"Commissioning" undermines care

Well done Barnet UNISON for this link to a story about the treatment of care workers in today’s “commissioning” culture – which is also a story about how care is made inadequate and uncaring.

For all those who think that a split between “commissioning” and “delivery” is the “modern” way to improve public services in a time of scarcity, the actual experience of zero hours contracts and fifteen minute appointments is an important corrective.

It’s not just that it is odious and counterproductive that profit should be made out of social care – it’s that outsourcing encourages the commissioners to offer contracts which can only be made to pay by cutting corners.

UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter is the least that is needed. Beyond that our movement needs to organise these workers to reverse the casualisation of social care – and we need a Government that will bring social care where it belongs, into the public sector.

The Care UK strikers are leading this fight right now. We have to find ways to spread this struggle.