My dad is worried about me.
He’s a pro-State socialist. A labour man; ex-trade union rep and proud believer in
welfare, in the responsibility of government to provide a safety net – to look
after the many, not the few.
He’s listened to me talk about Stepping Out, about what we’re trying to support in terms of a shift in public
service delivery and he’s worried.
Worried that I’ve been turned, that I’m in league with those looking to
commercialise social and health services, that I’m helping to dismantle the
welfare state.
I hear – and feel – similar suspicions when I’ve spoken with
union representatives in areas exploring the options of social enterprise
spin-outs for health or social care services.
The anxiety is understandable. I had it too when I first heard about the spin out
agenda. The vocabulary of externalisation,
business plans, company structures and financial modelling… it felt a long way
from a commitment to core values, care free at the point of use, empowerment.
The unions lose my sympathy, however, when they make
comments such as ‘I don’t really understand this social enterprise thing, but I
can tell you we are opposed to it’ or ‘I’d rather people were made redundant
from the Council and get a good payout, than have their jobs transfer into this
social enterprise’.
Conviction is one thing; I more naturally lean towards a
belief that the State should be responsible for meeting the needs of those in
our society who are vulnerable or in crisis. I also think there are decisions emanating from the current
government that should be resisted.
However, stubbornly sticking to a mindset despite the
evidence that the world is shifting on quicksand is pointless. The financial pressures on local
authorities are mind-boggling and will not be resisted by a
defiant, arms-crossed
‘I’m protecting public sector jobs and services’ stance.
If local authorities don’t deliver services directly – and
that is becoming impossible on the budgets available - the immediate
alternative is tendering services out to the private sector. A sector queuing up to deliver
services and to cream 10, 20% off the budget for investors. This isn’t the future, this is now. The market already exists in health and
social care.
By looking at the options for social enterprise to come
forward as a route to deliver public services, I’m not giving in – I’m looking
for a (forgive me) third way.
What Stepping Out is trying to support is an alternative to
outsourcing, an option that removes the profit motive and gives more power to
frontline staff and service users.
My dad at least has the wisdom to listen to what spinning
out is about before he disowns me.
And I think he hears me. He hears me when I say that we’re trying to help some
extraordinary public servants who when faced with blood-curdling cuts are
prepared to take a personal risk in pursuit of a better future for their
services.
He is reassured when I explain that the potential winners
when this comes off are not shareholders, but frontline staff, service users
& patients, the Councils and Trusts who get to deliver savings and commission
quality services.
And he remembers how when he was a foster carer the system
around the children was bureaucratic and broken; how when I was a local
authority social worker he worried about the impact of the demoralising culture
– he remembers ultimately that no-one who has seen inside public sector
delivery is able to claim ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.
So, don’t worry dad.
We’re not trying to auction public services to private providers or
dismantle the welfare state. We’re
just trying to reposition it for the current challenges and trying in
particular to re-arm motivated public servants so they can flourish in the
battles ahead.
Spinning out is a pro-public service model, it’s about
supporting public sector workers – giving them control of their futures, not
voluntary redundancy – and striving for quality and innovation in the face of
reduced central government funding.
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