Charities will be ‘preferred providers’ of NHS services if Labour wins the election, shadow health secretary Andy Burnham told charity bosses this week. He promised the Association of Charity Chief Executives (ACEVO) that charities and other voluntary/third sector groups would get favourable terms and longer contracts to take over running NHS services if Labour wins the election.
But should they?
Voluntary organisations occupy a space within civil society that is distinct from the State and the private sector; a space in which citizens come together freely to exercise self-determining collective action.
