In this comprehensive account, Janice Morphet analyses the role and use of outsourcing within the UK public sector since the mid-1970s.

Morphet examines the many drivers for the use of outsourcing in the public sector, including international agreements, new public management, performativity and austerity. She also takes in to account the role and failures of the private sector and its response to the opening up of public sector competition.

By investigating the way that outsourcing has been used in different service sectors and across scales, the book illustrates the impact it has had on ideology, policy narratives and public expectations in the present.

Janice Morphet has had a career in academia, local and central government and is now Visiting Professor in the Bartlett School of Planning, University College London.