Nick Davies
Programme Director
All work
Outsourcing and privatisation
What is the difference between privatisation and outsourcing?
How fit were public services for coronavirus?
Failures in planning and funding cuts meant public services were not well prepared to handle the coronavirus crisis.
Matt Hancock’s speech on the future of healthcare is unlikely to survive contact with reality
The health secretary has delivered an ambitious speech on the future of health and social care but the policies proposed will be hard to implement
The criminal justice system
The UK criminal justice system is facing unprecedented court case backlogs and record prisoner numbers.
Government outsourcing: when and how to bring public services back into government hands
Bringing back services from the private sector to government hands can improve quality, increase reliability, and save money.
Ending the outsourcing of probation is the right decision
Transferring services back to the public sector is the right decision, though it should not be attempted overnight.
A coronavirus testing target is only valuable if it is part of a wider exit strategy
Increasing coronavirus testing capacity is useful, but the target will only be of value if is part of a wider exit strategy
Carillion: two years on
The Johnson government risks another Carillion if it doesn’t get behind the reforms put forward after the firm’s liquidation.
Five per cent spending cuts will be difficult to achieve
The extent of the savings planned by the government might be difficult to achieve
Boris Johnson must now deliver his promised plan to fix social care
Boris Johnson now owns responsibility for fixing a broken social care system.