under the project management of the Social Care Institute for Excellence, but defi ning their legal status is hazy. For example, NE Lincolnshire has yet to decide its legal form, but Lambeth will be a co-op. John Goodman, head of policy for Co-
operatives UK, warns that the shift from a public sector working environment to a co- operative is far from straightforward. “Moving from being an employee or service user to the owner and controller of a service is a fundamental shift in role and responsibility,” he says. This country is far behind some others in
the role that co-ops have to play. (See “Co-op Facts” box) For example, in Finland the co- ops sector accounts for 21 per cent of GDP, in Switzerland 16 per cent and in Sweden 13 per cent. In England there are 4,352 co- operatives with a turnover of £27.5 billion, a small sum when set against a GDP of about £1.3 trillion. Several problems face public service
co-ops. One concerns the transferability of pensions, which has still to be resolved. Another is how new (and, perhaps inevitably, small) service providers can survive in a highly competitive market. This was illustrated last year when Central Surrey Health, a mutual, won a Big Society award but then, in September, lost its fi rst competitive contract to Assura, a large, private company. One person involved with setting up co-ops describes them as being in a “halfway house”, adding that they are “a new kind of service delivery model that need time to establish themselves before entering the procurement arena”.
Someone close to government policy
pinpointed the lack of entrepreneurial people in public services as a problem. However, this argument may be countered by the “natural selection” of Evolve YP. Tracy Dean, one of the personal advisers, has said: “In a way, the team chose itself, because we came together with the same vision. We’ve got the utmost respect for each other.” Accountability has also been named as a problem, but this applies to any
PRACTICE
RESEARCH
Frontline view: ‘We are not pushing children through the system’
subcontracted service. It may also be that some middle and senior managers in adults’ and children’s departments fear the attraction of more adventurous staff to co- ops and fewer people for them to manage, thus diminishing their own power. One good sign for co-ops is that enthusiasm for them crosses party lines, typifi ed in London by Conservative-run Kensington & Chelsea Council and Labour-run Newham Council both expressing interest. The government tends to see mutuals as A
Good Thing, without much focus on how they work and how eff ective they are in certain situations. It has placed great emphasis on worker-owned co-ops but the largest public service mutuals – NHS foundation trusts and co-operative schools – give wider ownership and off er service users a voice. Professor Peter Marsh, social innovation
consultant at Sheffi eld University Enterprise and vice-chair of the mutuals task force that advises the Cabinet Offi ce, hints at a necessary caution. “I don’t think that every organisation should become a co-op, but I do think that we need a comparatively small group of innovative organisations to try out new ideas that feed into the system, so that there is a general leavening,” he says.