Outsourcing could work if it went to companies who value people over profit | Tom Lloyd Goodwin and Neil McInroy
From test and trace to care homes, it's time to bring public services back in house and award contracts to social enterprises
England's world-beating" test-and-trace service has failed to materialise. Riddled with problems since its inception, it has been described as barely functional, with demand up to four times that of capacity and 90% of tests failing to hit the 24-hour turnaround target.
But the problems with test and trace go far deeper than the incompetencies of this government. Over the last 30 years, Britain has shifted from having a market economy to being a market society where large swathes of public services are outsourced to the private sector. NHS test and trace is a prime example of this model, with management consultants such as Deloitte and Serco running large parts of a system where shareholder value appears to have trumped the needs of our frontline services.
Related: Private equity and care: a sector propped up by debt
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