Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Competition and public services: sin, prisons and the third sector

John D. Rockefeller once suggested "Competition is a sin.". It is certainly a dirty world for many people when it comes to public services. Therefore, it is particularly welcome that the Guardian Society section today carries an excellent article by Martin Narey – the former director-general of prisons and now chief executive of the children's charity Barnardo's.

Narey describes how he was converted from campaigning against private sector involvement in prisons to the recognising how competition can oblige providers of services to raise their game - or get replaced by those who can deliver.

He also makes a convincing case for the Third Sector’s potential in delivering public services and ask policy-makers for “a level playing field, a transparent tendering process, and to be given work when we can demonstrate that we deserve it”.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well said.