A leading charity has come out to support Sir Stephen Bubb, CEO of ACEVO’s call for government to take on private sector oligopolies in public services.
Sir Stephen wrote to the Prime Minister David Cameron calling for citizens’ rights to be enshrined in public services so as to enable more voluntary and community organisations to deliver public services and to help overcome ‘deserts of anti-competitiveness’ up and down the country.
The letter to David Cameron was featured as a major news story in the Financial Times today.
Sir Stephen Bubb said that the voluntary sector has a crucial role to play in public service delivery. He main that he still believes in the sentiment of the Government’s 2011 Open Public Services White Paper. However, he said that the implementation of these plans had been poor. In particular he was concerned that ‘ public sector monopolies had been replaced by private sector oligopolies.
Sir Stephen said, “The voluntary sector can lead the way to deliver innovative, targeted services and empower people to have a real say over the future of the services they use.”
“Citizens need to have the right to assume control of the services that matter to them. Establishing and implementing proper rights to choice and voice in our public services would help break the oligopolies accruing around our public services, and give citizens a real stake in the services that matter to them.”
The Financial Times reported that, Steve James, CEO of The Avenues Group, supporting Sir Stephen’s letter said “Despite the rhetoric about patient choice and services being wrapped around individuals, its increasingly being commissioned in large block contracts of episodic care. People don’t live their lives in that way.”
The Financial Times also included a quote from St Mungo’s
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