Barnet UNISON

Dear Cllr Cornelius

URGENT – One Barnet

I write as a matter of urgency following the announcement that the Chief Executive, Mr Nick Walkley, has accepted an appointment at the London Borough of Haringey and is due to vacate his post at Barnet shortly.

Mr Walkley’s departure occurs at a critical point in the One Barnet programme. The final evaluation report concerning the NSCSO contract will be published in three weeks time and be considered by the Cabinet early next month, likewise the DRS report will be published and considered very early in the New Year.

Mr Walkley has played a – if not the – leading officer role on the One Barnet programme in the Council over many years, firstly as Assistant CEO with the Future Shape programme, and latterly as CEO with One Barnet. Moreover, most other senior officer roles concerned with driving the One Barnet programme are now being undertaken either by consultants or organisations external to the Council such as Agylisis and Impower. His departure will therefore inevitably result in the London Borough of Barnet relying almost exclusively on outside agencies to advise and make recommendation on the future of the bulk of the Council’s core services.

As you know, UNISON has consistently raised our concerns about the One Barnet programme, not just because we have major concerns for the workforce and our members, but also for the probable implications it will have for the standards of service and costs to the residents of the Borough. Now one of the chief architects of the programme will now no longer be remaining to see the project through or to take responsibility for its ongoing implementation.

For these reasons UNISON respectfully requests that the Council consider suspending the One Barnet Programme with a view to evaluating whether or not this now provides the best way forward for the Borough’s services. Further, UNISON remains fully committed to engaging in meaningful discussion

with the Council with a view to securing significant efficiency savings through service re-engineering whilst retaining high quality services in house, and would be very grateful if you would agree to meeting with us, and other trade unions should you find this appropriate, to explore this option as an alternative to the One Barnet Programme.

I would be very grateful for an early reply to this proposal.

Yours sincerely

LINDA PERKS

REGIONAL SECRETARY

UNISON GLR

cc All Barnet Councillors

Nick Walkley, CEO

Andrew Travers, Assistant CEO

Dear Councillor Longstaff

The briefing (to view click here) was not UNISON’s so not mine to edit and I had permission to share it. I took it as a beginning of a dialogue about challenges facing public services as I haven’t read much commentary from anyone in Barnet about the Graph.

Following your comments I have spoken to John Dix and we are both happy to meet with you to discuss about issues raised in his briefing and I am prepared to try and ask Sam Markey if he would like to take part. Interesting you should mention Sam Markey who I had respected. I don’t know if you are aware that he has tweeted on this subject on a number of occasions I would like to quote one of his tweets earlier this year:

“Well, the name is not mine but it has helped it kick-start the debate. V happy for others to challenge and hone the narrative.”

 I do have a very long response as to your question about the timing of the briefing which I am happy to share with all councillors but I would much rather talk about the briefing.

Best wishes

John  

Dear John Burgess,

You deride the title of the graph and write the comment about ‘reinforces a negative image of older adults’. Please explain how you came to this conclusion when the graph is about Council expenditure, it’s about Children and Adult Social services. It’s not solely about a population living longer and costing more.

I notice you wait until Sam Markey, who produced the graph, has left before sending out this briefing, which restricts his opportunity to defend his work.

Dear Councillors

Today I am submitting a briefing put together by a Barnet resident who very much cares like all of you about the borough and I know wants to work with the Council to make it a better place.

Some of you may know him as John Dix and others as Mr Reasonable.

The briefing below tackles an issue often quoted by councillors as the reason for the One Barnet Programme. I have heard councillors mention the ‘Graph of Doom’ to me many times.

I am referring to what has become nationally known as the ‘Graph of Doom’. Whilst I do not like the title as it reinforces a negative image of older adults, I think the Council must be applauded for bringing the issue of funding for older people to the national media attention.  If the issue of ‘Fairer Funding’ as identified in Dilnot report is going to be addressed it is going to have to happen at a national level and all political parties are going to have to come to an agreement.

The ‘Graph of Doom’ as probably many of you know was based on a whole set of assumptions. Unfortunately, until now nobody seems to have challenged these assumptions.

I would urge all of you to read this briefing.  

Link to the Dilnot Report: http://www.dilnotcommission.dh.gov.uk/our-report/

As ever if there is a point of clarification or concern please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

Following discussions between UNISON and the Director of Organisational Development at a Support Staff Interest Group meeting the effectiveness of the current curriculum administrative support was raised.  Both former Colleges operate different administrative structures for the same service and so an urgent review was needed to identify best practice and harmonise systems across the merge organisation.  UNISON offered to assist HR with an audit of curriculum administration to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current structures, understand the variety of roles and the requirements for this service going forward.

To view full report click here

Dear Councillors

Please find enclosed briefing number 9 entitled ‘Regulatory Services & Risk’.  (to view click here)

The One Barnet Development & Regulatory Services Project has bundled together the following services

Trading Standards & Licensing, Land Charges, Planning & Development, Building Control & Structures, Environmental Health, Highways Strategy, Highways Network Management, Highways Traffic & Development, Highways Transport & Regeneration, Strategic Planning & Regeneration, Cemeteries & Crematoria,

Many of these services are Statutory Services that are critical to the well-being of Barnet and its residents.

As ever if there is a point of clarification or concern please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

Local Barnet resident and Blogger Mr Reasonable has through a series of FOI requests and follow up emails managed to take a closer look at the robustness of the what has been referred to nationally as the ‘Graph of Doom’

His analysis is crucial for Barnet residents because this graph has been used by councillors in power to justify the outsourcing of over 70% of council services,

Mr Reasonable has submitted hundreds of questions to a variety of council meetings in attempt to try and develop a dialogue with councillors.

I hope this analysis will begin a ‘different relationship with citizens; one in which the council opens up the possibility that there are alternatives to the One Barnet Programme mass outsourcing.

http://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/graph-of-doom-fact-or-fantasy.html

Download PDF here

 Many of us are familiar with the following

“To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind to suffer

The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,

Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,”

but no so familiar with the One Barnet influence

“JV, or not JV, that is the question:

Whether ’tis Nobler in the mind of councillors to suffer

The Slings (poor performance) and Arrows (no savings) of outrageous failure of One Barnet Programme,

Or to support your staff, your in-house services”

“What I have heard from the Leader, is that he will take a substantial amount of convincing before we get anywhere near a joint venture, so if I was a gambling man, which I am not, I think you could probably put the Icelandic Bank deposits….on there won’t be a joint venture if I was a gambling man, so , quite , quite why councillor Schneiderman you need to be excited about something which is highly unlikely to happen I am not sure.”

Waych here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0RlRku_wvI

(Councillor Brian Coleman, Chair of Budget Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Wednesday 19 September 2012).

Those in attendance at this meeting were the Leader, Deputy Leader and the Interim Director of Planning, Environment and Regeneration. They had ample opportunity to correct this very powerful statement, but chose to say nothing.

The very next day staff working in were informed that both bidders Capita Symonds & EC Harris have been told that a joint venture is the councils preferred option. The winning bidder will therefore submit a joint venture proposal in order to win the £275million pound ten year contract to run Barnet Councils Regulatory Services

The One Barnet Project Development & Regulatory Services (DRS) is looking to privatise the following Council services:

Trading Standards & Licensing, Land Charges, Planning & Development, Building Control & Structures, Environmental Health, Highways Strategy, Highways Network Management, Highways Traffic & Development, Highways Transport & Regeneration, Strategic Planning & Regeneration, Cemeteries & Crematoria.

For the last 7 days I have been trying to get to the bottom of the sudden change in direction for the DRS One Barnet project. Everyone working across DRS should have seen the council committee discussion, if not I suggest you take a look here.  As you can see in the exchange in emails with the Deputy Leader here it is patently obvious the service delivery model for DRS will be a Joint Venture. UNISON has provided two briefings on Joint Ventures for councillors which you can view online here and here.  

“A disaster and a waste of money, Southwest One was the firm set up five years ago in conjunction with computer giant IBM, but there has been a bitter & expensive falling out, the company has just begun legal action against the council..”(BBC news 18 September 2012. To view click here)

This Joint Venture was raised by Conservative MP Ian Liddell Grainger speaking in the House of Commons on Tuesday 18 September 2012 (you can read the Hansard transcript here scroll down to 3.6 pm.

“It gives me no pleasure to rise to talk about a failed procurement project that has cost every citizen in Somerset a great deal of wasted money and time. Southwest One is a joint venture between Somerset county council, Taunton Deane council, Avon and Somerset police and IBM—one of the world’s biggest IT firms. It is a classic example of how not to do public procurement.”

He finished off by saying:

“This is a national, not a local, scandal. The district auditor gave Southwest One glowing reports. The Audit Commission whitewashed the lot. There is now overwhelming evidence to prove that the auditors were grossly negligent. Southwest One should be—must be—examined properly by the National Audit Office..”