Rethinking Governance in Public Service Outsourcing

Compelling and robust, this book provides an analysis of challenges in public service outsourcing and considers how to avoid failure in the future.

Crucially, it proposes a governance mechanism where outsourcing public services nurtures less extractive and more sustainable corporate organizations that are oriented towards a productive purpose beyond maximising shareholder value, with implications well beyond public services. Under these proposals, supporting firms that are independently and inclusively governed and use profit to pursue purpose can improve both public services and wider economic organisation.

The book examines how barriers to implementing this idea within the existing legal framework for public procurement may be addressed, and it formulates actionable policy proposals.