Mutuals: getting into a spin?

With the tightening of the public purse came increasing pressure on central government to find new ways of maximising the efficiency of public service provision. This has fuelled a new drive to build a “big society” based on shifting power from state institutions to employee-led organisations. This is a particular type of social enterprise known as mutualisation or “spinning out”.

Mutuals can take a range of forms, making narrow definition difficult. Thus, the three attributes of mutuals identified by the Cabinet Office’s Mutuals Task Force report Public service mutuals—the next steps are a useful starting point. Mutuals are said to be organisations which have left the public sector, but which continue to deliver public services and give employees significant control over their operation. If we look beyond the policy documents though, there has been little legislative development to facilitate the government’s mutualisation agenda.

This is important because the EU public procurement directives apply if contacting authorities