• Patrick Highton

    The Birmingham Trade Union Council’s Health Campaign Committee was formed earlier this year following a successful conference attracting over 80 delegates – we have now affiliated to ‘Keep Our NHS Public’
    and we campaign locally against cuts to the NHS and the privatisation of
    services.
    The NCIA letter to Lisa Nandy is very well written and gets
    to the heart of the issue about how voluntary services augment, not substitute, for comprehensive and accountable public services.

    We share the concern that if a Labour government was elected
    in 2015, the ‘voluntary sector’ could be used, as the letter states quite
    clearly, “to pick up the pieces of future Labour public services privatisation
    programmes”.
    Where the agendas of NCIA and BTUC HCC intersect, we will
    contribute to further debates and activity.

    Patrick Highton
    Secretary
    BTUC Health Campaign Committee

  • penrose waterhouse

    hi Patrick….good to hear from you about the local campaigning to keep our public services, just that: public not private. our struggle is how to persuade voluntary groups, desperate for funds or a seat at the table, not to be part of the privatisation programmes – of either tory or labour plans.
    some agencies think it will be a good idea anyway, thinking that they can do a better job. Others can find no other way to keep going and want to continue their support of pressurised communities. And some don’t think it matters who provides public services, just so long as they are good.
    and of course, voluntary groups have historically provided local services and it can be very difficult to draw the line between what should only be provided by the state; what should only be provided by independent agencies; and what might be provided by either or both. We’re trying with our Inquiry into the future of voluntary services (details on this website) to draw these lines, as a pointer for the appropriate roles between the state and voluntary action. But we’re clear on one thing: there is no room for private profit in our basic and critical public services.