A joint UNITE Somerset and European Service Strategy Unit statement summarising the case against the planned outsourcing of the Learning Disability Service. It exposes fundamental flaws and negligent practice, which indicate the Council has not learnt the lessons of the failed PPP Strategic Partnership contract with IBM.

The additional cost of PFI for the PPP1 schools project is estimated to be £104m compared to the cost of direct provision by the City Council. Offshore infrastructure funds own a majority of equity in the special purpose company and 100 percent of equity in the PPP2 project. http://www.scotsman.com/business/flawed-schools-cost-capital-100m-too-much-says-pfi-expert-1-4102451

A prime example of connecting the £11.5m profit from Balfour Beatty’s 50% stake in the PFI special purpose company to the HICL offshore infrastructure fund generating a 19% return; the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust’s forecast of a £14.9m deficit this year; a £17m PFI payment due in 2016 towards the total project cost of…

The New Zealand Department of Corrections took over management of Serco’s 10-year NZ$300m Mount Eden remand prison contract in 2015 after just four years. Serco has now agreed to pay £4m for the cost of state intervention and outstanding performance penalties. It is limited to a labour supply agreement at cost until 31 March 2017.

The title of an article in *The Guardian* (by Lizzie Presser) which draws on ESSU’s database of PPP Strategic Partnerships and evidence of a high contract failure rate. Includes comments about the benefits of in-house services from leaders of Cumbria County Council, Liverpool City, the London Borough of Islington and the Local Government Association’s improvement…

The Chinese translation of the summary report of The New Health and Social Care Economy study of Sefton MBC, Liverpool and Greater Manchester City Regions and North West regional economy – see News, July 2015. Thanks to Prof. Li Bing, Beijing.

This is a radical proposal by the People vs Barts PFI campaign which has been researching and discussing ‘what to do about PFI’ for several years. The paper explains what SPVs are, how SPVs spin off private profit from public assets and proposes a mechanism for nationalising the SPVs. Proposals to strengthen the public design,…

The Council finally terminated the 2007 contract after years of failing to achieve savings, poor performance, expensive contractual disputes and returning some services in-house. Details of these events are contained in various editions of the PPP Strategic Partnership Database http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/ppp-database/ppp-partnership-database/ Two reports by ESSU predicted these problems. http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/publications/public-bodies/strategic-service-delivery-partnerships/somerset-isis-or-crisis-an-assessment-of-the-p/somerset-isis-report.pdf http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/publications/public-bodies/strategic-service-delivery-partnerships/southwest-one-lessons-and-new-agenda-for-publi/southwest-one-final.pdf Dave Orr, a retired UNISON member,…

“What we are for is equally important as what we are against” was the theme of a large public meeting on 16 September at Nottingham University. The presentation described the dynamic forces, public sector ‘transformation’ and set out alternative strategies to regenerate public services. The meeting was jointly organized by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation,…