Barriers to level playing field in services 'too big'

By Andy Ricketts, Third Sector Online, 16 July 2008

Local authorities have tended to select the same contractors when commissioning public services because the obstacles to organisations competing on a level playing field are too great, a report has concluded.

An interim report on a project by the Office for National Statistics on developing a way of measuring success in adult social care contracts says that councils chose the same suppliers because it was too difficult to be fair to different bidders. An inconsistent approach to assessing quality and a...