Campaigns
Positively Public Briefings
Monthly briefings providing the latest campaigning, privatisation and good practice news. Link to another page on this siteAvailable here
National news

UNISON welcomes assurances over NHS reform

(09/05/08) Government pledges staff and patients will be the driving force for change

For safety’s sake

(08/05/08) Meat inspection to remain in public control

Everyday heroes

(06/05/08) Say ‘thank you’ to the special people who care for the UK’s sick children

Food for good

(01/05/08) UNISON calls for school (and hospital) meals to be sourced locally
News list >

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: positivelypublic@unison.co.uk
Recent documents
NHS @ 60
Document containing a mix of serious articles (including one by Dave Prentis), light-hearted features and potted histories to illustrate why it's essential that we continue to celebrate and defend the NHS as it turns 60
Link to a PDF document on this siteAcrobat PDF version
Machines, markets and morals

This pamphlet from the think tank Compass calls on the government to end the marketisation of the NHS and instead allow staff and users to shape the service democratically.Link to a PDF document on this siteAcrobat PDF (1709088 bytes)

PFI cost to the NHS
This study analyses the cost of using private finance to build the first 12 operational PFI hospitals by 2001-2002. It shows that PFI creates budget inflexibilities that increase pressures on the NHS to cut its largest cost: the jobs, working conditions and pay of staff, therefore impacting on the quality of healthcare services.
Link to a PDF document on this siteAcrobat PDF (70277 bytes)
The UK Public Library Service - facing the challenges
This factsheet highlights the challenges the public library service faces and UNISON's campaign to defend the service, which is very popular and valued by local communities.
Link to a document on this siteLibrary factsheet (366592 bytes)
Private Finance Initiative (PFI)
This fact sheet outlines the arguments against PFI.
Link to a document on this siteWord document (375296 bytes)
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