The Trades Union Congress has unanimously backed a demand by the Public and Commercial Services Union for insourcing, prompted by the significant issues the Civil Service and the Teachers' schemes have had with administrator Capita. Unions have launched a national campaign, Insource Now. 

PCS has said it "will be playing a leading role in the Insource Now campaign, backed by sister unions including Unison and the RMT". 

The national campaign comes as outsourcer Capita is still not providing service as normal, with more than 2,000 cases more than 100 days old, including over 1,400 bereavements.
 
"The TUC backing this campaign is significant because it brings the strength of the wider trade union movement behind the demand for a genuine programme of insourcing," a spokesperson for PCS said. "Congress has called for a clear strategy and timetable to deliver the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation, covering the whole public sector rather than just large central government contracts."

PCS wants the TUC to help coordinate campaigning across unions and put sustained pressure on the government to turn its commitments into action – working with unions to identify contracts that could be brought in-house, removing barriers to insourcing and allowing outsourced workers to transfer into public sector employment.

"PCS will continue to work with the TUC and our sister unions to make sure the government delivers on its promise rather than allowing another generation of public services and workers to be left in the hands of private contractors," the spokesperson said.

The PCS had been calling for insourcing for weeks and has since secured the full backing of the TUC. This could mean significantly more pressure being put on the government to make good on a promise of having the “biggest wave of insourcing in a generation”, made by Labour in its 2024 election manifesto.

Cabinet office minister Sally Jameson said earlier this month that Capita has reported meeting its self-imposed 1 September target on bereavement, death in service, ill health, retirement payments and retirement quotes for cases it categorises as workable stock.
 
However, she said this was not good enough: "Overall performance remains unacceptable, and far too many scheme members continue to face uncertainty while waiting for their cases to be resolved. The government continue to hold Capita firmly to account using all commercial levers available to it. I will also continue work on actively shaping a long-term strategy to bring this pension scheme back in-house."
 
Jameson has promised a parliamentary update on the pensions crisis in October, but unions want more action. The government has been exploring insourcing the CSPS contract but has not provided an update on this so far.  

Neither the union nor the government have spelled out how insourcing will improve CSPS pensions administration. 

Remedial advisers Grant Thornton are still due to produce a full report of the issues at the Civil Service Pension Scheme. 

Over 20,000 people have signed the PCS petition calling for pensions administration to be brought back in-house.