Top ten private sector commissioning failures

Barnet Unison has put together its top ten list of privatisation and private sector commissioning failures. Some extraordinary ones in here. We might add more. There are plenty around, after all.

Follow the links to see how badly these private sector companies have "delivered" services:

1. Jeremy Hunt: 'completely normal' for contractor to fail to deliver http://ning.it/OV8pPC

2. Winterbourne - Timeline: Winterbourne View abuse scandal http://ning.it/18tbEaf

3. Southwest One contract dispute cost council £5.9m http://ning.it/18tbHTs

4. Timeline: how G4S's bungled Olympics security contract unfolded http://ning.it/1b4EnGP

5. G4S faces fraud investigation over tagging contracts http://ning.it/18tbNKJ

6. Private contractor fiddled data when reporting to NHS, says watchdog http://ning.it/1b4EwtN

7. Serco tagging scandal could hit sale of MoD agency contract - http://ning.it/1b4ExOp

8. MPs CALL FOR CAPITA CONTRACT TO BE AXED http://ning.it/1b4EHoV

9. BT overcharging Liverpool council by £10m a year, report claims http://ning.it/1b4EPoq

10. Southern Cross set to shut down and stop running homes - http://ning.it/1b4F0A1

and let's also add:

11. ATOS - with employment and support allowance appeals up by 70% in recent figures.

12. A special shoutout to ALS/Capita for the shambles made of the courts' outsourced interpreting service.

13. A4e for multiple allegations of fraud and getting just 3.5% of referrals into long term jobs – below the minimum target set by the DWP. 

14. We're saving this spot for companies involved with the development of Universal Credit.

15. The Fremantle Trust: Barnet council outsourced care for the elderly to the trust, which in due course slaughtered careworkers' wages and told them to work extra hours to make up their lost salaries. Careworkers were in dispute with the trust for two years. The Trust later admitted these cuts hadn't done much to improve the books. Its sister company, Catalyst, took the council to court for more money and was awarded millions in arbitration.

16. Care UK for failing to process the x-ray records of 6000 patients.

17. Out of hours care provider Harmoni: Privatised GP service understaffed and missing targets, watchdog finds.

See the Barnet Unison website for more on the fight against Barnet Council's mass privatisation plans.

This blog was first printed on False Economy.