Announced by Liam Byrne, the care services minister, the taskforce
will look at a wide range of areas relating to public service delivery
including: developing an effective commercial relationship between the
Department for Health, NHS and third sector; achieving best value for
money in the way the third sector operates in providing services commissioned
by the NHS; encouraging innovation in the way services are provided; minimising
transaction costs for the third sector and ensuring consistency of approach
when dealing with all service providers.
Sue Ryder Care is one of nine representatives from the third sector on
the taskforce panel. Public Affairs Manager, Dan Beety, said the organisation
is delighted to be involved. “We’ve been campaigning for more
sustainable funding from primary care trusts and social services since
we calculated that in 2004 we subsidised the projects they had commissioned
us to complete by £7 million – money we had to find from voluntary
income,” he said. “Full cost recovery is just one aspect this
taskforce will be looking at, and we are looking forward to helping build
a fair and equal partnership between the sector and government.”
Liam Byrne said that the organisations in the third sector had shown
themselves to be innovative, efficient and effective, and that they are
key to providing a choice of health and social care services to local
communities. “I would like to strengthen their role in involving
local people in shaping the services they want, and in unleashing creativity
and innovation, in delivering these core services”, he said.
“To harness the full potential of the third sector,
we need to transform our relationship with the sector so that it truly
reflects our vision of partnership. We need to build on existing practice
and provide additional flexible approached to ensure the third sector
has a central role in delivery.”
An initial working group, co-charied by Victor Adebowale
of Turning Point and Ken Anderson at the Department of Health, will look
into the barriers to effective relationships between the sectors. They
are due to report back at the end of November when their findings will
be fed into the forthcoming White Paper Your Health, Your Care, Your
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