Marketisation
The introduction of market forces into the public sector has put profit above quality and is undermining the public service ethos which is based on equity, fairness and redistribution of wealth. Privatisation and marketisation have transformed the provision of services, creating a shift from collaborative working to a commercial competitive working environment, where private contractors compete for public sector work. This transformation has had an impact on the quality of services and on the pay and conditions of public service workers, many of whom have been transferred from the public sector to the private, voluntary or independent sectors, on worse terms and conditions.
The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is a government initiative which allows the private sector to design, finance, build, own and operate public buildings.
The Two Tier workforce and Fair Wages - UNISON is campaigning to stop private contractors competing on the basis of lower pay and conditions
The National Health Service is shifting from an integrated system to a much more mixed one, in which the private sector plays an increasingly major part.
Social Care is increasingly being outsourced to the private sector to cut costs, leading to fragmentation of services and impacting on the quality of care
Library services - UNISON is concerned that policy changes in library services will lead to privatisation, impacting on jobs, pay and quality of service.
Social housing - currently, the only investment options to improve housing stock involve privatisation or part privatisation of stock or the service
Probation - current plans threaten services which will be subject to market testing and ultimately lead to the privatisation of probation services.
The Community and Voluntary sector is being encouraged by the government to compete with other organisations for public service work.
CONTACT DETAILS
The UNISON contact for the Positively Public campaign is Margie Jaffe.
Positively Public
1 Mabledon Place
London WC1H 9AJ
Email us
Recent documents
UNISON Response to Lord's Inquiry on PFI
UNISON's submission to the House of Lord's Inquiry into PFI highlights our concerns around the methodology of PFI, risk transfer, high costs, value for money and workforce issues.
UNISON Response to the Select Committee on Economic Affairs - House of Lords
ISA - staff side principles
The following principles have been drawn up in partnership by trade unions and professional organisations which collectively represent over 4 million members affected by the ISA Vetting and Barring scheme. Our principles seek to support effective public protection, but also identify areas of concern surrounding the scheme.
Acrobat PDF version
Reclaiming the Initiative - putting the public back into PFI
The report catalogues how ever-growing billions of public money has become locked into financing massively expensive PFI schemes. The Government has committed taxpayers, for a generation to come, to a bill of more than £217bn worth of repayments between now and 2033/34 on just £64bn of PFI projects. PFI’s reliance on the private sector was supposed to give public building programmes more rigour and strength but, as the union’s latest report - “Putting the Public Back into PFI” – shows, in reality it has exposed them to greater hazards and weaknesses. Public projects have been tainted by private failure
Acrobat PDF version
A million voices for change
Download UNISON's agenda for a strong economy and a fair society and get involved in our campaign
Putting you first