Promotion of ‘choice’ undermines charities’
services
27 November 2009
The catch-all clarion call of ‘choice’ undermines charities,
their staff and the services they provide, Unite, the largest union
in the country, has said.
Unite, which has 60,000 members in the sector, said that
politicians, health authorities and local councils were using the
mantra of ‘choice’ to drive down the employment conditions for not
for profit staff and disrupt the seamless delivery of services.
Rachael Maskell, Unite’s National Officer, Not for Profit Sector
said: ‘The use of a nebulous word such as ‘choice’ implies improved
quality services for clients and service users, when the opposite
is, in fact, true.’
Rachael Maskell told Unite’s Community, Youth Workers and Not
for Profit conference in Brighton that ‘choice’ is confined to the
few, not the many.
‘The ‘choice’ is with the commissioners, not the service users
and staff. The current ‘choice’ is between decent pay and
conditions, or more cuts and a race to the bottom.’
‘The catch-all clarion call for ‘choice’ is promoting a tick box
culture, rather than professionalism.’
Rachael Maskell said that ‘the ugly face’ of the ‘choice
culture’ included more than 50 top charity bosses receiving annual
pay packages of more than £100,000, while many not for profit
employees existed on pay hovering just above the National Minimum
Wage.
This was compounded by the instability in the funding streams
which were often short-term and inadequate for the services
required.
Rachael Maskell said that Unite would be campaigning throughout
2010 to reverse the malign affects of the ‘choice’ culture, so that
not for profit services were properly funded for the long-term and
for an end to the ‘City pay culture’ that had infected some
organisations in the sector.
Employees also needed to be valued, as they were a charity’s
most important asset in delivering quality
care.
-ends-
NOTES TO NEWS EDITORS: For further information, please ring:
Rachael Maskell 0207 420 8979 or 07768 693933; Shaun Noble,
Communications Officer (Third Sector) 020 7420 8951 or 07768 693
940
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