On 31 January 2015 Barnet Council put out invitation to tender for Education & Skills and School Meals services which you can view here

http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:36188-2015:TEXT:EN:HTML

The contract was advertised & valued from £89 million up to £986 million.

The tender received only three bids from:

1. Capita Business Services Ltd

2. EC Harris LLP

3. Mott MacDonald Ltd, trading as Cambridge Education.

However, just before the contract talks began EC Harris LLP mysteriously dropped out and this is what the Council had to say:

“As you are aware, we commenced dialogue with our bidders last week.  One of our bidders (EC Harris) withdrew from the process shortly before dialogue commenced.  Whilst this is obviously disappointing, it is not unusual in this sort of procurement and I’m pleased to report that discussions with the remaining two bidders have been very positive and interesting so far.”

UNISON was concerned about the lack of bidders and sent a report to councillors outlining our concerns and calling for a postponement of the process.

You can read what we had to say here and read the response from the Council below:

“Further to your email of 8^th June 2015 and Councillor Thompstone’s response of the same date, Councillor Thompstone has asked me to provide a more detailed response to the points raised in the paper you circulated.

Firstly, in respect of the Outline Business Case and financial modelling, these were considered at the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee meeting in January.  At that meeting, it was made clear to Members of the Committee that the modelling was based on a series of assumptions that were set out in the Outline Business Case.  It was also made clear that the only way of testing these assumptions further and reaching an informed view would be to undertake a procurement exercise and that is the process that we are in at the moment.  I therefore see no basis on which we would benefit from revisiting either the Outline Business Case or the financial modelling at this stage in the process.  The outcomes of the procurement exercise will be set out in a Full Business Case, which will be presented to the Committee in November in order for the Committee to make an informed decision on the way forward.

Moving on to your concerns regarding sub-contracting, I can assure you that any contractual arrangements that come out of this procurement exercise would not permit sub-contracting of any part of the service without the prior agreement of the Council.  Furthermore, the competitive dialogue process requires bidders to set out their proposals for delivering services throughout the life of the contract, including the use of sub-contractors, and these proposals will be tested in full as part of that process.  The contract itself will also include robust arrangements for the management of any sub-contractor arrangements.

As Councillor Thompstone indicated in his email, it is our view that keeping all of these services together will provide the most coherent and integrated offer to schools and that excluding the catering service could reduce the viability of the venture.  This will also be tested as part of the competitive dialogue process.

The Equalities Impact Assessment is a “live” document that is updated throughout the process.  We are currently in the process of updating our detailed HR data and this will feed into an update of the Assessment, as will the outcomes of Outline Solutions.  The Assessment will continue to be updated throughout the process, with a final version being included in the Full Business Case.

It would be our intention to include arrangements for profit-sharing, open book accounting and an annual report in the contract in any event and these would apply equally to any sub-contractor.  Within Mr Whitfield’s paper, these suggestions are linked to concerns regarding there only being two bidders.  We are not seeking to appoint the cheapest bidder here, nor are bidders just competing against each other. Bids will be assessed against the evaluation criteria that we have set (of which 30% relates to financial benefit) and the successful bidder will need to meet all of the objectives that have been set for the project relating to service quality, engagement with schools and the delivery of the MTFS savings.”

It is interesting to note there is no mention of a subcontractor taking part in the talks.

To find out what happened next read Education Privatisation Saga Part Two.

Dear John,

I’m writing to send solidarity to Barnet Council Unison in its fight to stop the outsourcing and privatisation of services. Unison members at the Youth Offending Service and Targeted Youth Support invited Helen Davies to one of our recent shop meetings, where we learned of your campaign. In response we held a coffee and cake morning last week where our members baked cakes and sold them to raise money for your dispute and workers at the National Gallery, also fighting privatisation. We raised £100 and have split the money, giving you £50.

We are absolutely opposed to the way public services and public sector workers are being attacked. We chose our professions because we value young people and believe that given the right support and opportunity, they can make changes in their lives for the better. The increase in workloads and cuts that have reduced young people’s services have made it harder for workers to support young people adequately to change. To know that we are doing it with an 18% pay cut over the last 5 years, adds insult to injury.

We feel that further privatisation and outsourcing will lead to a worsening situation in our ability to maintain our own pay and terms and conditions at work and deliver a meaningful service. The agenda to privatise is gathering pace and it is to your absolute credit that you have decided to take a stand. Our contribution, though small, is accompanied by a message of sincere solidarity and to say we stand with you in your fight.

Jo Cardwell

Unison shop steward, Islington YOS

In a meeting with staff working for Education & Skills last week , UNISON heard that Unified Pay timetable has slipped significantly and is unlikely to be ready before March 2016.

I can confirm that UNISON is still taking part in work on the new grades for all the jobs including those based in our community schools.

Once the Council is ready to release the details of the new grading, UNISON will be organising borough wide meetings with our members to discuss the proposals.

Please keep a look out for our updates on Unified Pay.

 

John Burgess

Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON

On Wednesday 3 June 2015 Barnet UNISON attended two meetings at which Education & Skills and Schools Meals staff were informed that the Council were in talks with Capita & Mott MacDonald (Cambridge Education) about taking over their services.

It would be fair to say that the general feeling of the meeting was that the current proposal for privatisation was not supported and there was a strong view from staff that the prospects of the current proposal generating growth were bordering on fantasy.

Today, 8 June at a UNISON meeting staff mandated the branch to write to all Councillors on the Children’s, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee outlining our concerns and seeking a postponement of the process.

UNISON recommendations:

Barnet UNISON strongly recommends that the Council should:

1. Postpone the Competitive Dialogue until the revised Outline Business Plan is completed and agreed by the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee.

2. Revise the financial modelling for trading income in the JVC option as a matter of urgency.

3. Revise the Education and Skills Outline Business Plan to take account of the financial, organisational, risk and operational implications of subcontracting the bulk of the workforce to another private contractor.

4. Seek confirmation from the bidders about their long-term plans for all the Education and Skills services and to reject proposals that involve subcontracting of services, except for obtaining specialist advice and skills.

5. Exclude the Catering Service from the JVC option and retain in-house.

6. Revise the Equalities Impact Assessment for Education and Skills to include a full employment profile of those employed in the services.

7. Re-examine the responsibilities, accountability and the decision making process, contract clauses and the method of monitoring and scrutinising the performance of a major subcontractor.

8. Require open book accounting for the JVC, a profit-sharing agreement and an annual report from the JVC as part of transparency for schools and the public.

You can read our full report here

View flyer click here

 

It sounds amazing especially when you consider:

1. The increased spend on Agency & Consultants

According to local Blogger Mr Reasonable

“In 2012/13 Comensura billed £12.5 million, In 2013/14 it rose to £13.8 million and this year, 2014/15 it has jumped again to £15.5 million.”

http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/barnet-council-where-are-savings-who.html

2. The amount of outsourcing that has taken place over the last three years where the following Council services have been transferred to another employer.

1. Your Choice Barnet

2. Housing Options

3. NSL (parking)

4. Capita CSG: Finance, HR, Payroll, Estates, Property Services, Pensions, Revenue & Benefits,

5. Capita Re: Building Control, Environmental Health, Planning, Trading Standards & Licencing

6. Legal Services

7. Registrars & Nationality Services

8. CCTV

9. Music Trust

10. Mortuary Services

3. Why the headline above?

Take a look at this report which was submitted to the Performance & Contract Monitoring Committee on 12 May 2015.

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s23134/Appendix%20A%20-%20Performance%20Report%20Quarter%204%20201415.pdf

Please note the Total Established Position it states there are 3080.00 FTE

Then compare with staffing figures presented to Performance & Contract Monitoring Committee on 11 November 2014.

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s19070/Appendix%20A%20-%20Performance%20Report%20Quarter%202%20201415.pdf

Please note the Total Established Position it states there are 2431.00 FTE

According to the Council’s own staffing data that means an increase of 649 FTE posts in the space on 6 months.

UNISON has been involved in a number of restructures over the last 9 months and staff have been made redundant. There are now staff at risk of redundancy working in children’s centres.

What is worrying it that we have not been informed of where these 649 jobs have been created!

“A huge roll call of services privatised, jobs outsourced around the country, local residents left without vital support – Barnet Unison members are saying enough is enough, writes JOHN BURGESS”

Read article here: http://morningstaronline.co.uk/a-33b4-WHY-WERE-STRIKING-TODAY#.VW4dfM9Vikp