Category: COVID 19

Join our We Are Barnet Save Apthorp lobby in person and online

Anti - Racism, Austerity, Barnet Group, Barnet Homes, Care & Support, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Local, National, News, Repairs, Solidarity, TBG Flex, UNISON Campaign, Your Choice Barnet

Please come along in solidarity for our 93 Covid Heroes who after working through Covid were told two weeks ago their jobs were going.

The lobby starts 6 pm outside Hendon Town Hall and finishes at 7 pm.

This will be an opportunity to hear from the care workers directly as to what has happened.

Barnet UNISON has a proud history of standing up for members when they are in need therefore we are calling on all Barnet UNISON members and trade union members to attend our Solidarity public lobby.

We had asked to speak at the Adults & Safeguarding Committee which starts at 7 pm inside Hendon Town Hall , but our request was denied.

We have been offered a meeting and we are waiting for the date and time.

We also want to extend our request for solidarity to the wider Trade Union movement and we are pleased to announce that our lobby will be hosted by Socialist Telly.

You can find Socialist Telly on You Tube here https://www.youtube.com/c/SocialistTelly

Here are details to join the Save Apthorp care home lobby online

Join Barnet UNISON Zoom Meeting Tuesday 14 September at 5.45 pm – 7 pm

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88230246920?pwd=L1ZNa1FWellMYVpRWW1zc0ZpbzI0dz09

Meeting ID: 882 3024 6920

Passcode: 894775

Solidarity

End.

What is going on, just who owns Apthorp care home?

Anti - Racism, Austerity, Barnet Group, Barnet Homes, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Local, News, Solidarity, TBG Flex, UNISON Campaign, Your Choice Barnet

News has come to light which suggests that Barnet Council does not own Apthorp care home.

See Land Registry which shows that the owner is CATALYST HOUSING LIMITED (Industrial and Provident Society No. IP16561R) of Ealing Gateway, 26-30 Uxbridge Road, London W5 2AU.

Apthorp Lodge Land Registry Title

Let’s go back to Barnet Council delegated Powers report which made the decision to close the home which has created untold stress and anxiety for residents and their relatives along with the 93 Covid heroes who work there.

“In March 2021 and May 2021 routine fire safety assessments, followed by additional building conditions surveys identified that significant and intrusive works would be required to bring the building up to standard. Indicative costs were estimated to be in the region of £2.7m.”

The report fails to mention that the costs which are high should be paid by the owner of the property instead it is the reason to justify the decision to create havoc at Apthorp.

Furthermore, the communication over this decision is all over the place.

In the communication to staff and trade unions the time to get out states 31 October 2021 yet in this report it states:

“This report recommends that, to ensure residents’ needs are being met appropriately, the adult social care team should work with YCB to support residents to move to alternative care homes by end November 2021.”

There are so many questions that are unanswered about this grievous decision see our next post

In the meantime, we are still waiting to hear back from the Chair of Adults & Safeguarding Committee in answer to our request to address the meeting on behalf of our 93 Covid heroes. The silence is deafening.

Details of our lobby on Tuesday 14 September at 6 pm are here below

2021.08.31 Apthorp lobby leaflet

What happened to the 11 Barnet Council Care Homes and day centres in 1999?

Anti - Racism, Austerity, Barnet Group, Barnet Homes, COVID 19, Local, News, Solidarity, TBG Flex, UNISON Campaign

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barnet Council back in 1998 made a decision that it would outsource all of its Elderly Services residential and day care services.

They not only wanted to get rid of the workforce they handed over the property to the lucky contractor.

Imagine that 11 prime real estate locations and they only required to build four new settings (they only built three new homes, more on that in a later post).

Barnet UNISON commissioned a report to counter this proposal.

Here is what we recommended to Barnet Council back in 1999

 

Recommendations 

We recommend that:

  1. Barnet maintains ownership of its residential homes and continues to

    directly employ staff engaged in these homes. Any reorganisation and

    redirection of resources in favour of specialist or domiciliary care should be in

    the context of in-house provision and joint work with health organisations,

    rather than transfers to the independent sector.

 

  1. The residential and domiciliary services, including home care, day care and

    respite care, be subject to a comprehensive Best Value service review which

    includes a detailed examination of quality and cost.

  1. The council works with the trade unions and staff to develop the in-house

    service. As part of this a review of the operation and management of the

    service should be conducted with the full involvement of the trade unions, users and the wider community in accordance with the Best Value requirements .

  1. Alternative funding options and the impact of phased improvement work on

    the capital programme require further detailed investigation before any

    decisions are made.

 

You can read the FULL report here Barnet Res Care 1999 report

 

Needless to say, our report was ignored, and the staff and Council properties handed over to contractors.

Next post will be on what happened next?

 

Did we get high quality care homes fit for the future?

 

What happened to the work force?

 

End.

Barnet UNISON request the right to speak on behalf of 93 Covid Heroes

Anti - Racism, Austerity, Barnet Group, Barnet Homes, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Local, Report, Solidarity, TBG Flex, Trades Dispute, UNISON Campaign

On Tuesday 24 August 2021 Barnet UNISON wrote to the Cllr Rajput Sachin Chair of the Adults & Safeguarding Committee

Extract below:

“ I am writing to you today on behalf of our members who provide care services at Apthorp care home.

 

 

On Friday 20 August 2021, 93 staff were informed that as a result of a Council decision to close Apthorp residential home on 31 October 2021 they are all at risk of redundancy.

 

 

This decision has understandably left our members devasted especially considering their hard work looking after vulnerable residents during the height of Covid when there were no vaccines available.

 

 

I must profess I am also concerned about the speed in which the home is to close. These are vulnerable residents and the consequences of moving can sometimes be fatal.

 

 

Our members want to know the real reason as to why the home is closing.

 

For your information these are the questions we submitted to Your Choice Barnet and we are seeking answers:

 

 

  1. Who made the decision to close Apthorp?

 

  1. When did the meeting on the future of Apthorp take place?

 

  1. What information about Apthorp was provided to the decision makers?

 

  1. Please provide copies of the information provided to the decision makers.

 

  1. Please provide a copy of the minutes of the meeting and the actions agreed.

 

I note that there is an Adults and Safeguarding Committee meeting on Tuesday 14 September 2021 at 7 pm.

 

 

Our members have asked that we seek permission from the Chair of this Committee in order we can make our case for this decision to be delayed.

 

I am formally requesting that UNISON is allowed to make representation to this committee.

 

 

Our members will be attending this meeting it would be helpful if they could see that this committee will do the right thing and provide these care workers with an opportunity to put their case against closure.

 

Stay safe.

 

Best wishes

 

John Burgess

 

Branch Secretary.

 

Barnet UNISON

As of Thursday 26 August 2021, we have not yet had a response to this request.

End.

More On Mandatory Vaccines

Care & Support, COVID 19, Health and Safety, National

Colleagues from Adult Health and Social Care are also affected by this new legislation as anyone attending care homes as part of their work will also have to be vaccinated against COVID. We are having constructive and positive discussions with the Senior Management Team to avoid colleagues being dismissed. However, our members are rightly concerned at the potential for divisions to open up in teams around this question.

Additional key questions are: how will the employer keep the information as to who is vaccinated and who is not, and how/when will this be shared with staff and with UNISON. This is all new territory for us and not one we wanted to be in, so all questions and suggestions are welcome with the aim of doing our utmost to protect everyone from harm at work.

UNISON has now published its guidance just this week – please read here

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Anti - Racism, Austerity, Barnet Group, Barnet Homes, Care & Support, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Housing, Libraries, Local, News, Repairs, Solidarity, TBG Flex, UNISON Campaign, Your Choice Barnet

The Good

The Good News is that with the support of our Bin workers, Barnet Council has agreed to restore National Green Book Weekend and Bank Holiday rates of pay which will mean large numbers of our lowest paid members will be earning more money.

The Bad

In February 2021 Barnet UNISON submitted a proposal for a COVID thank you payment for all frontline workers, care workers, school staff, depot workers.

The Bad news is that this proposal was rejected.

Details of our proposal is here.

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021.02.11.-COVID-thank-you-payment.pdf

and the Ugly.

On Friday 11 June 2021 Barnet UNISON enters into negotiations with The Barnet Group and Barnet Council about the serious inequalities in the workplace that are bad for the health and well being of our members and their families.

End.

Another tragic outsourcing disaster for catering workers in Barnet

Anti - Racism, Austerity, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Local, Report, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

Earlier this week our branch was notified by private contractor ISS that they were giving notice to end the Kosher kitchen contract.

This was not a surprise because a number of other schools had already left this contract with ISS earlier this year.

This news is deeply troubling as it feels that the contract is unravelling and those who will be hurt will be the workforce.

When this service was a Council one it was highly successful in generating income to the Council and competing with the private sector.

The workforce was on Barnet Council Terms and Conditions and all had access to the Council Pension Scheme. Moreover, no worker would have been earning less than the London Living Wage.

At the time senior officers responded that nothing would change for staff after they were outsourced but that simply wasn’t true (see the background notes at end of this report).

What actually happened was that some schools started to pull out of the contract with ISS, and sometimes that meant being transferred to yet another contractor some of whom do not pay the London Living Wage and whose Terms and Conditions are appalling in comparison to those of the Council.

Once again it is a mainly female workforce that is being exploited and exposed to the brutality of the race to the bottom agenda of the outsourcing ideology that has blighted so many lives.

I wonder how many schools realise what impact their decisions about Catering are having on this workforce and the families that depend on them.

Schools are education settings promoting opportunities for children to learn and develop, yet at the same time they have responsibilities for the workforce they employ either directly or indirectly through use of contractors. Catering and Cleaning workers are two examples of an exploited workforce, a workforce that is regularly passed from one employer to another. The dehumanising experience of outsourcing and low pay is something which needs to end and it’s something about which Barnet UNISON will not stay silent or allow itself to be gagged.

Background to Catering outsourcing:

The Catering service was outsourced by Barnet Council in 2016.

Barnet UNISON opposed the outsourcing and demanded that:

“The Council should retain the Catering Service in-house and place it within Family Services Delivery Unit in order that all the profits can support frontline services, which are threatened by budget cuts. It should draw up a Public Service Innovation and Improvement Plan for the future of the Catering Service jointly with schools and staff.”

In our report to Councillors we stated:

“The Council is proposing to outsource Education & Skills and Catering services. Yet the Catering Service is a good example of a successful in-house service that has made efficiency improvements and competed with the private sector outside Barnet to win contracts. The Education & Skills and Catering Full Business Case reports an increase in the Catering service annual traded surplus of £241,770, a 3.33% profit, an increase from the 2.67% annual surplus in the Outline Business Case. Furthermore, there is a strong case for all the Education & Skills services to be retained in-house.”

Our report was ignored.

Barnet UNISON was seriously concerned about the impact of outsourcing on this workforce. This is a workforce where:

  • 93% of the total Education & Skills and Catering workforce is female with the Catering Service accounting for an even higher proportion at 96%.
  • 49% of the Catering workforce are Asian and Asian British, Black or Black British or Chinese or other ethnic group compared to 34% white employees based on the available data.

End.

Links:

Global giant ISS restricts rights of former Barnet Council catering workers

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2018/04/26/6089/

“TUPE or not TUPE” that is the stressful question for our outsourced ISS Catering workers

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2019/10/11/tupe-or-not-tupe-that-is-the-stressful-question-for-our-outsourced-iss-catering-workers/

ISS Pay roll changes put low paid workers at risk.

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2019/04/04/iss-pay-roll-changes-put-low-paid-workers-at-risk/

History of the outsourcing of Schools Meals and Education & Skills services

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2015/11/17/history-of-the-outsourcing-of-schools-meals-and-education-skills-services/

BREAKINGNEWS: Mott MacDonald and Barnet Council in contract termination talks

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2020/06/22/breakingnews-mott-macdonald-and-barnet-council-in-contract-termination-talks/

We Are Barnet rally Weds 19 May 2021

Anti - Racism, Austerity, Barnet Group, Barnet Homes, Care & Support, COVID 19, Health and Safety, Housing, Local, News, Pensions, Repairs, Solidarity, TBG Flex, UNISON Campaign, Your Choice Barnet

 

Support #WeAreBarnet frontline workers by registering to join our second public rally on Weds 19 May 2021 6.30 to 7.30 pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/we-are-barnet-campaign-public-rally-19th-may-tickets-152488777037

#WeAreBarnet #EqualityAndJustice

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