Under the public-private partnership (PPP) programme, private sector finance, management expertise and innovation are used in ‘partnership’ to modernize public services. However, advocates fail to account for the differing aims and responsibilities of the public and private sectors, in that private companies plan to make a profit out of non-profit public sector organizations. There is a paucity of critical empirical research into new ‘partnership’ forms of privatization and the implications that these have for employment and work. This article will examine the PPP of National Savings and Investments (NS&I) and some of the initiatives introduced and problems encountered, which resulted in the creation of a multi-tier workforce, together with the insourcing, outsourcing and the first ever offshoring of UK Government work to India.
BachSWinchesterD (2003) Industrial relations in the public sector. In: EdwardsP (ed.) Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition.Oxford: Blackwell, 285–312.
2.
BrymanABellE (2007) Business Research Methods, 2nd Edition.Oxford: Oxford University Press.
CarterNKleinRDayP (1992) How Organisations Measure Success: The Use of Performance Indicators in Government. London: Routledge.
5.
CollingTFernerA (1995) Privatization and Marketization. In: EdwardsP (ed.) Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice in Britain. Oxford: Blackwell, 491–514.
6.
ConleyH (2002) A state of insecurity: temporary work in the public services. Work, Employment and Society16(4): 725–37.
7.
ConleyH (2008) The nightmare of temporary work: a comment on Fevre. Work, Employment and Society22(4): 731–6.
8.
Department of the Environment (1996) The Private Finance Initiative and Local Authorities. London: Department of the Environment.
9.
Du GayP (2000) In Praise of Bureaucracy: Weber. Organization. Ethics. London: Sage.
10.
EllisVTaylorP (2006) ‘You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone’: re-contextualizing the origins, development and impact of the call centre. New Technology, Work and Employment12(2): 107–22.
11.
FairbrotherP (1994) Politics and the State as Employer. London: Mansell.
12.
FarnhamDHortonS (1996) Managing private and public organisations. In: FarnhamDHortonS (eds) Managing the New Public Services, 2nd Edition.London: Macmillan, 27–52.
13.
FevreR (2007) Employment insecurity and social theory: the power of nightmares. Work, Employment and Society21(3): 517–35.
14.
FosterDHoggettP (1999) Change in the Benefits Agency: empowering the exhausted worker?Work, Employment and Society13(1): 19–39.
15.
GaffneyDPollockAPriceDShaoulJ (1999) NHS capital expenditure and the private finance initiative. British Medical Journal319(7201): 48–51.
16.
GrimshawDVincentSWillmotH (2002) Going privately: partnership and outsourcing in the UK public services. Public Administration80(3): 475–502.
17.
GrimshawDWillmottHRuberyJ (2005) Inter-organizational networks: trust, power and the employment relationship. In: MarchingtonM. (eds) Fragmenting Work. Blurring Organizational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 39–62.
18.
HebsonGGrimshawDMarchingtonM (2003) PPP and the changing public sector ethos: case-study evidence from the health and local authority sectors. Work, Employment and Society17(3): 481–501.
19.
HM Treasury (2000) Public Private Partnerships: The Government’s Approach. London: The Stationery Office.
20.
HortonS (1996) The civil service. In: FarnhamDHortonS (eds) Managing the New Public Services, 2nd Edition.London: Macmillan, 127–149.
21.
Institute for Public Policy Research (2001) Building Better Partnerships: The Final Report for the Commission on Public-Private Partnerships. London: Institute for Public Policy Research.
22.
LeyshonAThriftN (1997) Money Space: Geographies of Monetary Transformation. London: Routledge.
23.
MacKenzieR (2000) Subcontracting and the re-regulation of the employment relationship: a case study from the telecommunications industry. Work, Employment and Society14(4): 707–26.
24.
MarquandD (2004) Decline of the Public. Cambridge: Polity.
25.
National Audit Office (2003) The PPP of National Savings and Investments. Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General. London: The Stationery Office.
26.
O’Connell DavidsonJ (1993) Privatization and Employment Relations: The Case of the Water Industry. London: Mansell.
27.
OsborneSMcLaughlinK (2002) The new public management in context. In: McLaughlinK. (eds) New Public Management: Current Trends and Future Prospects. London: Routledge, 7–14.
28.
PilkingtonC (1999) The Civil Service in Britain Today. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
29.
PollittC (1990) Managerialism and the Public Services: The Anglo-American Experience. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
30.
PollockA (2004) NHS PLC: The Privatisation of Our Health Care. London: Verso.
31.
PollockAPriceD (2000) Rewriting the regulations: how the World Trade Organisation could accelerate privatisation in health-care systems. The Lancet356(9246): 1995–2000.
32.
PollockADunniganMGaffneyDPriceDShaoulJ (1999) Planning the ‘new’ NHS: downsizing for the 21st century. British Medical Journal319(7203): 179–84.
33.
PollockAShaoulJVickersN (2002) Private finance and ‘value for money’ in NHS hospitals: a policy in search of a rationale?British Medical Journal324(7347): 1205–9.
34.
PortelliA (2001) The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral Histories. New York, NY: The State University of New York Press.
35.
RuaneS (2007) Acts of distrust? Support workers’ experiences in PFI hospital schemes. In: MooneyGLawA (eds) New Labour/Hard Labour? Restructuring and Resistance inside the Welfare Industry. Bristol: The Policy Press, 75–92.
36.
RuberyJEarnshawJMarchingtonM (2005) Blurring the boundaries to the employment relationship: from single to multi-employer relationships. In: MarchingtonM. (eds) Fragmenting Work. Blurring Organizational Boundaries and Disordering Hierarchies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 63–88.
37.
SmithA (2008) Collective and individual forms of resistance in a public-private partnership: a case study of National Savings and Investments. New Technology, Work and Employment23(3): 197–212. [Special ‘High Performance Work Systems’ issue].
38.
SmithA (2009) ‘Worky tickets’: exploring dissent at work. Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management6(1/2): 14–25. [Special ‘Beyond the Control-Resistance Debate: A Fresh Look at Experiences of Work in the New Economy’ issue].
39.
StranglemanT (2004) Work Identity at the End of the Line? Privatisation and Culture Change in the UK Rail Industry. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
40.
TaylorPBainP (2005) ‘India calling to the far away towns’: the call centre labour process and globalization. Work, Employment and Society19(2): 261–82.
41.
TaylorPCooperC (2008) ‘It was absolute hell’: inside the private prison. Capital and Class96: 3–30.
42.
TurnbullPWassV (2000) Redundancy and the paradox of job insecurity. In: HeeryESalmonJ (eds) The Insecure Workforce. London: Routledge, 57–77.
43.
WhitfieldD (2001) Public Services or Corporate Welfare: Rethinking the Nation State in the Global Economy. London: Pluto Press.
44.
WhitfieldD (2010) Global Auction of Public Assets: Public Sector Alternatives to the Infrastructure Market and Public Private Partnerships. Nottingham: Spokesman.
