Cabinet Office minister demands greater role for mutualism in provision of public services

The government has launched an independent Commission on Ownership to look at increasing staff and community ownership of public services.

Chaired by economist Will Hutton and funded by Co-Operative Financial Services, the commission will be asked to investigate how to create a level playing field for mutuals to run public services and how to extend the right to ownership for communities.

In a speech to the Progress think-tank this week, Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell said the public sector could learn “important lessons” from private co-operative services such as John Lewis.

Mutuals, co-ops and social enterprises offer the opportunity to forge a new relationship between citizen and state and redefine the notion of public ownership, she said, adding that mutualism has a particular contribution to make in social housing, social care and Sure Start. “Mututalism is not only right for the public mood, it also helps to deliver the accountability, individual empowerment, and community responsibility that the public more widely both wants and needs.”

The minister said there had been a shift in public support towards organisations with values, and those in which long-term social returns are put ahead of short-term gains. “In the post-banking crisis, post-expenses Britain, people want to feel a sense of ownership and control: something which both free market fundamentalism and remote and centralised statism are unable to meet. And public services are not immune from this mood.”

Jowell said models of co-ownership could allow communities to effect genuine change and deliver enhanced performance, pointing to initiatives such as the 390 members of the Reddish Vale Co-Operative Trust, who have taken over ownership of their school, and the staff at Leicester City Primary Care Trust, who have taken over general medical and substance misuse services for homeless people.

“When a public service is mutually owned, we know staff feel that they are leading the reform process, rather than having it imposed upon them,” she said. “This turns them into champions of improvement and reform, enhances feelings of solidarity and responsibility and makes staff more willing to co-operate for the common goal.”

The minister argued that mutualism cannot be prescribed by government and must remain essentially community-driven, but that government could sponsor and provide a legal framework that makes it a practical proposition in the delivery of public service.