UNISON report on Insourcing

Privatisation is all the rage in central government as they swing the axe at public services, with budget cuts, the Localism Bill and the Open Public White Paper.  But the failures of outsourcing are becoming more obvious in local government and new research for UNISON by APSE highlights eight detailed case studies where councils have taken services back in-house to make them better and cheaper.

 “Insourcing update: The value of returning local authority services in-house in an era of budget constraints” sets out the financial advantages of “insourcing”, to help branches oppose privatisation proposals and build a case for current outsourcings to be brought to an end.  It also gives a step-by-step guide to taking services back in-house.

Survey results in the report show that the case studies are not isolated examples.  60% of council officers surveyed said the need to improve efficiency and reduce service costs had led them to consider bringing services back in-house. After cost, 44% of respondents said there was a need to improve service quality.

 

The financial benefit obviously depends on the size of the service involved, but 13% of respondents expected savings of up to £25,000 a year.  A further 8% reported savings of up to £250,000, 6% said £500,000 and 5% said £1 million could be saved per year.  Other advantages of insourcing included flexibility (64% of respondents), greater local responsibility (52%), improved staff morale (33%) and better terms and conditions (25%).

 

This publication builds on research in 2009 which highlighted 50 examples of councils’ insourcing services (see www.apse.org.uk/page-flips/2011/insourcing/files/in-sourcing.pdf).

 

You can read the report online here