Public service outsourcing: the implications of ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’ for accountability and policy-making

Abstract

Outsourcing is difficult to define and trickier to measure. Despite transparency and procurement requirements, there are no comprehensive datasets detailing the extent to which English councils have contracted-out service provision. This lack of information, coupled with austerity pressures, has probably increased the number of ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’ about the efficacy of this service delivery model. Such developments have significant implications for accountability, risk management and policy-making.

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