Cameron vows to let public sector workers direct services

David Cameron pledged to let public sector workers take charge of key health and education services today as he made a bid to win over disgruntled Labour voters.

The Tory leader said rank-and-file staff would be encouraged to form co-operatives and direct their own work within national standards.

He insisted the policy could be as revolutionary as former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher giving people the right to buy their council houses.

Speaking at a press conference in south London, Mr Cameron said co-operative groups embodied his party's core values, and it was time to reclaim them from the political Left.

"I know that there are millions of public sector workers who work in our public services and who frankly today feel demoralised, disrespected and unrecognised. We will not only get rid of the targets and bureaucracy that drive you so mad," he said.

"We will give you the chance to set up employee-owned co-operatives to take over the services so you can be your own boss and offer the public a better service the way you think it should be done, not the way some distant bureaucrat thinks it should be done.

"So instead of government controlling every aspect of public service in our country, we would say to people who work in Job Centres, in the NHS, in social work, in call centres, right across our public sector, 'here is your budget, deliver this service, and if you do it more efficiently and more effectively, you can keep some of the savings that you make'."

The proposals build on Mr Cameron's long-standing support for such groups, after he launched the Conservative Co-operative Movement in 2007.

The Tories also unveiled a new poster campaign designed to appeal to voters who previously backed Labour, and an accompanying series of videos featuring people who have already switched allegiances.

The images, which will be on billboards across the UK from today, depict the individuals explaining why concerns over the economy and social breakdown have made them opt to vote Conservative.

Mr Cameron told the audience of activists and journalists in Battersea that his party had "changed".

"This election is too important for people to just go along with voting how they've always done, or how their family has always done," he said.

"We've got big problems in this country, and we need to make big changes to solve them - and that's why we're saying to people who have never voted Tory before: We are not the same old Conservative Party.

"We have changed. We are a party for the mainstream majority in our country, and we need your help to stop five more years of Gordon Brown and to make the changes we need to get the country back on its feet."

Mr Cameron also hailed the proportion of women and ethnic minorities who would be representing the Conservatives at the next general election.

"I'm really proud that young black men and women in Britain today wondering if this really is a society in which they can get to the very top, that they can look at Tory Party," he said.

Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of Unite, said: "David Cameron is using the language of socialism to mask a break-up of public services. He is mangling the English language to advance his anti-state ideology.

"These plans will erode the joined-up working that exists between health, social work and educational professionals.

"This will also mean that national agreements for pay, employment conditions and pensions will have to be disbanded for teachers, health staff and local authority workers. David Cameron has not spelt out what the effects will be on those dedicated employees working in the public sector."

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: "The public won't be fooled by George Osborne's road-to-Damascus conversion to co-operatives.

"This is just another Tory plan to break up public services, plunge them into confusion and then let the private sector pick over their bones.

"How are we to ensure that our schools and hospitals maintain high standards if there is no one to monitor or take responsibility when things go wrong?

"There would be enormous problems for staff too, with the breakdown of national pay bargaining and confusion over pensions."

Schools Secretary Ed Balls accused Mr Cameron of using co-operatives as a "gimmick".

"The Tories don't get co-ops - they're about involving the whole community and users of services, not just workers," he said.

"And look at what happened when the Tories tried to set one up. Over two years after launching with a big fanfare, the Conservative Co-operative Movement is still a movement without members."

He added: "This smokescreen will not hide the fact that the Tories would cut frontline services like schools, Sure Start and the police."