Conservative plan for nurses to run services as 'co-ops'

Shadow chancellor George Osborne hailed the policy as the biggest shift of power to workers since Margaret Thatcher introduced the right to buy council houses in the 1980s.

We would be making sure, as taxpayers, that we were getting value for money and it was appropriately run and the standards the kids were being taught to were at the right level and the like. So it is not a complete free for all

Under the proposals, first mooted in 2007, the staff of taxpayer-funded services such as nursing teams, primary schools and job centres would be able to decide how they were run - within certain national standards. Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the move was “pretty radical”.

“This is a power shift to public sector workers so that they take control of their own working environment and they get away from these top-down bureaucracies which have made life a misery for so many people in the public sector.”

He denied that it would result in a “free-for-all”.

“The check on quality here is that they would be contracting services to the local authority or the national health service and they would be providing a contract, for community nursing or for primary education.

“We would be making sure, as taxpayers, that we were getting value for money and it was appropriately run. So it is not a complete free for all,” he told the programme.

NHS staff working in primary and community care already have a “right to request” that their organisation becomes a social enterprise scheme, which is independent of NHS control but provides services for it. However, take-up has not been very high despite several years of Department of Health encouragement.

Have your say

You must sign in to make a comment.