Third Sector and the NHS – The Trojan Horse?

Trojan_HorseSussex is one area of the country lucky enough to have a feisty local Defend our NHS campaign. Lately the group has been taking a look at the role of voluntary agencies in the struggle to stop the break-up of the Health Service. The result is an impressive paper. Whilst voluntary groups can both oppose … Continue reading

Peterborough Prison and Social Impact Bonds – what’s going on?

Kenneth Clarke, then justice secretary, talks to an inmate at Peterborough prison in 2010Recently the Government announced that it was pulling the plug on the Peterborough Prison Social Impact Bond (SIB) pilot, despite an interim evaluation showing “promising results”. This scheme – due to have run for seven years instead of the three now planned – has been dragged round the conference circuit now for several years by … Continue reading

How come we didn’t know?

nhs for saleThe privatisation of our public services and common wealth is taking place with stealth and subterfuge, and at a great pace. Our money is going to multi-nationals such as SERCO, currently under investigation for falsification of data and sub-standard services. But there are ways to expose what is going on and get it into the … Continue reading

Radio 4 puts NCIA line, then reaches some strange conclusions

‘What are charities for?’ was the theme of last Monday’s Radio 4 ‘Analysis’ programme. 25 minutes of powerful evidence, including from interviews with us, set out the stall of how state co-option and contracting has sapped the independence of charities and all but extinguished the fire in their belly to fight for social justice. But … Continue reading

Has neo-liberal thinking colonised the voluntary sector?

Photo 7In an important new paper, Ursula Murray, from Birkbeck University of London, addresses many of the key issues of our ‘Inquiry into the Future of Voluntary Services’. Entitled ‘To what extent is the voluntary sector colonised by neo-liberal thinking?’, the paper examines the involvement of the voluntary sector in the dismantling of the welfare state, … Continue reading

State of the Voluntary Services Sector – Bob Baker writes

State of the Voluntary Services Sector – here Bob Baker, Director of the Simon Community, writes in a personal capacity…..

“The so called voluntary sector is in a pretty parlous state particularly when it comes to any notion of resistance. I think that changes over the past 30 years have had really corrosive effects. One Continue reading

London-centric ‘leaders’ let the sector down

les huckfieldIn hard hitting evidence to the Baring’s Panel on Independence, commentator Les Huckfield accused lambasted the “London-centric” ‘leaders’ of the voluntary sector. “Rather than protecting voluntary and community organisations from the effects of Government policies and supporting their independence from Government,” he said, “national Third Sector Organisations have assisted and supported Government initiatives to fashion … Continue reading

Backdoor privatisation – stop it NOW!

Message from 38 Degrees… please act now! It’s being called backdoor NHS privatisation. And if we want to stop it, what happens in Parliament this week is crucial. Some Labour, Lib Dem and Green MPs have tabled a motion demanding the NHS privatisation plan be immediately withdrawn. [1] As of last Monday, only 72 MPs … Continue reading

The real Big Society – Barnet activists show the way over library closure

An inspiring video – ‘A Polite Revolution’ – from activists in Barnet shows how an alliance between occupy, trades unions and local people can make an impact that goes beyond the sum of the parts. Faced with the closure of Friern Barnet library, the building was occupied and kept open by local people. This forced … Continue reading

Fight privatisation and win? – Yes it can be done!!

October 15th marked a decisive moment for anti-privatisation campaigners when the Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust announced that the county’s 8 community hospitals and health services (including 3000 nurses and other health workers would remain in the NHS. This reversed an earlier decision to outsource services by creating a ‘social enterprise’, in what would have … Continue reading