RSS feed Matt Dykes's Archive

Matt Dykes

Matt Dykes

I’m a Policy Officer at the TUC, covering issues around transport, public service reform and civil society. I’m responsible for the TUC’s work on public service reform and have led the work on the TUC’s response to the Open Public Services white paper, as well as authoring the TUC’s report Civil Society and Public Services: Collaboration not Competition. I’m particularly interested in the relationship between public services and civil society, social enterprises, mutuals and co-operatives.

I’ve been at the TUC for 8 years and was formerly policy officer for our London region and national youth officer. I have previously worked for the Mayor of London as well as several years in the civil service. I’ve been an active rep for both PCS and UNISON, and was also a founder member of Justice for Colombia.

  • Public services

    Mutuals 0 Markets 1

    2nd April 2012 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    The government used its Open Public Services update last week to reiterate its commitment to the roll out of public service mutuals. According to the government “this will empower millions of public sector staff to become their own boss – freeing up untapped entrepreneurial and innovative drive”

    Those employees setting up their own public service mutuals will hopefully have entrepreneurial drive in buckets, as the track record of public service mutuals  in the open market is looking decidedly patchy.

    Continue Reading →

  • Public services

    Brick by brick, the state gets dismantled

    30th March 2012 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    Yesterday David Cameron chose to remind us that public services remained open for business.  In an alarmingly honest declaration of his government’s ideological agenda, the Prime Minister assured us that “brick by brick, edifice by edifice, we are slowly dismantling the big-state”.

    Promoting the release of Open Public Services 2012, an update to the government’s white paper released last July, Cameron reiterated his “instinctive belief” that a combination of individual consumer choice and increased competition and diversity of provision was key to securing innovation and value for money in public services.

    The TUC’s response to last year’s white paper provided ample evidence to show that opening up public service markets actually has the opposite effect, leading to a concentration of provision in the hands of unaccountable private providers.  At the same time services became increasingly complex and fragmented, with the greatest impact on the most vulnerable. 

    Continue Reading →

  • Public services

    Procuring ‘social value’ – can we make it work?

    22nd March 2012 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    With high stakes battles being fought over the Welfare Reform and Health and Social Care Bills in Westminster, it is not surprising that a private members bill on public procurement entered the statute books largely unnoticed earlier this month.

    But the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 has some potentially far reaching implications for the commissioning of public services.  Trade unions and community activists should take note.

    Continue Reading →

  • Public services

    Pay cuts, job losses, outsourcing: local government in 2012

    8th December 2011 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    A recent survey  of local authority directors and chief executives painted a bleak picture looking ahead at the next 12 months, as the second year of front loaded cuts to local government bites even deeper.

    We saw in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement that the combination of attacks on pay and pensions is imposing massive cuts on the average living standards of public sector workers.

    Little wonder then that yesterday’s joint report from the Audit Commission and Local Government Association on the future of workforce pay and employment in local government gives us real cause for concern.

    Continue Reading →

  • Economics

    Good tidings for rail?

    29th November 2011 — Filed under: Economics

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    Did rail do well out of the Autumn Statement?  There are serious questions to ask still.  The government’s beaten a welcome retreat on rail fares … for now.  But what was there for rail manufacturing looking for respite after the government’s shambles over Thameslink.

    Continue Reading →

  • Public services

    How much more can the voluntary sector take?

    24th November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    The politics of positioning is always a tricky game.  And so it is proving for many within the voluntary sector.  As austerity bites and the sector finds itself competing for scarce resources, it is understandable that many charity and voluntary sector leaders find themselves boxing clever with a government that has explicitly courted them with Big Society talk, public service commissioning opportunities and some useful budget tinkering on Gift Aid.

    However, it remains to be seen how tenable these positions remain in the face of a deepening crisis across the sector.  It seems that every week brings worsening prospects for jobs, funding and services. 

    While this clearly makes a mockery of the government’s Big Society aspirations, it might be argued that voices of opposition in the sector have been muted.  But is this soon to change?

    Continue Reading →

  • Public services

    The view from local government

    23rd November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    Local government has borne the brunt of the government spending cuts this year and the prospect looks even bleaker next year as the front loaded cuts continue to bite, in many cases even deeper.

    So the Local Government Chronicle quarterly survey of local authority directors and chief executives is a particularly useful snapshot of how public service providers are coping with government-imposed austerity.

    The latest survey (see LGC 10/11/11)  has some telling results, with three key themes particularly apparent.

    Continue Reading →

  • Public services

    What destination for the government’s rail policy?

    25th October 2011 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    Justine Greening’s promotion to Secretary of State for Transport has come at a crucial time.  The government has some very big choices to make on the future of rail in the UK.

    The government will be producing a white paper on the future of UK rail in the next month or so.  With three quarters of franchises up for renewal in the next five years, the opportunity remains to make a significant change to rail policy.

    Will the government put the interests of rail passengers and tax payers first and put an end to our dysfunctional and costly privatised rail industry?  Or will it take the option presented by the McNulty report and slash jobs, break up the rail network further and hand more power to private train operating companies, rewarding their executives and shareholders alike?

    Continue Reading →

  • Public services

    Public service mutuals: “A meaningful say”

    17th October 2011 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    The gap between the reality and rhetoric  around the Government’s programme of public service reform continues to widen.

    The Open Public Services white paper was big on rhetoric. But does it bear up to scrutiny?

    Let’s take one example, public service mutuals. 

    Continue Reading →

  • Public services

    The health service market in action (guess the winner)

    20th September 2011 — Filed under: Public services

    Matt Dykes Matt Dykes

    When NHS Surrey came to award preferred bidder status for the delivery of its community health care services, which of the following organisations won the contract? Was it:

    • Local NHS Foundation Trust, Surrey and Borders Partnership
    • Much lauded NHS social enterprise spin out and ‘Big Society Award’ winner, Central Surrey Health
    • Private provider, Assura Medical Ltd, 75% owned by the Virgin Group?

    Those of you familiar with the Government’s private sector bonanza that was the Work Programme will probably have worked it out.  The award of NHS Surrey’s community health services to Assura Medical Ltd has caused a fair degree of outrage.  Clearer evidence of the privatisation by stealth of the NHS would be hard to come by.

    And, of course, this is also another wake up call for those who retain faith in the Big Society and the Government’s stated intention to open up public services to social enterprises, charities and employee-led mutuals.

    Continue Reading →