05 July 2006

Contracting out UK Government services

From the [UK] Guardian of 3 July:
The government is creating a new generation of multimillionaires and turning charities into multimillion-pound businesses by contracting out services provided by the state, a report commissioned by the Whitehall trade union the Public and Commercial Services union, reveals today.
I'm pleased with this. It's not Social Policy Bonds, because the contracts don't appear to be tradeable, and the newspaper article talks about the provision of services, rather than the achievement of outcomes but it's a start. Naturally it provokes opposition from the ideologues:
Mark Serwotka, PCS [Public and Commercial Services Union] general secretary, said: "There is a real danger that government plans to increase the role of the private and voluntary sector in the provision of public services will mean a step back to a model of prewar welfare provision. The fear is that this is 'soft' privatisation, with the voluntary sector opening up services for contests which can subsequently be won by the private sector."

No comments: