Co-ops can help transform public services – report

January 20 2010

The Innovation Unit, a London-based independent social enterprise dedicated to supporting the third sector, has published an independent ‘think piece’ — The Engagement Ethic — outlining the potential for co-operatives and mutuals to help transform public services.

In the face of the current fiscal crisis, it is believed some public service leaders are drawing inspiration from Easyjet.

However the document’s authors — John Craig, Matthew Horne and Prof Denis Mongon — argue that public services could instead learn from John Lewis and give staff and citizens greater rights to shape decisions in public services.

Mr Craig, a partner at the Innovation Unit, says: “People will only take more responsibility for their own health, learning and carbon footprint if they are given greater rights to shape public services. If not, while public services are improving, the risk is that they remain something done to the public rather than with the public.”

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, said: “In a climate of economic uncertainty and funding fears, this report compiles telling evidence that the way to transform services is to empower staff and users.

“The co-operative model is enjoying a new heyday of public trust and business success and, as the emerging trend towards co-operative schools show, developed with care, it is a positive, additional option for public service improvement.”

The paper suggests how public services might seek to unlock the potential of co-operative and mutual approaches. These suggestions include:

• Extending the ‘right-to-request’ to services beyond the health system, enabling staff to create social enterprises, including co-operatives and mutuals

• Opening up governance design to staff and citizens by creating greater openness about the governance structure of organisations like Foundation Trusts

• Developing a community right-to-request, enabling groups of citizens to request changes in governance that give them a greater voice in services they use.