated' G4S to claim millions’ have really put outsourcing under the spotlight and negative press coverage has simply snowballed.

As the G4S story unravels hourly it seems not only were there critical flaws in the governance plan, change management, and the IT infrastructure but the partnership between the Government and G4S seemed doomed from the start due to an ineffective communications strategy.

What Theresa May is learning is that you cannot simply outsource risk. You can outsource the management but the issue will still be there and governance is a key part of that.

The issue of increasing a workforce from 2000 to 10,000 in a short time period is a huge undertaking and would require some serious change control from any organisation. It certainly raises the question as to what governance G4S and the Government had in place and if an effective plan along with the right people were involved in any way?

On a day to day basis, outsourcing relationships are a great success and provide knowledge, cost benefits, expertise and efficiencies to organisations of all sizes across the world. It is a shame that such a prominent failure has tainted the industry at a time when the public sector needs to make heavy cuts while keeping as many services as possible for us – the taxpayers.

Until the dust settles, G4S need to take their punishment and the Government should reflect on how they communicate with and manage their suppliers. Sharing best practice and our industry’s successes is the way forward. Not only to combat some of the negative press but to share the wealth of knowledge we have amassed and prove the value that outsourcing adds at both enterprise and national level.

The NOA’s Outsourcing Works Campaign aims to do just this and set the record straight through an upcoming research project that will unequivocally prove the benefits that outsourcing brings to the UK economy.

So hopefully some good news on the way – just remember don’t blame outsourcing for this Olympic debacle, one swallow does not make a summer..