PUBLIC SERVICE REFORM

06 June 2006

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s and the Chancellor’s speeches on the reform of Public Services, Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s biggest teachers’ organisation, said:

Public servants, including teachers, are committed to making a real positive difference to the lives of the public.

The value and commitment public servants add make the public services far more efficient than the private sector.

David Cameron’s recognition of the positive nature of the public sector ethos is a welcome step forward and it is a recognition that Number 10 needs to reflect on.

All Chancellors make statements about keeping public service pay settlements down. The reality is that there is an incontrovertible link between public service pay falling behind pay in the private sector, low moral, high staff turn over and recruitment and retention. The Government needs to remember that.