CBI - public services homepage

Britain's failure to get young people off the streets and into work leaves them vulnerable to being involved in crime, to ill health and a life "at the margins of society as the people that prosperity forgot."

The CBI says it is unacceptable that Britain ranks 23rd out of 28 in the OECD's league table of young people not in education, employment or training – so-called 'NEETs' – often despite far lower unemployment rates overall.

CBI deputy director-general John Cridland said: "The CBI has long warned that the UK’s approach to disengaged youth is failing. Now we can see the knock-on effects such failure has on the whole of society," Read the full story.
Download a pdf of Towards a NEET Solution (2.7MB).

Building schools for the future

Government ministers need to get the school rebuilding programme back on track, the CBI has said in a new report. It says ministers need to show their determination to deliver the г45 billion plan to rebuild every secondary school in England, which is already considerably behind schedule. The CBI believes many local authorities are unsure about the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and that there has been inadequate leadership. This, it says, is damaging pupils’ education as BSF is intended to provide much-needed improvements to schools including modern science laboratories and high-quality sports facilities. Read the report, More than bricks and mortar, here.

Counting the cost: CBI competitive neutrality report

Unless the true cost of public services can be measured and compared, it is impossible for the government to know if it is delivering value. This is why there must be full cost comparison between competing providers to ensure better value and higher quality public services. With demands on public services increasing and the need for efficiencies more urgent, knowing what services really cost is vital when making decisions on who is best placed to provide a service. The new CBI report on what is termed ‘competitive neutrality’ in public services, Counting the cost can be downloaded here (pdf 144kb)

A Healthy Choice: Building a Stronger NHS

The existing reform programme in the NHS must be seen through to its logical conclusion: an NHS where decisions are more directly determined by patient choices. Too many models of care and service provision are rigidly based upon adapting what’s gone before – the NHS must change if it is to last another 60 years.
Click here to read the report (PDF 379kb)

Potential of Competitive Dialogue

The EU’s Competitive Dialogue initiative for supporting the procurement of complex public services contracts is, says the CBI, capable of producing more innovative public services, but only if it is managed well. But few procuring authorities are doing so and the process is proving challenging for procurers and suppliers alike. More guidance on its use is needed.
Click here to read the brief (PDF 149 kb)

Criminal justice system must do more than contain

The CBI has called for the government's prison and probation policies to be reformed. A new CBI report, Getting back on the straight and narrow, details the г60bn annual cost of crime to business. It stresses that treating prisoners with decency and having an end-to-end approach to offender management will help cut re-offending by getting people ready for work on release. The report represents the first critique the CBI has made of the criminal justice system and shows re-offending rates have barely changed over the last ten years despite a 40 per cent real-terms increase in prison and probation spending over the same period. Read the full report (PDF 480kb)

Public services industry worth г44bn

A new report on the market for public services, commissioned by the CBI from Oxford Economics, demonstrates the growth of the public services industry in the UK. Government procurement of services is seven key sectors is now worth г44bn. Providers in this market generate г25bn in added value and employ over 700,000 people, making the industry bigger than the pharmaceutical and automotive industries combined. Read the report (PDF 980kb).

Independent sector treatment centres

The CBI has said a forthcoming decision on the future of seven independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs) is a pivotal test of Gordon Brown’s ability to deliver on his promise that NHS reform will go "wider and deeper". The warning comes as the CBI publishes a new report looking at the ISTC programme to date. ISTCs and the NHS: sticking plaster or real reform? (PDF 348kb) also recommends ways the programme’s success can be built on in future. March will see a Department of Health decision on seven ISTCs, which the CBI says will be "a signal not just about the ISTC programme but about the government’s commitment to long-term change in the NHS".

CBI responds to NAO report on PFI

Commenting on the National Audit Office report on making changes in operational PFI projects, the CBI's Neil Bentley said: “The report shows PFI deals are flexible and able to respond to public service users’ changing needs. But value for money is paramount and PFI partners need to work together to deliver a good deal for all.