Public sector managers predict more outsourcing

survey of public sector managers in local government and the NHS by YouGov revealed last month that 58% believe outsourcing services will be important to maintaining services in a challenging economic environment. Commissioned by Interserve, the survey quizzed 384 senior public service managers, who said they expect further cuts will be made to frontline services. While one third of respondents said a strategy for dealing with budget cuts is yet to be developed, 58% believe that outsourcing to the private sector will be at least slightly important in meeting budgets and maintaining service levels. Recognition of the importance of the private sector was fairly high but a number of public sector decision makers note there are significant barriers to outsourcing, with a lack of trust (31%) and political concerns (38%) listed as some of the main obstacles. In the same vein, 27% of all those polled in health and local government expect headcount reductions of greater than 11% by 2016 and 65% anticipate a fall in available funding for training and skills development.

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