No man’s land or promised land? The lure of local public service delivery contracts for social enterprise Alex Murdock London South Bank University London Web site: 4th UK Social Enterprise Research Conference, London South Bank University, London UK July 4-5th 2007

No Mans Land?

Promised Land?

Outline The Debate Social Enterprise & Third Sector The Policy context The issues associated with public service delivery –Independence –The impact on the workforce –Impact on sector structure –The bureaucratic consequences –The Charity Commission – a key player –The provision of service ; quality and the user experience –User involvement and choice – the next steps? –In conclusion

The Debate The third sector is NOT of one view over public service contracts The Stephen Bubb (acevo)view – pro contracts and ‘social enterprise ‘ focused The NACVA/DSC view – more cautious and openly concerned about the implications. Let the top 2% in size have contracts and keep grants for the rest?

Social Enterprise & Third Sector

The Policy context

The issues associated with public service delivery – when is a charity/SE part of the state Note that Turning point Regards itself as a SE yet Is 95% dependent on State contract income

Independence Key questions:- Is independence important? If it is then what assures it in public service contracts? – size? – diversity? There is a strong debate and it reaches down to whether charities /SE which engage in sub-contracting are contributing to loss of independence

Barings 4 Freedoms Freedom to: agree values based on their own experience and vision and not external pressures carry out work that delivers the stated purpose of the organisation negotiate robustly with funders and partners challenge others and engage in public debate

The impact on the workforce The creation of a two tier workforce with the voluntary sector being forced to offer lower pay and reduced conditions in order to gain contracts. This is associated with insecurity, loss of training and skills. (UNISON)

Impact on sector structure The third sector could be a ‘trojan horse’ for privatisation of public services. Services which, for political reasons, could not be directly privatised could first be opened up to third sector contractors as what is described as ‘the acceptable face of outsourcing’. Davies 2007

The bureaucratic consequences “you have to provide three box files of your policies to someone for a contract which is worth about £50,000 a year when you have been working with that authority for 10 years.. that is when it becomes irksome and that is just over- regulated, over-zealous contracting people, particularly within local authorities, who do not see beyond their very narrow responsibilities. Joyce Moseley, the CEO of the Rainer in evidence to Public Administration Committee (7 June)

The Charity Commission – a key player – cost recovery –

The Charity Commission – a key player – duration of funds

The Charity Commission – a key player – independence-

The provision of service ; quality and the user experience ‘ Our research on choice in public services found that what matters most to users is the quality of the service they receive, rather than who provides that service. Citizens do not always know who provides their services – sometimes they have no idea whether it is the local authority, the health service, or another public or private organisation. What matters to users is having choice in how the service is delivered, and it is particularly important for them to have choice in personal social services.’[ 1][ 1] [1] Audit Commission evidence To be published as HC 340 Third Sector Commissioning Public Administration Committee, Parliament. Note that references to this report in this paper are based on uncorrected evidence submissions. [1]

User involvement and choice –

In conclusion The reality is that many organisations will have to engage in public service delivery There are some serious issues over impacts in terms of funding, conditions and independence Will Social enterprise cope better under a ‘user engagement and choice agenda’? Pace’Renault Clio’ does ‘size matter’?