Is Labour’s Commitment to the Third Sector in Health now in Limbo?

Defining the choice between parties is the political apparatchik’s bread and butter and nowhere is this more crucial than in the policies that pertain to our NHS. In health policy, there appears to be a great deal of political cross dressing, and as result the little details become all the more important. And so we come  to the poser of the Green and Labour party positions on health.

The Green party manifesto launched today. On Health and Wellbeing they intend to repeal the Health and Social Care Act, and introduce an NHS Reinstatement Bill, thereby abolishing competition, ending market based commissioning and re-establishing public bodies. This Green Party Reinstatement Bill would also explicitly establish a role for ‘not for profit’ organisations.

Interesting, radical stuff and some broad strokes that we can work with. Indeed I was under the impression this made their ambition very close to Labour’s view on the role of the third sector in health service delivery.

Not, apparently so.  I went back to the Labour Party Manifesto published yesterday and went looking for the bit where the party confirmed its commitment that the third sector would be ‘preferred providers’, as promised by Andy Burnham at ACEVO’s Health and Social Care conference less than two months ago. It was absent. An oversight? Have the Greens ‘borrowed’ this particular item of political clothing? The third sector would strongly argue that legislation or no, the role of the sector is well-established, if not mainstream enough, in health to not have to be subjected to such oversight. The other implication is more worrying: that this a commitment made by Mr Burnham to the sector, off the cuff and never meant for real policy. Even worse would be if the Labour Party had deliberately omitted this to avoid being outflanked on the left and therefore leaving their commitment to our sector in limbo.

So we need clarification, and fast. Watch this space.