Sir – A recent letter (August 1) about the outsourcing of education services by the county council does not tell the whole story.

Outsourcing is being proposed not only for ‘back office’ services but many education support and improvement services provided by OCC professional staff.

The Conservative and Independent Alliance running our county council wants to hand over many important strategic education services to the private sector. There has been no consultation on this with schools, who use these services and it is being done to save costs, in a rush over the summer holiday period.

Our County Music Service is being thrown in to make an “attractive package” to enhance the profits of the outsourcing firm. Costs can only be by cut by redundancies and reducing pay and conditions. Services may be moved out of the county.

How will this benefit the local economy? Work needs to be done to improve education in the county. The sensible way would be collaboration with schools to form a consortium to provide what they need. There are many examples of good practice of this in other councils.

An effective ‘middle tier’ in education is vital to school improvement and OCC’s school services are of the utmost strategic importance. Collaborative work with local experts provided by an accountable local body cannot be done by a profit-driven multinational company.

The alarm bells are ringing about these profit-hungry recipients of taxpayers’ money — like the frauds of Serco and G4S scandals. Outsourcing may work for simple measurable items but the education of all our children is too important and complex for this.

After the omnishambles of school transport and the failed minerals and waste core strategy, we must not allow a council that increasingly appears not fit for purpose to rush through this unwanted and ill-considered proposal.

Sue Christie, Barford St Michael