To wonder how public services will looks like in 5-10 years time?

[Dancingwithcrutches]

Just musing really. The public sector has been bearing the brunt of the cuts for years now without any signs of let up. Teachers are leaving, ditto healthcare staff and whatever remains of the police force may be facing compulsory severence in the future.

But the thing is the public need these services, so I wonder what form will it take a few years down the line. Will schools have corporate sponsors in return of advertising? Privatisation is already happening in the NHS, I expect that free healthcare at the point of use will not exist within a decade.

Am exhausted but can't sleep so apologies if I'm not making sense .

I was recently looking at old pics in the area I live in. There is a lovely building nearby which is a shop, in 1972 it was a NatWest, in 1959 it was District Bank Company PLC. Things change and yes, I think schools probably will have corporate sponsors. It might all go the way of football teams where people are supporting a brand as opposed to their local team. The sheep don't seem to mind and unfortunately I am not a shepherd. I am slightly on the fence, I want to say it's all wrong but I have worked in public sector and seen the abuse of the generous working practice e.g. sick leave. Prior to ww1 or 2 (sorry) most establishments were operated by businesses and then nationalisation took place. I really believe it should have been, and was for a certain amount of time, a good thing. However, global competition has made it difficult to accommodate workers rights and IMO workers/professionals don't seem to realise this. If they did we could all work together and maybe we wouldn't have so much privatisation :(

I REALLY know about what public service means, because I worked for 10 years for a city council. My areas were: bins (your waste, and I was part of the team that introduced recycling to my city), highways, public toilets, engineering (repairs to the streets), streetlights, gritting when it was icy, cleaning the streets and alleyways.

Say goodbye to it all if you voted Conservative.

Yep it will all be gone; Government don't want any part of paying or looking after anything.

The Tories didn't manage to get rid of it all during their last Reign of Terror so I don't expect them to manage this time either tbh.

Say goodbye to roads, bin collections and engineering if you voted conservative? OK then.

Of course public services will exist. They will probably be very different, but change is inevitable. We can't carry on as we are. I expect some things will be worse and some better.

Come 2019 local government budgets will be 60-80% less than they were in 2007. Make of that what you will.

That's social services, residential and supported accommodation for children and adults, fostering services, roads, libraries... fucking everything.

What public services? There won't be any. Or at least, they will be unrecognisable imo; severely cut, heavily privatised, and contributions based. Council tax will rise enormously and service quality will fall. Get used to opening your wallets folks, because your going to have to pay over and over.

You're. I can spell, honest.

The waste I've seen in various parts of the public sector and NHS is criminal.

Thing is this week I've had contact from a council to do a job to use some budget up not because it needs doing so still on going.

We need to move the public sector to career average pensions and get rid of th gold plated sickness benefit.

We also need to reward those for not spending their budget rather than the current use it or loose it.

So yes the public sector will be smaller in 10 years but hopefully much much better run.

The biggest expenses are children's services and adults social care. There are currently no sensible plans for how we can deal with this massive demand.

It is grim and worrying for vulnerable people

Agree with mrsDV.
The cuts are not being planned to reduce inefficiencies. The government decided on an arbitrary figure it wants to save without lessening the expectation. Under investment and fire fighting will come home to roost in the next few years

I think the police service will be unrecognisable. Only very serious crime, murder, serious organised crime, terrorism, will be investigated by the police.
Almost every other crime will have to be reported on line and probably won't be followed up.
If less serious crime is investigated at all it will be by, not particularly well paid or trained, civilian investigators.
If any form of uniform patrols remain they will probably be by G4S or similar security guards.
The public will largely be left on their own with anti social behaviour, shoplifting, assaults below GBH, burglary, road traffic accidents that don't include death or life changing injuries.

I think it will depend majorly on postcode. In richer areas crimes will be investigated, roads repaired, that sort of thing. In poorer areas no one will give a shit . Quite easy to do/justify actually, probably based on who pays the most council tax. In fact it's already happened to some extent - the council cuts were very uneven, my local council was one of the worst hit and it shows. Just this week letters were sent round to the most vulnerable and disabled people explaining about further cuts. They switch off street lights and have closed so many services.

gingerdad Thing is this week I've had contact from a council to do a job to use some budget up not because it needs doing so still on going. Then the money is in the wrong place, isn't it? Wold be great if they could say "Oh, we've got x amount left - lets give it to social care". How you can look at what's happening and suggest there is too much money is beyond me.

I have struggled with suicidal feelings since the age of 13 and it might be ths government that finishes me off. I am so fearful for the future.

We can't carry on as we are

I keep seeing this phrase pop up and I genuinely wonder why not? I understand that the welfare system likely needs changing (though I disagree with how it is being done) but with some aspects of public services, I wonder why people think it needs constant tampering with that phrase above being used for justification.

For instance, I would like our schools and teachers to be left alone to get on with it. Stop the constant target setting and wasting their time forcing them to be academies and let them get on with teaching the children. We already have national assessments, and that should be enough.

People have an impression of the NHS being inefficient and 'bloated', but the truth is for the individual citizen, it really is the most affordable form of healthcare we can have. It is better than the most comprehensive health insurance you can buy, because there is no cap to treatment cost and no increase in premiums for using it. Yes the spending will increase year on year because that's how our demographic is at the moment, and yes there is some abuse of the system but if you think that won't happen in a private insurance system then you are deluding yourself. '

These budget cuts hurt the public, and that is all of us. You won't get a refund on your national insurance contributions if the NHS is privatised, you will just end up paying more for private insurance premiums on top of your NI. Ditto council tax. You will still pay it but end up paying separately for say bin collections.

These cuts are ideological, not based on financial savings. To the Tories capitalism is king, and publically owned servcies are just wrong.

Theses services are affordable, its just the government needs to do things like close tax loopholes for multinationals etc - things that affect them and their rich mates, so they won't.

I cringe to imagine how it will all look.

Can we possibly cut the crap about how public sector pensions should be put on a career average basis, please? Given that they're already on that basis?

Two words, Police Scotland.

Deepest thanks to any officers on MN. Sorry it couldn't be stopped.

I am very worried.

'Integration of health and social services' - a good concept, the reality is going to be dire IMO.

expect reduced services, over worked staff, unqualified and low paid staff 'support staff' replacing teachers, social workers, youth workers etc

services will crack under the strain

children and vulnerable adults will suffer

In poorer areas no one will give a shit

That already happens. Except, that also happened under a Labour Government. Our (Labour run) council has spent fucking millions on town regeneration plans that started way, way back in the nineties. And yet they haven't laid a single brick. But they've managed to run the town centre down and turn it into a cesspit. The roads are terrible and you need a degree to work out the bin collection timetable (which they also spent thousands on, just for new collection plans and leaflets) and yet our bins are being collected less than ever.

Oh, and our council leader is one of the highest paid in the country. He gets paid more a year than the Prime Minister in fact

If you think these things would only happen under a Tory government then I think you're very, very mistaken.

I always find it interesting how many people think that the welfare state and public services we have now are in some way how things 'have always been done' - rather than really only for a generation or 2. Most was set up in the post war period, nothing is set in stone and this might well be a period looked back on in the same way we look at "the Victorians". I'm sure they thought that there would always be work houses.

I dream of a world where public services were properly accountable and not such a repository for the incompetent and fraudulent Chief and sub-chief execs they seem to attract.

I dream of local authorities which didn't nod past every development by a large developer, on the promise of a tiny indoor sports centre (which wouldn't even be needed for anything other than the new development) and which encouraged self build and concentrated on delivering basic public facilities such as pavements, footpaths, crossings and cycleways.

A local authority which didn't try to use its clientele as a money-making scheme for the council or act like some kind of stormtrooper force, constantly at vigilance to catch a member of the public marginally at fault for a bin misplacement misdemeanour or parking offence.

Or provided a public amenity dump where you were met with helpful, approachable staff who actually did something useful (considering the number of them on site).

I actually think an awful lot of lives could be improved if local authorities simply stopped being involved in certain activities (excepting those essential for well-being and the vulnerable).

I've worked for a couple of local authorities and dealt with a lot of planning issues and hence councillors. I don't have a very high impression of the latter. With the odd exception, very egotistical wannabee career politicians were the rule, looked down their noses at mere workers, hardly anyone can be bothered to vote for them so they usually get re-elected, no requirement of qualifications or training, ridiculous considering the impact that the decisions they make have on peoples' lives. Basically a gravy train and unacceptably unaccountable.