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Public Services for All > Published by Guest, March 19th 2011 at 9:00 am

Cameron’s rush to outsource threatens our public services

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John Earls is Research Section Head at Unite the Union

The Conservative-led government’s ‘Open public services‘ white paper is expected any day. But the direction and speed of travel is clear, as confirmed by David Cameron in The Daily Telegraph a few weeks ago. It’s a rush to outsource our public services on a scale that threatens the very notion of what is ‘public’.

David-Cameron-outsourcing-public-services
Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, has today published a report by economist Howard Reed which challenges many of the assumptions cited by those pushing the outsourcing agenda. Among his conclusions are:

• The government’s plans to outsource public services are being rushed through at breakneck speed without proper consultation, planning or evaluation. For example, the white paper call for evidence allowed less than six weeks for responses, including the Christmas period, breaching government guidelines (pdf) on consultation which specify a minimum of 12 weeks;

• Expanding outsourcing in the current climate of severe cuts to public spending means declines in service quality are almost inevitable;

• There are clear dangers that increased outsourcing will result in reduced transparency and democratic accountability of service provision. Particular concerns include the scope for outsourced public service providers to be outside provisions in respect of the Freedom of Information Act and responsibilities to promote equality;

• The voluntary, community and not-for-profit (VCN) sector has a clear role to play in supporting high-quality public services, but a mass shift of service provision to the not-for-profit sector runs the risk of being the long and painful route to privatisation, if VCN organisations fall victim to acquisition by large-scale for-profit providers;

• It is in the commercial interests of private sector outsourcing providers to lobby politicians to promote greater use of their preferred model of public service delivery, and lobbyists have influenced policy development in areas including education and auditing.

Clearly, the government’s ‘reforms’ have huge consequences for public service users – not least the most vulnerable – and trade unions are an important part of the broad coalition that is resisting the attacks on public services. But Unite is also focusing on what this means for workers delivering public services (in the public, private and not for profit sectors).

In new evidence using data from the Labour Force Survey our report compares the conditions of employment of public sector, private sector and voluntary sector employees in similar jobs such as childcare, healthcare, social work, cleaning and administrative jobs.

Short job tenure and high turnover can have a detrimental impact on service delivery as they disrupt the relationships between service users and providers, while working long hours can put the safety of service providers and users at risk. As the graphs below show, short job tenure (one year or less) and working long hours (more than 48 hours per week) are more common in the private sector than the public sector, with the voluntary sector somewhere in between.

Graph 1:

Short-job-tenure-by-occupation-and-sector-Labour-Force-Survey-2007-10
Graph 2:

Long-hours-working-by-sector-and-occupation-Labour-Force-Survey-2007-10
Unite is not against change – but reform needs to be based on sound, evidence-supported arguments – not on an ideological drive to ‘shrink the state’. And sustainable change requires the involvement of staff. Public service workers and their unions provide the knowledge, insight and experience essential to ensuring reform is effective and deliverable.

‘Shrinking the state’ might sound attractive when it is dressed up as dealing with so-called faceless bureaucrats. But ‘the state’ actually means our health and care services, education, youth services, libraries, and civic spaces. In short, the public services we value.

That is why the government’s plans are so dangerous and why they must be resisted.

  • http://twitter.com/dubious1977/status/49052511348342784 David Dubost

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/starcomsystems/status/49054229813399552 Huzaifa Ali

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  • http://twitter.com/jasonoutsider/status/49057834620555264 Jason Bowles

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/stewiem/status/49063827760881664 Stew Mott

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/hitchinengland/status/49086879919915008 Hitchin England

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/brokenofbritain/status/49087233537490944 Broken OfBritain

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/iconicimagery/status/49087235991142401 Lisa Ellwood

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/spsot/status/49088808683180032 Spir.Sotiropoulou

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/itsmotherswork/status/49097236625358848 Itsmotherswork

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/nickbloke/status/49105590106071040 Nick H.

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    RT @IconicImagery: RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's …

  • http://twitter.com/tonyburke2010/status/49166429198626816 Tony Burke

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  • http://twitter.com/jruddy99/status/49215418124091392 John Ruddy

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  • http://twitter.com/jackielive/status/49218987422269441 Jackie Fleming

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  • http://twitter.com/mmichael0/status/49219599291514880 Michael Turner

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  • http://twitter.com/hlcheathrow/status/49246646114062336 Jon Purdom/Paco Saez

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE by @UniteTheUnion's John Earls

  • http://twitter.com/barnet_unison/status/49248483823190016 barnet_unison

    RT @Jackielive: Cameron’s rush to outsource threatens our public services http://bit.ly/dPYtZS

  • http://www.hlc-heathrow.org Jon Purdom

    The government’s disregard to its own code is disturbing, but not surprising given the total contempt with which it has treated public opinion over the past 10 months. The cuts to council budgets and services, together with the potential privatisation of just about everything is targeted directly at the poorest and most vulnerable members of society.

    These people – and the professionals who have a responsibility for looking after their welfare should be given a proper opportunity for meaningful consultation. Instead the government seems hell bent on taking the advice of the corporate lobby that has donated millions to the Tory’s funds. In any other field this would be considered to be shemeless corruption, but because it is government, we shrug and say “well, it’s been done like that for years and years”.

    Not good enough. I’m a member of the public, I’m a taxpayer and I’m a potential user of many of the services that the government is about to throw into the realm of EU competition law. I demand that my views be heard and be given resonable consideration. I’m not being presented with a fait accompli because of some excuse about the urgency of dealing with the deficit.

    I will be marching on the 26th of this month – and no doubt on many other days after that. I will encourage my union (Unite) to challenge many of these changes under human rights and discrimination legislation. And I, and many thousands of others like me will write, e-mail, tweet, blog and do whatever is necessary over the next 4 years to let people know that I believe that this government is effectively in the pocket of CBI rather than listening to the voters.

    Now is the time for the electorate to reclaim our government and our country. This is our day of rage. The ConDems have begun to alienate just about everyone apart from the millionaires and billionaires. They can only play the race card and blame the previous government so many times before these tactics begin to look very lame. This is the people’s time if they will only take ownership of their future.

  • http://twitter.com/dntbreakbritain/status/49387495598718976 Don’t Break Britain

    RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services http://bit.ly/fckTCP #dontbreakbritain

  • http://twitter.com/tonydowling/status/49401037399924736 Tony Dowling

    RT @DntBreakBritain: RT @leftfootfwd: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services http://bit.ly/fckTCP #dontbreakbritain

  • http://twitter.com/uniteyou/status/49401962646609920 UniteYou

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  • http://twitter.com/superlativec/status/49410270543613952 Superlative

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  • http://twitter.com/barnet_unison/status/49437951226159104 barnet_unison
  • http://twitter.com/barnetalliance/status/49438349588574209 Barnet Alliance

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  • http://twitter.com/vickim57/status/49439083927306240 Vicki Morris

    RT @barnet_unison: http://bit.ly/dPYtZS
    http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/580
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  • Dave Citizen

    Good on you IP – the Tories do seem to have convinced themselves that their buddies in the media and associated ‘expert’ apologists can spin them out of trouble almost regardless of what they do. I just hope people realise what’s really going on before the worst damage is done.

  • Mr. Sensible

    Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ mask has slipped…

  • http://twitter.com/myinfamy/status/49885509312462848 Daniel Pitt

    Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE #ConDemNation

  • http://twitter.com/nobiggovduh/status/49885814078980097 NoBigGovDuh

    RT @myinfamy: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services: http://bit.ly/gfHxpE #ConDemNation

  • http://twitter.com/benjammin22/status/50585518785830913 Ben Hogwood

    RT @john_earls: Cameron's rush to outsource threatens our public services. Read my posting at Left Foot Forward: http://bit.ly/fifNgF

  • http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/02/government-bonus-crackdown-ignores-the-outsourced-sector-again/ Government bonus crackdown ignores the outsourced sector – again | Left Foot Forward

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