For those providers who do deliver face-to-face public services, in hospitals and schools, prisons and probation, and even for some of those who deliver support services, there is suspicion and even antipathy to organisations that make a profit.
Providers believe that this mindset is widespread across government - 'profit is seen as evil'; 'profit is ugly'; 'government is obsessed with profit'; 'departments want to renegotiate when profit is high, but not when it goes the other way'. It has been manifest in a declared preference for not-for-profit providers, social enterprises and public service mutuals and hostility to large companies (although, in practice, the complexity of the services being contracted and the scale of risk transfer has required government to rely heavily on large, for-profit providers). Public service providers are by no means alone in this regard, and it is not a recent phenomenon.
Individually and collectively, the industry needs to confront these concerns about the profit motive. The public will understand that investors must be compensated for taking their money out of the bank, and they will accept the proposition that innovation brings with it the risk of failure, and that companies must be encouraged to experiment with new ideas. At the same time, they must be reassured that companies will not make super-profits out of public services - open book accounting and gain-sharing mechanisms must be explained in terms the public can understand.
The industry also needs to demonstrate that it is capable of a 'public service ethos', and why it is in their interest, as well as the government's, to employ staff who are motivated by public service rather than just profit. Every company has its own stories of outstanding public service: these need to be shared. Companies should be comfortable with telling each other's stories. There is need to explain the difference between making a profit in order to deliver public services, and delivering public services in order to make a profit.