Voices for Real Reform
In January 2007 UNISON and the democratic left think tank Compass convened a special summit aimed at showing a new way forward for public service reform.
The need for modern public services that can respond to changing social and economic needs, and make the best possible use of public resources, is something we can all agree on. Unfortunately in recent years the discussion around public service reform has been distorted by a distracting emphasis upon market mechanisms and private sector involvement. The truth is that markets will at best only ever be marginal, and at worst could be a serious obstruction, to the real challenges of public service improvement - challenges of public involvement, workforce development, organisational performance, partnership working, and strategic capacity building.
Documents & Links
Documents & Links
We hope that the conversations initiated here will continue and begin to reveal a new agenda for public service reform beyond the false solutions that have dominated the policy agenda for far too long. The discussion document proposes principles that might frame a more constructive debate about service improvement, provides an overview of the issues in key service areas such as health, education, children's services, social care, housing, libraries and probation services, and assesses the prospects for moving a more positive agenda forward in the coming period.
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 Government Reform of PFI
UNISON's response highlights our concerns around the high costs of PFI; the lack of flexibility; lack of value for money; lack of risk transfer of PFI projects from the public to the private sector; poor quality of service; and the cost of government bail-outs when projects fail. It warns that PFI is no longer relevant or effective, and calls for an end to the scheme. It advocates a return to conventional procurement, which will ensure a more efficient, flexible and cost effective way of building public assets, such as schools and hospitals. The response also calls on the government to monitor the impact of existing PFI contracts on the workforce and on service quality.
UNISON Response to Government Reform on PFI
The role of private finance in public investment
The report shows that PFI is not value for money, despite the coalition government backing this form of investment. It warns that the cost of PFI has risen astronomically following the financial crisis and the gap between the rate at which the government and the private sector can borrow has widened dramatically.
The role of private finance in public investment
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
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
Article on Compassonline.org.uk
