Become your own boss. It sounds like one of those ads promising vast wealth from telemarketing. But this week the Conservatives gave an old catch phrase a fresh twist, with their souped-up version of workers’ co-operatives.
Under plans announced by David Cameron and George Osborne, public sector employees will be offered the chance to own a chunk of their school, hospital, jobcentre or care service. With it comes the right to hire, fire and hang on to proceeds from efficiency savings.
This so-called ‘John Lewis’ model would give millions of ‘demoralised, disrespected’ public servants the opportunity to ‘become their own boss’, says Cameron, and ‘get rid of the targets and bureaucracy that drive you so mad’.
Only the armed forces, police and courts, and A&E departments are specifically ruled out of the scheme.
The Conservatives have branded this the biggest shift in power since the right-to-buy legislation of the 1980s. And it has certainly caught the government on the hop.
Co-ops and mutualism are traditionally Labour concepts, dating back to Robert Owen and beyond. There is already an NHS ‘right to request’ scheme, enabling staff take-overs, and a commission has been set up by Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell to explore extending the mutual model.
However, take-up has been slow, and the Opposition has sensed an opening to appeal to centrist voters – and make eye-watering spending cuts more palatable (see cover feature).
Could it take off? Public sector unions are deeply suspicious of what they see as a threat to national pay and pension agreements. And legal experts have raised doubts over how the co-op proposals would tie in with current procurement rules.
Plus, what happens when a co-operatively run enterprise fails, and who would monitor these myriad contracts and joint ventures? The suggestion that co-op staff would be free to lease out state assets, or even buy them ‘in due course’ has also set off alarm bells.
The Conservative proposals raise more questions than they answer. But perhaps that is the point. The chances of public sector mutuals taking off in a big way are probably slim. There is unlikely to be much appetite – particularly in this climate – for the risks involved.
But dismantling ‘monolithic’ public services – and paving the way for major independent sector providers – would be an important political dividend for the Conservatives. It’s one that will not be knowingly undersold.
