Barnet Council response to the UNISON report on Revenues and Benefits

 

UNISON responded the restrucure to Revenues and Benefits by producing a detailed 13 page report including detailed evidence.

You can find our Executive Summary here

You can find our detailed report here  

You can find our supporting evidence here

You can read the Council response here

To say it is disappointing woudl be an understatement. It is never easy to encourage staff, residents and the public to engage in consultation because many beleive the decisions have already been agreed. This is a very dangerous position to take and undermines local democracy.

In terms of the Council response I am shocked at the lack of detail to our report and the misrepresentation of our offer which was 

If the Council abandon the restructure, they can make a saving of three consultants immediately, which we estimate would produce a total saving of £500k in 12 months. UNISON is prepared to offer the use of an expert consultant free of charge to work with the existing senior management team to produce a sustainable alternative structure for this service before outsourcing.”

We were in fact offering two savings for the Barnet council tax payer not one. The first saving was to terminate the contracts of the consultants. It is difficult to understand the business case for the continued use of consultants in Revenues & Benefits as they have given the task of making the restructure (they proposed) work to the council employed management team.

The second saving to the Barnet council tax payer was to provide the FREE use of a consultant to produce a sustainable alternative structure for this service before outsourcing.