Category: UNISON Campaign

For the past 18 months Barnet Council has prepared plans for the future of School Meals and Education & Skills.

From the outset the fate of approx 430 workers was always going to be outsourcing. However as per previous practice the outsourcing pantomime was played out in a number of committee reports to the Children’s, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee (CELS).

Barnet UNISON responded at each stage.

1. In September 2014 we produced “Commercialising Education and Skills Future Delivery of Services to Schools London Borough of Barnet” click here

2. In January 2015 we produced “Education & Skills and Catering Analysis of Options Appraisal” click here

3. In June 2015 we produced “Education & Skills and Catering, Threat of large-scale subcontracting”click here

4. Later in June 2015 when we heard Capita had pulled out of contract talks we produced “Education & Skills and Catering UPDATE 30 June 2015” click here

5. Finally in November 2015 we produced Catering Services “Jewel in the Crown”, Privatisation of Education & Skills and Catering in Barnet click here

There is a significant lack of transparency over the award of this contract exacerbated by the lack of financial details made publicly available and the fact there was only one bidder as the two other bidders had withdrawn from the bidding process. Furthermore the Council is handing over the Schools Meals Service to a private contractor without any competition. Under this arrangement the Council will now have to share the profit with the contractors at a time when they are proposing cuts to frontline services.

UNISON in our final report have made the following recommendations

1. 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.

 

2. Elected members should require a detailed breakdown of the £1.5m cost of the Education and Skills outsourcing, in particular the £250,000 expenditure on ‘commercial advisers’ cited in the Full Business Case (p35).

View flyer here

The council’s proposal “Barnet future library service” is a plan to replace qualified, experienced staff who have a wide range of skills and knowledge with volunteers and machines, and to reduce the size and quality of libraries. The people of Barnet, including our members, did not march, lobby, sign petitions and respond to the consultation in support of volunteer and machine operated libraries. They were defending a service staffed by real library staff, libraries with enough space for people to study, use IT facilities and to house sufficient items for loan to meet the needs of their users. If the proposal is adopted then Barnet libraries will no longer offer a service that meets the needs of the people of the borough and this will lead into a decline in use and a rationale for further cuts and closure.

● If the proposal is adopted 46% of library posts will be cut

● Staffed hours at libraries will be reduced by 70.4%

● 90% of the planned technology supported opening hours will have no staffing or volunteer support

● Four partnership libraries will be run by volunteers and open only for a minimum of 15 hours per week

● Libraries will be reduced in size, and only four will retain enough space to host events such as story times and authors’ talk

This proposal will not only lead to a decline in the quality and range of the Library Service but will be unjustifiably expensive to implement, costing £7.56m. This is 4.4 times as much as the cuts to be made in in the library service annual operational budget. Barnet UNISON also have concerns regarding the safety of unstaffed ibraries, particularly on how libraries will be evacuated in the event of an emergency, and how anti-social behaviour will be deal with. These issues remain to be sufficiently address by the council.

Barnet UNISON calls on the council to

· Withdraw the proposal

· Retain direct provision of the Library Service

Changes to the Library Service should only be made after the council:

1. Undertake a rigorous and comprehensive equality impact assessment of the potential effect of the technology-enabled opening hours

2. Include the impact on staff in any equality analysis.

3. Run a consultation process that prioritises the views of service users and groups and organisations that are potential users of library services and facilities.

 

Hugh Jordan, Branch Health and Safety Officer/Libraries Convenor, Barnet UNISON

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: “Now they want to outsource social work!”

At the Adults and Safeguarding Committee on Thursday 12th November, 2015 7pm councillors will be making the following decisions:

1. To agree the proposed approach to developing an outline business case for an alternative delivery model.

2. To engage with potential partners and providers to test their appetite and capability to deliver all or some of the ADM.

3. To delete 46 posts (42 in the first year and 4 in the second year)

The report recommends replacing qualified workers with non- professionally qualified workers in order that the alternative delivery model makes the required staff savings.

The following extracts from Barnet UNISON’s report sent to councillors raises these points amongst others:

· “The potential fragmentation of ASC and care contractor provision with too many services or functions provided by different organisations could lead to poorly coordinated and integrated services. (page 5)

· This looks like a repeat of the Your Choice Barnet scenario when Barnet Council ignored Barnet UNISON’s analysis, which forecast a financial crisis that led to job losses, wage cuts and an inadequate CQC rating.

· The Council report does not explain what other options were considered, nor does it identify the criteria by which the options were evaluated, which undermines the assumptions made.

UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said: Quite frankly the proposals scare the life out of me. Whilst management try to play down the significance of yet another options appraisal, Barnet staff are wearied by the relentless outsourcing and have no confidence that councillors will turn away from the expensive outsourcing fundamentalism which has taken control of the council strategic thinking for the past seven years. Barnet staff are already seeing the consequences from previous outsourcing both in terms of service quality and attacks to the workforce. Barnet is already offering Barnet staff £500 if they refer a social worker. If this decision gets the go ahead then the growing social work crisis could become a mass exodus if the council remains wedded to outsourcing this service.

End.

Notes to Editors.

Contact details: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on 07738389569 or 0208 359 2088 or email: john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk

1. “Outsourcing, Cuts, Job Losses & New Operating Model” Barnet UNISON

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Barnet%20UNISON%20ASC%20response%20.pdf

2. CQC ; Barnet Supported Living Service

http://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-112848964

3. “We told you so!” UNISON response to Care Quality Commission (CQC) poor ratings” Barnet UNISON

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/YCB%20PRESS%20RELEASE%20MARCH%2010%202015.pdf

 

Barnet UNISON reponse to Council report recommending development of outsourcing options fo adutl social care and proposed cuts to jobs.

To view our report click here

To view flyer click here

In early September this year UNISON requested information on how many workers in both Adults’ and Children’s Services have left social services and how many have joined since December 2014. We know that during the year from April 2014 to March 2015 53 qualified locum agency social workers for Adult Social Care and a further 50 for Children’s Social Care, were employed by London Borough of Barnet. However, we think this number may now be higher.

We believe the total number of social worker posts is some 115 for Adults Services and 200 for Children’s Services. This number also says nothing about the problems of recruiting and retaining occupational therapists, who are critical in terms of identifying aids, adaptations and techniques for people with physical disabilities to enable them to live as independently as possible.

We are seeing large numbers of colleagues leaving for a variety of reasons. In fact almost no one with a senior leadership position in children’s social work three years ago is still here today.

Once upon a time – and not so long ago – the one thing Barnet Social Services had going for it both in Children’s and Adults’ Services was a fairly stable workforce. This meant that, despite all of the changes, experienced staff stayed and were able to ensure continuity with vulnerable people and their families as well as services linked to those people and families.

For a London setting this was refreshing and rare. The worry is that we now have the same difficulties as other London authorities. This is borne out by the fact that the latest figures shared with UNISON show that we have 20% vacancy rates across the two services – now comparable to other London authorities.

This is bad enough, but demand for those services is rising at the same time as the colleagues doing that work are leaving. UNISON has raised the social work crisis to the attention of the senior council officers.

We are clear that this crisis is one of the unintended consequences of pursuing mass outsourcing ideology, our members are telling us why they are planning to leave and it is all about growing employment insecurity. It is one thing to promote Commissioning Council as a solution to the financial crisis; it is irresponsible to pursue a policy that is pushing the future of social services in Barnet over a cliff.

UNISON is very concerned staff and the community are being exposed to risks which do not need to be there. These services mean people live, die or thrive. Our members work hard to make sure people thrive. Many now live with a constant fear that what they are doing is not enough and there will be a serious incident. It is the nightmare of any worker in Social Services.

UNISON is extremely concerned about the effect on morale and safety for our members and the community. One thing is clear: we will not stand by and allow our members to be scapegoated for systemic failings. Another is that we will continue to fight outsourcing and all the risks it brings to our members and community!

That is exactly what our UNISON members had to say on the picket line on Wednesday 7 October. Our members are rightly concerned about the future of the service as they have been identified as another service to be outsourced. Members revealed they have been concerned about the increasing reliance on agency drivers and loaders and the impact it is having on the quality of the service to residents.

We still have some members who remembered the last time this service was privatised by the Conservative council; it was in chaos. The refuse service has been repeatedly quoted as highly recommended by Barnet residents. Now all that hard work is at risk as consultants begin to take a look at it. Our members are already the lowest paid workers in the council and they are all too well aware that outsourcing will mean lower pay and longer hours.

A large number of our members are also local residents too. They really care about the quality of the service they provide and that is why they are prepared to take more strike action if it is required

To view Barnet Voice 2 click here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: “Its official Barnet Council UNISON members to take 24 hour strike action on 2 November”

Barnet UNISON members who still work for Barnet Council (excluding community schools) will begin a 24 hour strike action on Monday 2 November

The dispute involves social workers, coach escorts, drivers, occupational therapists, schools catering staff, education welfare officers, library workers, children centre workers, street cleaning & refuse workers, all of whom have made it clear they want to remain employees of Barnet Council and don’t want to be outsourced.

In November 2015 a number of Barnet Council Committees will be making decisions about the future employment of staff working in

· Education and Skills and School Meals

· Adult Social care

· Children’s Centres

This is all part of the wider strategy to reduce the workforce to a small core of commissioners.

Our Picket Lines will be:

· Barnet House from 7 am.

· Mill Hill Depot—Starts 6 am onwards.

· Edgware Library —Start 9 am onwards.

UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said: “Our members want to work for the Council, they want to be directly accountable to the residents of Barnet. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will have to place the shareholders’ legal demands before local residents’ needs. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which uses zero hours contracts. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will not pay the London Living Wage as a basic minimum. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which won’t allow their colleagues to belong to their Pension Scheme, and our members don’t want to work for an employer which will take jobs out of the borough. That’s why 87% of our members working for the Council voted ‘Yes’ to taking strike action. So far the Council has failed to come close to agreeing to any one of these demands. One of our members has written and produced a music campaign video called “UNISON Army” which pretty much sums up the mood of our members take a look https://youtu.be/9AcYT2YTFLE ”

End.

Notes to Editors.

Contact details: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on 07738389569 or 0208 359 2088 or email: john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk