Privatisation of Schools

First they came for the NHS - Now they want the schools.

At the last General Election, 22% of the electorate were either daft enough, nasty enough or self-servingly greedy enough to vote Conservative. 

Barely 1 in 5 of those entitled to vote. 

In no way was this a mandate to privatise the juicier profitable parts of the NHS - especially as this was not in their manifesto. Neither was it a mandate to privatise the Royal Mail which has been done to the great financial benefit of their chums and backers in the City. Now they are turning their attention to schools. 

“The largest academy chain in the country is seeking to outsource all non-teaching posts in its 77 schools, from librarians to caretakers, to a for-profit organisation within the next month.

In a step that critics fear is a major step to putting profit-making at the heart of the state school system, the Academy Enterprise Trust has selected PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), one of the world's largest auditors, with a specialism in tax accountancy, as a partner in the plan.

The controversial proposal, which AET admits is entirely new to academy trusts, is being reviewed by the government. AET wants to set up a limited liability partnership with PwC, which would be paid up to £400m of taxpayers' money over 10 years for its role.” Guardian 20/9/14

Someone calling themselves ‘defragmentation’ had this to say about the idea. 

“Brilliant--not. Having been involved in many outsourcing projects I can tell you they all follow more or less the same trajectory. Reduction of existing costs by employing newer, cheaper staff (some staff will be TUPEd but will get stuffed in the medium term). Management look good in the short term as they have reduced costs. Staff have no loyalty to school/organisation so will provide sub-standard service. Customers/parents/teachers start to notice that things aren't quite what they were. Management who made outsourcing decision move on to pastures new and no doubt more outsourcing projects. New management pick up the pieces. Decision is made to 'in source' i.e. to go back to the original situation. PWC pick up large consultancy fee for collaborating in crap decision making process essentially they tell their paymasters (what they want to hear).

Completely and utterly bonkers--every body involved in the process will know it is the wrong thing to do, they will know that quality should trump cost, they will know that staff will be demotivated, they will know that this is being done to make a few people look good-----but once the decision has been made they will continue regardless of the inevitable consequences.”

“The only thing that can happen here is that managers and shareholders enrich themselves by paying the people doing the jobs less than they were getting before, or by reducing the services given to pupils.

In the event the company gets into financial trouble, or is doing such a poor job that it becomes a media story, the local authority will have to step in and pick up the tab.

I guarantee that in 5 years time, librarians will be getting paid less, and the managers will be getting paid more. Happens every single bloody time.” DubaiTiger

“No doubt PwC will ensure a significant portion of AET's income suddenly, miraculously, becomes offshore for tax purposes…”HarryDecca

FEED THE GREEDY - SOD THE NEEDY