When does government outsourcing work?

Problems with government outsourcing are never far from the headlines, and the collapse of Carillion and woes of Capita have brought the issue into sharp focus. Yet some contracts are a success, with companies and charities delivering high quality services. The question is under what circumstances outsourcing is likely to work and whether government has the skills to do it effectively? To discuss this issue our expert panel included Joshua Reddaway, Head of Practice, Commercial & Contracting VFM at the National Audit Office; Gareth Rhys Williams, Government Chief Commercial Officer; Rupert Soames OBE, CEO of Serco and former CEO of Aggreko; Ed Welsh, Managing Director of Greenhill and former Executive Director in the Cabinet Office The event was chaired by Bronwen Maddox, Director of the Institute for Government.