ABSTRACT
The evidence is partial and unreliable. However, for what it is worth, it is compatible with:
• Substantial price gaps between unit costs of in-house provision and the standard price for services purchased from the independent sector in many authorities. This suggests that the substitution of independently-provided services would allow expansion in service at little or no additional cost: the essence of the 'unconstrained' scenario. It still more strongly suggests that a situation approaching the unconstrained optimisation scenario is not an impossible goal for many, perhaps most, authorities to achieve.
