Right Grayling, wrong crime
The UK parliament’s Justice Select Committee has finally confirmed what we predicted in our blogs and advised the Committee as early as 2013. The so-called ‘rehabilitation revolution’, or contracting out of probation services, by the then Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, has been a complete failure. There has been a reduction in quality of service, “disappointing” … Continue reading
The Kabul model
The Ministry of Labour Social Affairs Martyrs & Disabled (MoLSAMD) in Afghanistan (the equivalent of DWP in the UK or DEEWR in Australia), with technical assistance from the World Bank, are about to begin the contracting of two pilot employment programmes. One aims to open up a formal migration channel for thousands of Afghanistan workers … Continue reading
Selling tomorrow
In her last post, Jane talked about how an exclusive focus on cost in the reform of public services is to the detriment of the value of those services. Far from delivering ‘value for money’, a blinkered focus on short-term ‘savings’, and consequent loss of value, may ultimately drive up long-term cost. In the last … Continue reading
Making the Work Programme work
(An edited version of the following article first appeared in The Guardian on 7th February 2012.) The contracts for the Work Programme were competed on price. That is, would-be providers were invited to say how cheaply they could do it, and the cheapest were then awarded the most contracts. Unfortunately, this entirely misses the point. … Continue reading
Buying Quality Performance 