Why a ‘thin client’ is a bad policy

This Barnet UNISON Briefing examines the London Borough of Barnet’s plan to allocate just 2.5% client costs in the planned outsourcing of planning, environment health, trading standards, highways planning and cemeteries. The amount allocated would hardly be adequate to fund contract management and monitoring, leaving nothing to fund other client functions. It discusses the effects of Barnet Council’s ‘thin client’ plans, commissioning and client responsibilities, resources required for contract management and monitoring and the consequences of under-resourcing the client function.