[Heorot]

Bibs, a lot of the equipment supplies is down to the local authority dept responsible. The relevant dept for the council I worked for had a poor record of supplying stuff and there were so many complaints that investigators were sent to find out what the problem was. It turned out that they had spent their entire capital budget on buying new equipment and there was no cash left. This was despite them having a warehouse full of returned stuff. Because they were not recording the returns, they had no idea what they had in store so they always issued new. The dept was closed down and the function passed on to a private company that was subsequently shown to provide a better service for a lower cost to the council.

Having worked in 22 private companies before going to work at the council I was appalled at the bureaucracy and waste in the departments I was dealing with. Four years ago fifty back office jobs in Social Services were axed as a result of the reduction in the central government grant. There was no noticeable effect on the service provided.