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In a article in todays Daily Telegraph the Prime Minister outlines his plans for the future of the public sector as he puts it. I will be countering his thoughts and offering some of my own. Here is the article below.
A White Paper, due to be published in the next fortnight, will set out an automatic right for private sector bodies to bid for public work.
Decision-making power will be given back to professionals – who have in the past been hampered by red tape – while people will be able to have more control over the budget for the service they receive.
The changes could ultimately see many functions of the NHS – from operations to walk-in triage services – being run by private firms. All schools could be run by charities or private sector companies, as could municipal services such as maintaining parks, adult care, special schools or roads maintenance.
Outside providers would be offered payment-by-results contracts, which would earn them more as they increased the quality of services.
Downing Street said the plans illustrated that Mr Cameron was prepared to go far further than any recent prime minister – including Tony Blair – on public sector reform.
The only exemptions will be the judiciary and the security services. All other public services will be expected to open up to private competition under the plans, which the Government hopes will slash
bureaucracy, improve the quality of public services and save money.
However, they are likely to be fiercely opposed by Labour and the trade unions who will interpret them as a return to the era of privatisation and a cover for Coalition spending cuts.
In his article for the Telegraph, Mr Cameron says standards in public services – on cancer survival rates, school results and crime – have been slipping against comparable countries for too long and that “complete change” is needed.
“We will create a new presumption – backed up by new rights for public service users and a new system of independent adjudication – that public services should be open to a range of providers competing to offer a better service,” he says.
“Of course, there are some areas, – like national security services or the judiciary – where this wouldn’t make sense. But everywhere else should be open to real diversity,open to everyone who gets and values the importance of our public service ethos. This is a transformation: it ends the state’s monopoly over public services.
“Instead of having to justify why it makes sense to introduce competition in individual public services – as we are now doing with schools and in the NHS – the state will have to justify why it should ever operate a monopoly.”
Some of the changes to encourage more competition are already being introduced through education and health legislation.
However, when taken with the new Open Public Services White Paper, Downing Street believes the plans are a “battering ram to break open monopolies”.
In his article, Mr Cameron says the new principle of diversity will be married to a “new presumption that services should be delivered at the lowest possible level” to give people more choice over how their public services are being administered.
He says: “Working from this presumption, we will devolve power even further. For example, we will give more people the right to take control of the budget for the service they receive.
“In this new world of decentralised, open public services it will be up to Government to show why a public service cannot be delivered at a lower level than it is currently; to show why things should be centralised, not the other way round.”
Mr Cameron said that his inspiration for these reforms could be traced back to when he and his wife, Samantha, were caring for their disabled son, Ivan.
He says: “I never understood why local authorities had more control over the budget for his care than Samantha and me.”
The state will still have a role to play in ensuring “fair funding, ensuring fair competition, and ensuring that everyone – regardless of wealth – gets fair access”, he says.
But he adds that “these important responsibilities for central government must never become an automatic excuse for returning to central control”.
The White Paper will set out principles that will “make it impossible for Government to return to the bad old days of the standard state monopoly”, he says.
“The grip of state control will be released and power will be placed in people’s hands. Professionals will see their discretion restored.
“There will be more freedom, more choice and more local control. Ours is a vision of open public services – and we will make it happen by advancing some key principles.”
The plans to privatise large parts of the public sector could well cause unease among some of Mr Cameron’s Lib Dem Coalition partners.
Found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8337237/David-Cameron-promises-public-sector-revolution.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I am personally shocked by these revelations firstly who does David Cameron think he is to start a war on the public sector ? what gives him the mandate to do so ? was this what people voted for ? i'm pretty sure they did not.
We can all tell well i hope we can tell waht Mr Cameron is really after with his plans. A total selling off of the public sector, the state as he likes to call it. It is planning to go further than Maggie Tatcher ever did.
How can people sit by and let this radical overhaul just happen ??
I certainly wont be and i hope Labour and the Lib Dems find their fight that they have lost for years now and protect what they created.
I dont buy all this hogwash by the PM of that privitisation brings greater efficiency it is simply unproven and increased competition for services is not what people want. What people want if free to use public services that they pay their council tax's for not something they have to pay to use. They are known as local public services for a reason for the public to use not private companies to make a quick profit out of.
How people cant see his ideaology here now i really dont know, the cat is well and truely out of the bag and we must stop him before its too late.
I personally have no faith in Ed Miliband to use any of his political power to stop this happening. He needs to stand up and oppose thsi properly. Its all veryw ell standing up at conferences and telling us this is wrong waht David Cameron and his government are doing but what would he do instead ?
We have heard nothing from him and his party on his alternative so far. So we have to assume he would do the same to a degree.
I think this will anger many public sector trades unionists and this is intended to i feel. David Cameron wants a reaction from the unions. Rial them up and get them on the defensive so he can then slap more anti trades union laws on them turning them against the public. Its a very clever game he is playing but i can see it and i dont know why so many others can not.
It is an absolute demolition of the public sector not a revolution. The only revolution going on is the selling off of our services to his mates in the private sector. I for one will do all i can to not let that happen.
I do hope the trades unions use all their power and resources to oppose this and say to Mr Cameron and his cronies on March 26th we will not let you do this. We will fight to the very end to protect our services.
The people dont want this so why is he going through with this ? Because he thinks he can and because he is facing pressure from his party and other private sector friends waiting in the wings to make a quick profit out of our beloved services.
So please lets not let this happen I plea to the Labour party and the Lib Dems to properly oppose this by joining the March on 26th of March in central London where we hope to send a clear message to the government that we as the public will not tollerate this.
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