Somerset County Council plans to transfer the Council’s Learning Disabilities Provider Service to a new social enterprise established by Dimensions (UK) Ltd in April 2017. The service has an annual budget of nearly £30m and 1,160 staff. The social enterprise has announced plans to reduce all terms and conditions for the whole workforce, impose immediate redundancies, and to ‘redesign’ services with closures. This brief analysis highlights the risks and potential dire consequences of transferring services to social enterprises and arms length companies.
