By Jaimie Kaffash
18 September 2009
Social enterprises have rejected union fears that greater provision of services from outside the NHS could lead to a fragmentation of the organisation.
At a speech at the King’s Fund on September 17, Health Secretary Andy Burnham said ‘the NHS is our preferred provider’ of health services and ‘has always been Labour’s priority and will continue to be’.
He said that the services provided by failing NHS organisations would be reviewed before the private and third sectors were brought in. ‘Where a provider is not delivering quality – and the new accountability information will more readily demonstrate that – we will set out a clearer process that will provide an opportunity for existing providers to improve before opening up to new potential providers,’ he added.
Karen Reay, Unite’s national officer for health, acknowleged the speech ‘indicated a softening of the pro-privatisation rhetoric of recent times’. But she warned that the government could seek to use more providers that were ‘one step removed from the NHS’, citing social enterprises. She said the focus on quality was ‘just one aspect of the privatisation and fragmentation of the health service. NHS privatisation is wider than a failing NHS trust; for example, the creation of social enterprises that will be one step removed from the NHS proper’.
Social enterprises are businesses whose objectives are wider social and environmental considerations. Any profits made are used to further these objectives. Examples include The Big Issue, Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen, and the fair-trade chocolate company Divine Chocolate.
Dr Sam Everington, who runs a social enterprise community and health centre in the East End that was formed through partnerships between the public, private and voluntary sectors, said that social enterprises do not undermine the NHS. He told Public Finance that Burnham’s commitment to the NHS as the preferred provider ‘represents a sea change. It is not a statement that has been made before and it is very good news for social enterprise, which fits very nicely into the NHS philosophy’. He added that there is ‘no way’ this could open the door for profit-making providers, as social enterprises put money back into their operations.
He allayed fears that traditional services would be taken away from the NHS by the third sector, stating that most of the work done by social enterprises ‘are those not provided by the NHS’, such as job advisers. ‘Our service in the East End provides fantastic support to the NHS. As a GP in a centre like that, there are all sorts of therapies that I can give my patients that are not otherwise available to them. There is a raft of services we provide and that comes from the partnership between the NHS and social enterprise.’
Hamish Meldrum, chair of the British Medical Association, told PF that Burnham’s speech was ‘ a small move in the right direction’. But he added: ‘There’s still a huge way to go before we turn round the market philosophy in the NHS. We’d also like to see the government adopting policies that put an end to wasteful Private Finance Initiative contracts, reduce the perverse incentives created by Payment by Results, and foster a culture of co-operation rather than competition.’
Burnham also used the speech to detail plans to allow patients to choose their own GP services, as opposed to the current system that is based on geographical boundaries.
18 September 2009
Social enterprises have rejected union fears that greater provision of services from outside the NHS could lead to a fragmentation of the organisation.
At a speech at the King’s Fund on September 17, Health Secretary Andy Burnham said ‘the NHS is our preferred provider’ of health services and ‘has always been Labour’s priority and will continue to be’.
He said that the services provided by failing NHS organisations would be reviewed before the private and third sectors were brought in. ‘Where a provider is not delivering quality – and the new accountability information will more readily demonstrate that – we will set out a clearer process that will provide an opportunity for existing providers to improve before opening up to new potential providers,’ he added.
Karen Reay, Unite’s national officer for health, acknowleged the speech ‘indicated a softening of the pro-privatisation rhetoric of recent times’. But she warned that the government could seek to use more providers that were ‘one step removed from the NHS’, citing social enterprises. She said the focus on quality was ‘just one aspect of the privatisation and fragmentation of the health service. NHS privatisation is wider than a failing NHS trust; for example, the creation of social enterprises that will be one step removed from the NHS proper’.
Social enterprises are businesses whose objectives are wider social and environmental considerations. Any profits made are used to further these objectives. Examples include The Big Issue, Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen, and the fair-trade chocolate company Divine Chocolate.
Dr Sam Everington, who runs a social enterprise community and health centre in the East End that was formed through partnerships between the public, private and voluntary sectors, said that social enterprises do not undermine the NHS. He told Public Finance that Burnham’s commitment to the NHS as the preferred provider ‘represents a sea change. It is not a statement that has been made before and it is very good news for social enterprise, which fits very nicely into the NHS philosophy’. He added that there is ‘no way’ this could open the door for profit-making providers, as social enterprises put money back into their operations.
He allayed fears that traditional services would be taken away from the NHS by the third sector, stating that most of the work done by social enterprises ‘are those not provided by the NHS’, such as job advisers. ‘Our service in the East End provides fantastic support to the NHS. As a GP in a centre like that, there are all sorts of therapies that I can give my patients that are not otherwise available to them. There is a raft of services we provide and that comes from the partnership between the NHS and social enterprise.’
Hamish Meldrum, chair of the British Medical Association, told PF that Burnham’s speech was ‘ a small move in the right direction’. But he added: ‘There’s still a huge way to go before we turn round the market philosophy in the NHS. We’d also like to see the government adopting policies that put an end to wasteful Private Finance Initiative contracts, reduce the perverse incentives created by Payment by Results, and foster a culture of co-operation rather than competition.’
Burnham also used the speech to detail plans to allow patients to choose their own GP services, as opposed to the current system that is based on geographical boundaries.
