Cardiff council denies 'outsourcing' stories

Cardiff Council and Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS) moved quickly today to deny reports in the Indian media suggesting that their recently signed long term strategic partnership will result in the outsourcing of jobs.

Cardiff Council has made it very clear in all press releases that the new partnership will not involve any Council staff being transferred to the private sector.

Instead the council says, TCS, based in India, will bring its global technical expertise and private sector commercial know-how to support a major change to the way in which the Council's technology infrastructure supports its day to day operations and facilitates improved service delivery to the citizens and communities of Cardiff.

The company will work closely with the Council's ICT Service to help deliver more efficient systems and ensure both parties benefit from an exchange of knowledge and experience.

Councillor Mark Stephens, Executive Member for Finance and Service Delivery, said: "These reports in the media are very disappointing and completely inaccurate as we have been very
specific since this contract was signed that there will be no job transfers. Many reports are describing this as an 'outsourcing deal' but that is simply not the case. This is very much a partnership to ensure staff both here and in TCS learn valuable new skills from each other."