The Tory illusion of 'choice' in public services

Choice is a seductive word. It implies pleasure, a leisurely pursuit of obtaining a desired item . Choice in public services is however something of a misnomer. Choice implies that service users can opt for different providers when in reality the outsourcing of public services is most usually to one monopoly supplier, operated under a contract over which democratic accountability is paralysed by the legal constraints of that contractual relationship.

‘Choice’ agenda is a Trojan horse to break up the NHS

The Kings Fund, a health and social care think tank, has published a report ‘social enterprise in health care’, which reviews the slow emergence of the Con Dem’s preferred alternative to the NHS as providers of health care in England: http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/social_enterprise_in.html