Outsourcing Services

The Guardian has a cautionary tale from Warrington.  The authority there outsourced speech therapy to the NHS, which subsequently decided to axe this statutory service without telling Warrington Council.  It is a good illustration of one of the potential problems in partnership working.  There is always a danger of your partner, whether it is a private provider or another public authority like the NHS, letting you down.  The only way to deal with that, of course, is to ensure you are completely clear on the agreement and that you rigorously keep track that whatever you want is actually being done.