In December 1997 a foolish Lambeth Council ( dominated at the time by the Lib Democrats) made the decision to privatise the Revenues and Benefits service and the contractor Capita was awarded a 6 year contract. As a result the service went out and 238 public servants became private sector employees against their will. The Council saw an immediate benefit in that in the first year it achieved a 15% reduction in costs.
Unison engaged the community in the fight against the decision and a lot was done in the years before the decision was overturned in April 2001. The eventual return took place in July 2001 and this was a triumph for those of us who believe that public services belong and should stay in the public sector. But one of the arguments that we used during the long campaign was to go through the detail of what was going on and prove that the actual costs in real terms had gone up in the 2nd and 3rd years. We did this by going through facts and figures (especially figures) and analysing them. On top of that there was no improvement in the quality of service as many good assessors had chosen to leave rather than stay. So the factors that helped us win were a combination of careful campaigning and the methodical production of facts and figures proving that the move did not produce any savings in real terms at all. It was an accountants dream come true being able to prove your argument by referring to costs! The press was delighted to look at what we had and supported (indirectly) the campaign. But this effort needed the support of activists in the area who put a lot of hard work in achieving this major victory for the public sector. I think we can repeat the 2001 victory if we combine our efforts with hard campaigning based on facts and figures.
Privatisation does not work!! Get rid of it! Stop it!
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