In Your Hands

Benefits and challenges of mutual and community cooperatives in public services

Author: Mary Rayner, Karen Wilkie, Simon Randall CBE, Tom Shakespeare   |  

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In Your Hands

Benefits and challenges of mutual and community cooperatives in public services

Recent rhetoric from both Labour and the Conservatives has shown a great deal of interest in the concept of co-operatives and mutual societies. Much hope is placed in their ability to reform public services, and to increase productivity, efficiency and to give the owners of the services a real stake in their improvement. So, in this edition of Policy Platform we discuss the benefits and challenges of moving towards such a system, with more employees and service users taking control of public services.

We have articles written from three different perspectives, including Mary Rayner from Co-Operatives UK – an umbrella body for co-operatives; Karen Wilkie from the Co-Operative Party, and; Simon Randall from the Conservative Co-Operative Movement.

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In Your Hands

Benefits and challenges of mutual and community cooperatives in public services