Time to end the disastrous experiment in outsourcing | Letters

The only winners from outsourcing are the wealthy investors, writes Norma Hornby, while Mike Scott says that campaigners in Nottingham finally managed to persuade their local NHS trust to reverse its privatising programme

Polly Toynbee’s powerful description of outsourcing as “a dogma that’s run out of road” is very apt (Opinion, 26 March). As a long-serving council employee and former chair of several charities in a deprived community in the north-west, I am only too aware that it is not possible, nor is it ethical, to make a profit at the expense of families and communities if their real needs are to be addressed. The recent Carillion debacle is only the tip of the iceberg because other profit-driven providers are cutting corners in order to maximise profits: the quality and quantity of delivery of contracted-out services has declined and their employment of unqualified and inexperienced staff can be shown to have contributed towards this.

The destruction of targeted youth services in favour of the universal National Citizenship Service and cuts to Sure Start and children’s centres have led to an escalation in child poverty, increased child mental health concerns and an increase in knife crime. The current lack of weekend and holiday time activities for children in deprived communities is exacerbated by food and heat deprivation, and outsourcing services has led to an underresourcing of provision.

Continue reading... March 28, 2018 at 10:24PM