Let's end the lazy thinking that says 'public sector good, private sector bad'

A couple of months ago I was talking to a middle ranking civil servant from the DfE.  He told me that he noticed what great efforts we went to in order to engage with the whole of the sector and share our understanding and insights - with local authorities, unions, academy chains, national associations and suchlike.  He noticed that we didn't charge for this.  He told me that he found this particularly suprising because, in his words, 'YOU ARE A PRIVATE COMPANY'.

OOO.  That's better - so good to be out of the closet.  I can now be my real self etc etc

When The Key lost government funding as the banks went down the tubes at the end of 2008 and we were forced to make it a subscription service and run it privately, a director from the National College told us that they wouldn't be able to work with us any more because we were now, wait for it.... deep breath now ..... PRIVATE.  Oh the shame of it.  All of us who had worked with the public sector for years were now to be declared unclean.

It's not an attitude that I notice with heads - particularly secondary heads, who seem quite agnostic about who they work with - but it still seems to be a prevalent attitude amongst civil servants (one of whom told us when the DfE ran us, that we shouldn't tell people about our staff degrees/qualifications because that was elitist).

To my mind, as a company you provide a service that people want; you charge a price they are prepared to pay.  If you can manage your resources well enough to make a profit, well done.  You can then use that profit to re-invest in equipment, extra staffing, extra marketing etc - or you can give it back to investors or throw a big party.  That's up to you.  The only thing the customer - public sector or otherwise - should be interested in is whether they trust you and find you ethically sound, whether you offer a good service and whether you are charging a fair price. 

We have moved into an era within education when we judge what we spend according to the value that it secures.  Assuming that an organisation is greedy, unethical, unsound, is not values-based - because it is private, is complete nonsense.  At The Key and Ten Governor, we only employ people who are focused on serving our members, are trustworthy and who want to make a difference in a rapidly changing environment.

Breathe........