Work and pensions secretary, Peter Hain, has called on the public sector to work more closely with the private and voluntary sectors to get people back into work. Speaking at the launch of a report by think-tank the Institute of Public Policy Research, Mr Hain poured scorn on recent media reports he was moving away from engaging with the private sector. He said the private and voluntary sectors ‘must' and ‘will' have an enhanced role to give individualised attention and lever in new finance. ‘No-one has gone cool on reform. No-one has gone cool on the role of the private sector,' he said. ‘I am interested in one thing and one thing only – what works. The reality is we will work with large providers.' He did not rule out the idea of using regional or sub-regional contractors, but said he was ‘yet to be convinced' a one-size-fits all approach was the answer. His comments come after an interview at with the Financial Times newspaper in July in which he said prime contractors were not his ‘preferred option'. However, the FT took his comments as a hint of the direction of the new Brown Government on public services working with the private sector.
