Market testing

The media have caught up with our disclosure last week of how Lib Dem-run Swansea Council is quietly planning to “outsource” adult social services contracts worth up to £100 million.

Confronted with questions by the local press and the Beeb, cabinet member Nick Tregoning claimed the authority is simply putting together a business case to operate social services as a “social enterprise”. He added that this was why the tendering notice was only in the public domain for a week. Cynics contend however that if this is true - as the the notice is still available on-line - then it was pulled only after an internal outcry from senior staff. They also point out that a section of the nine page report nodded through cabinet in October refers to “tender readiness and procurement” as part of the sell-off transfer process.

Interviewed live this morning, Tregoning told the BBC that he needed to make services more sustainable and introduce better decision-making within the department – an admission, some might say, that it has not been particularly good during his watch or his predecessor’s. That aside, his strident denials of privatisation-by-stealth sounded very hollow indeed.

Of course, Tregoning, whose day job is a researcher for AM Peter Black, could not even begin to introduce the idea of a sell-off without the backing of the Lib Dem council leadership and cannon-fodder colleagues. This in turn raises some questions about the consistency of “campaigners” who scream bloody blue murder over a lack of consultation on local NHS issues and yet nod like donkeys when it comes to parceling-off social services and the closure of respite homes.

Update: Sandwell rejects social enterprise says the headline. Hmmm.