Local government's largest trade union has warned Whitehall against plans to transfer staff to social enterprises, as ministers seek new avenues of public service provision. Unison leader, Dave Prentis, said the Cabinet Office's plan to create an extra 25,000 posts across social enterprises would mean swathes of workers being forced from the NHS and local government and into the social business sphere. He warned that although diversifying public sector provision appealed to ministers wary of big business in the current economic climate, small social enterprises would struggle to compete with large, established private providers of public services. 'The rapid push to move 25,000 workers out of NHS and local government into social enterprises is an alarming direction for the Government to be going in. With the private finance markets set to become even more volatile and dole queues rising daily, the Government needs to focus on securing jobs and services,' Mr Prentis warned.
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