The following examples illustrate common obstacles to organisations delivering services in partnership with government. These problems occur in areas as diverse as childcare, employment training and legal advice:

Marie Curie Cancer Care provides an in-home nursing service to people suffering from terminal diseases. They are partially funded by local Primary Care Trusts based on the number of patient calls they make. The problem is that it is not possible to forecast how many patients will need help at any point in time. As a result, Marie Curie employs a core set of nursing staff, and uses a pool of part-time nurses to help cover peak periods. These nurses are not always available, so not all requests for a night's care for a patient can be met at peak periods, and this may end up with the patient being admitted to hospital. With greater security, Marie Curie would be able to employ more core staff and care for more patients at peak periods. It would allow more patients to stay at home and also reduce the level of hospital admissions.
John Grooms provides residential care to disabled people. Its main funding is from local authorities and health trusts under annual contracts. John Grooms has identified unmet need, and wants to expand its services by building new care centres. To do this, it needs to take on a bank loan. The uncertainty of contract renewal causes problems for John Grooms in borrowing. If they took on loans, and contracts were not renewed, they would be unable to meet loan repayments, and would face financial loss and potentially have to cut services for disabled people. Greater funding security would put John Grooms in a better position to borrow and invest in new facilities and improved care for disabled people.

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