You have our support. It's time for the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation!

Kathy, Oscar, Bella, Brian, Carly, Simon, and Chris work in a wide range of public services – from prisons and schools to hospitals and libraries.

However, all of them have seen the damage that outsourcing does to our services and to the people who keep them running.

Outsourcing, where private or subsidiary companies are brought in to run essential parts of our public services, acts like a hidden layer of privatisation, driving down working conditions to boost profits.

Labour's Plan to Make Work Pay committed to reversing 15 years of Conservative failure by 'bringing about the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation.'

Through their unions and the TUC, the workers set up a Record of Support for Insourcing to show just how popular this pledge is with the public. The workers and their unions promoted the action, with messages from Kathy, a Unite rep and library worker, and RMT General Secretary, Eddie Dempsey, bringing in tens of thousands of signatures.

Sign the record of support for insourcing

The Roundtable

All told, 28,000 people had signed the Record of Support by the time the workers met at Congress House on the day of the meeting.

After planning out their messages – and recording videos to promote their campaign on social media – they were ready to meet the minister.

The minister listened carefully as the workers set out how outsourcing leads to:

• low pay and insecure contracts;
• workers being transferred between outsourcing companies and the degradation of their terms and conditions;
• the emergence of two-tier workforces, with differences in pay and terms between in-house and outsourced employment;

Others described the benefits of bringing contracts back in-house and their experience of campaigning for insourcing.

What did the minister say?

After thanking each of the workers, he agreed that successive governments have been, at best, ambivalent about insourcing.

And that at worst, services were hollowed out and sold off to the lowest bidder.

He warned that change will take time. But he's already taken the first crucial steps, introducing new rules requiring government departments to:

• publish Insourcing Strategies to make the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation a reality.
• conduct a Public Interest Test before any outsourcing decision to see if an in-house option would be better.

These policies will have a significant positive impact on the employment terms and conditions of the workers delivering our public services – and everyone who relies on them.

At the end of the meeting, the workers handed their Record of Support for Insourcing, signed by over 28,000 people, to the minister.

What happens next?

The minister finished the day by asking to meet the workers again in a few months' time to share how things are progressing and to hear more from them about what needs to happen next.

His commitment to meet again shows what we can achieve when we build power in our unions and work with committed leaders to deliver change.

But we can't stop here. Union access, recognition, and collective bargaining are often missing in outsourced services, leading to further attacks on working conditions.

The proposed new Procurement Bill will be crucial to addressing these gaps and delivering decent work across our public services.

To make sure that tackling outsourcing remains a priority, ministers need to see they have the public's support.

So please, share this story with your family and friends and ask them to sign the Record of Support for Insourcing.

Update: Since the meeting, the chancellor has announced that around 2000 outsourced workers in government, including Carly, will see their work brought back in house. Ministers also released guidance to support the insourcing wave, requiring new 5-year plans to help deliver on this. See more from PCS here.