No man’s land or promised land? The lure
of local public service delivery contracts
for social enterprise
Alex Murdock
London South Bank University
London
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.lsbu.ac.uk/bcim/cgcm
4th UK Social Enterprise Research Conference , London South
Bank University, London UK July 4-5th 2007
No Mans Land?
Promised Land?
Outline
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The Debate
Social Enterprise & Third Sector
The Policy context
The issues associated with public service delivery
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Independence
The impact on the workforce
Impact on sector structure
The bureaucratic consequences
The Charity Commission – a key player
The provision of service ; quality and the user experience
User involvement and choice – the next steps?
In conclusion
The Debate
• The third sector is NOT of one view over
public service contracts
• The Stephen Bubb (acevo)view – pro
contracts and ‘social enterprise ‘ focused
• The NACVA/DSC view – more cautious
and openly concerned about the
implications. Let the top 2% in size have
contracts and keep grants for the rest?
Social Enterprise & Third Sector
The Policy context
The issues associated with public service
delivery – when is a charity/SE part of the state
Note that Turning point
Regards itself as a SE yet
Is 95% dependent on
State contract income
Independence
Key questions:Is independence important?
If it is then what assures it in public service
contracts? – size? – diversity?
There is a strong debate and it reaches
down to whether charities /SE which
engage in sub-contracting are contributing
to loss of independence
Barings 4 Freedoms
Freedom to:
• agree values based on their own experience and
vision and not external pressures
• carry out work that delivers the stated purpose of
the organisation
• negotiate robustly with funders and partners
• challenge others and engage in public debate
The impact on the workforce
• The creation of a two tier workforce with
the voluntary sector being forced to offer
lower pay and reduced conditions in order
to gain contracts .
• This is associated with insecurity, loss of
training and skills.
(UNISON)
Impact on sector structure
• The third sector could be a ‘trojan horse’
for privatisation of public services.
Services which , for political reasons,
could not be directly privatised could first
be opened up to third sector contractors
as what is described as ‘the acceptable
face of outsourcing’.
Davies 2007
The bureaucratic consequences
“you have to provide three box files of your
policies to someone for a contract which is worth
about £50,000 a year when you have been
working with that authority for 10 years.. that is
when it becomes irksome and that is just overregulated, over-zealous contracting people,
particularly within local authorities, who do not
see beyond their very narrow responsibilities.
Joyce Moseley, the CEO of the Rainer in evidence to
Public Administration Committee (7 June)
The Charity Commission – a key
player – cost recovery –
The Charity Commission – a key
player – duration of funds
The Charity Commission – a key player –
independence-
The provision of service ; quality
and the user experience
• ‘Our research on choice in public services found that
what matters most to users is the quality of the service
they receive, rather than who provides that service.
Citizens do not always know who provides their services
– sometimes they have no idea whether it is the local
authority, the health service, or another public or private
organisation. What matters to users is having choice in
how the service is delivered, and it is particularly
important for them to have choice in personal social
services.’[1]
•
[1] Audit Commission evidence To be published as HC 340 Third
Sector Commissioning Public Administration Committee, Parliament.
Note that references to this report in this paper are based on
uncorrected evidence submissions.
User involvement and choice –
In conclusion
• The reality is that many organisations will
have to engage in public service delivery
• There are some serious issues over
impacts in terms of funding, conditions and
independence
• Will Social enterprise cope better under a
‘user engagement and choice agenda’?
• Pace’Renault Clio’ does ‘size matter’?