Our Services Our Say - launching tonight

We all use public services every day but more and more of these services are being provided by the private sector. This isn’t what most of us want, and it leads to worse public services, and less transparency and accountability because we can’t see contracts that are ‘commercially confidential’. 

Our new polling released today shows that 73% of the public want to be consulted before outsourcing while 67% think public service contracts and data should be publicly available. Three times as many think public ownership should be the default for delivering public services, rather than outsourcing.

Later today, we’ll be launching our new campaign Our Services Our Say. We'll be outside the venue for the National Outsourcing Awards, a swanky £200+ per ticket event that seeks to offer ‘an ideal setting to entertain and network with leading players’ from the outsourcing industry. Outsourcing giant Capita is one of the main sponsors of the awards, yet it has consistently underperformed and missed targets while in charge of our public services. 

The people speaking at the event tonight will be shadow minister Catherine West MP who was previously leader of Islington Council, Caroline Russell, local transport spokesperson for the Green Party, Barnet UNISON campaigner John Burgess, Dan Sartin who campaigns about Capita in West Sussex UNISON and Colin Haslam, an academic who writes on outsourcing.

We are calling on councils to demonstrate their commitment to public service users rights, and use the tools at their disposal to put the needs of public service users first. Outsourcing doesn’t work, so it’s time to put some brakes on it.

This campaign builds on the success of our call for national legislation, a Public Service Users Bill which received the support of more than 100 MPs. Despite strong support from MPs, we know this government is unlikely to introduce legislation for public service users, so we want local councils up across the country to show their support for Our Services Our Say and provide examples of how they are promoting the principles of the campaign in practice.

We need to make sure that public ownership, transparency and accountability remain high on the agenda, and demonstrate that the push towards more outsourcing and privatisation doesn’t have popular support.

We’re hoping that by asking local councillors to pledge their support for our campaign, we can build a wider base of momentum for Our Services Our Say that will make national legislation more likely in the future.

We’ve already received statements of support from notable academics, politicians, unions, NGOs and many others. Now we just need your support to help us let the government to know that we want more accountability and transparency and that we want public services that the public first. 

Check out our facebook event page for updates and more news. Join us there, 6.15pm-7.15pm, outside the Landmark Hotel, 222 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 6JQ.