NAVCA publishes Open Public Services consultation response
04/10/2011
NAVCA has published its response to the government's Open Public Services White Paper, which sets out the government's plans to reform public services. The government sees it as part of their Big Society agenda. They believe it hands power to communities and ends the top-down 'government knows best' approach. Critics have called the plans "back-door privatisation".
NAVCA gives the plans a mixed response, welcoming the policy intention to improve public services, bring about genuine localism and create real opportunities and resources for smaller local voluntary organisations. NAVCA believes the White Paper offers people the chance to get involved in local services and gives them more say about how they are run. NAVCA also welcomes the recommendation that "councils should have the flexibility and freedom to consider overall value rather than only costs" and broadly agrees with the five listed principles of choice, decentralisation, diversity, fairness and accountability.
However, NAVCA also has a number of concerns, in particular about the scale of the proposals, their dependence on local interpretations and approaches to implementation and their impact on small and medium voluntary sector organisations. NAVCA highlights 13 specific reservations about the White Paper's proposals.
Katy Wing, NAVCA's Director - Improving Local Services, said;
"This White Paper could give more local voluntary organisations and community groups the chance to shape and deliver local services. But that won't happen if everything is put out to competitive tendering. Commissioners need the flexibility to use the approach that suits the circumstances.
"Crucially, they need to work more closely with local voluntary organisations and community groups. This will help them engage local people in finding solutions that really work."
