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 >

The Private Finance Initiative

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) of which the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) is the most common, is a government initiative which allows the private sector to design, finance, build, own and operate public buildings and lease them back to the public sector, typically for 25 years.

The government continues to promote the use of private finance to commission more public building schemes on the basis that they offer more value for money. Yet, PFI schemes are protracted, costly, inflexible and very expensive. It costs more for private companies to raise money than it would for the government or public sector. The only way private companies will make their money back is to cut either services or staffing costs. This means public service workers and users pay the real costs.

For more information:
Link to a web page on this siteUNISON PFI and PPP pages

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)
All Positively Public reports >