Public Service Outsourcing and its Employment Implications in an Era of Austerity: The Case of British Social Care

Abstract

Utilising an institutional, inter-organisational and inter-personal framework, longitudinal qualitative data are used to examine the changing nature of statevoluntary sector relationships in the area of social care outsourcing and its implications for the terms and conditions of those employed by Scottish voluntary organisations. Over the period 2002 to 2008/09, against the background of funders seeking to pass on efficiencies to voluntary organisations, these relationships have become increasingly cost-based and 'arms-length'. This has been accompanied by downward pressures on staff terms and conditions, which are intensifying because of more draconian public expenditure cuts. Consequently, voluntary sector employers are increasingly converging on an employment model based on low pay and more limited access to sickness, pension and other benefits that is informed strongly by narrow financial logics.

“You’ve Just Cursed Us”: Precarity, Austerity and Worker’s Participation in the Non-Profit Social Services

“…The influence of NPM governance was clear, as non-profits were placed on a market-based footing, delivering services through top-down accountability controls and contractually-driven obligations (Carmel and Harlock, 2008). NPM has been identified as a 'transmission belt' through which waves of neo-liberal, marketized reforms were passed through to the non-profit sector (Shields, 2014;Cunningham and James, 2014). Fiscal discipline, competitive relations, and labour market flexibilization were key aspects of these waves of neo-liberalism (Brenner et al, 2010).…”

“…The global financial crisis can be seen as a continuation of successive rounds of such market-based restructuring (Clarke and Newman, 2012;Camfield, 2008). Austerity policies, understood to be a series of government measures aimed at reducing public expenditures (Bach, 2012;Clarke and Newman, 2012), have formed the basis of the latest wave (Cunningham and James, 2014). Canada's experience of the global financial crisis and recession differs from that of countries like the UK.…”

“…In other similar countries, such as the UK, it manifested in an intensification of some of NPM's market values in the shape of increasing efforts by NPSS funders to introduce greater competition (from the private sector), 'more for less', stricter accountability and the continued adoption of private sector management ethos and practices (Cunningham and James, 2014). In terms of employment policies, in the UK, these pressures have brought further insecurity in income and the degradation of other benefits, greater job insecurity and work intensification for NPSS workers (Cunningham and James, 2014). In many ways, the NPSS is beginning to exhibit precarity in not only funding, but in organizational and workforce security.…”

An anatomy of zero‐hour contracts in the UK

“…Such pressures have been shown to be more intense in certain occupations and sectors where unpredictability and variations in product demand have a more immediate effect on labour demand (Cappelli and Neumark, ). Research, for example, finds that adjustments in working time have been a common employer response in the case of retail (Rubery et al ., ) and social care (Cunningham and James, ).…”

Multiple paths through the complexities of globalization: The next three years of Competition & Change

“…Competition and Change, 21 (1), 2017 Later, a in a powerful paper, Palan (2006) associated the post-Fordist period with the competition state and its pro-business politics, lacking social mechanisms such as the New Deal or the antitrust legislation that characterised the previous Fordist regime. A number of other papers provided sector-specific developments in the case of health (Harrison and Smith 2003), waste management (Davies 2007) and social care in the voluntary sector (Cunningham and James 2014). These discussions retain validity in the current times and are likely to do so in the near future as reflected by the controversial politics around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) that contain serious implications for a host of services and especially public services.…”