Barnet UNISON

What have the BP and Barnet Councils Future Shape Programme (otherwise known as easyCouncil) have in common?

They both rely on contractors to deliver services and both have experienced problems with contractors recently e.g. Barnet Council with Catalyst and Connaught  and BP with Haliburton and Transocean,

 What is interesting reading the report on what happened is the loss of control when you rely on contractors and sub-contractors to deliver services. It is stark warning to any public service organisation of just what can happen when you outsource services. When things go wrong it will land on your doorstep, and more often than not, the contractor walks away.

But this is not new, which is why it is surprising Barnet Council are fast tracking the Future Shape programme, a programme which is relying on contractors to deliver services and make massive savings. The haste that the programme is moving suggests we are not learning our lessons.

But it’s not as if we have not seen more serious consequences closer to home. Just recently we have had a report into the Potters Bar inquest which took eight years and no criminal prosecutions. Jarvis (contractor) disappeared, like contractors seem to do when thinks go wrong…Metronet anyone?

The Future Shape programme has been re-branded as ‘OneBarnet’. Does anyone remember when the Post Office changed their name to Consignia? I wonder which consultant came up with that bright idea? How much did that cost the Royal Mail or more accurately the public purse!

Anyway, I don’t know why they want to re-brand Future Shape to ‘One Barnet’. You only have to look at the Future Shape Programme to see ‘whichBarnet’ would be a more accurate description. The Programme is actively looking to several private sector companies to deliver services to Barnet residents.

Barnet UNISON in conjunction with Barnet Trades Council and local residents are lobbying the Full Council meeting.

For the last few months there has been ongoing expression of outrage about the decision of the previous Full Council meeting in July to award some councillors with massive pay rises at a time when residents and staff were being told that services would be cut or stopped.

The Leader of the Council has announced that this decision will be overturned.

To view flyer click here

There has been a lot of speculation and concern for our members working for Connaughts.

Today staff received news that Connaught have appointed partners from KPMG as administrators of Connaught plc.

Today I wrote to the Chief Executive of Barnet Homes requesting “on behalf of our members in Connaught that Barnet Homes takes urgent action to bring back the service in-house thus ending speculation and uncertainty both for staff and council tenants.”

In 2002 the Council’s Home Care service was outsourced to Housing 21 with the existing staff complement TUPE’d over to this new employer.

As the years went by there have been restructures and the Council introduced CM2000; which meant that carers telephoned the office at the start and end of their allotted time with the service user. More recently there has been a reduction in the allotted visit times from the usual hour to separate slots of only 15, 30 or 45 minutes per visit. Hsg 21 provided some 3000+ hours of home care to elderly and vulnerable Barnet residents

The Council had many different providers for the various Home Care contracts and then last year there was the ‘Re-ablement project’ of 6 weeks of intensive regular support to aid early hospital discharges which Hsg 21 pilotted. Subsequently the contracts were re-tendered with a specialised ‘Re-ablement’ contract of between 1000-1600 hours per week to start from 1^st November 2010 and separate contractors to provide the usual home care ongoing support.

Housing 21 won the ‘Re-ablement’ contract which was in part a tribute to the professionalism and integrity of the many ex-Barnet staff who worked so hard with the initial project. However there is now a serious deficit of a possible 2 thirds [3000+ down to 1000+] in the hours that Barnet Council has commissioned from Hsg 21 with obvious implications for nearly 200 members of staff. They face the uncertain future of possibly being again TUPE’d to one of the 11 new contractors, or being interviewed/selected for a re-ablement’ post with Hsg 21 or being made redundant. This effects the actual carers and also the office staff who support all the programming

Staff consultations start on Monday 6^th Sept and Barnet UNISON will do everything possible to support members through this difficult and anxious time.

“Lambeth UNISON wins their first victory against the cuts but “the fight is not over”

Lambeth UNISON won an important early victory in their anti-cuts campaign. CYPS Convenor Andy Tullis informed members of the victory soon after the announcement and explained the lessons all union members can learn from the One O’clock club campaign:

“Under the huge pressure that we have exerted through all our campaigning work in the last month Lambeth Council (stunned by the public outcry) have withdrawn their proposals for One O’clock Clubs and agreed to assimilate all staff in Adventure Playgrounds. This is a marvellous step forward for our campaign and shows what we can achieve if we stick together and unite with the community to fight the cuts.  Full credit must go to the One O’clock Club and Adventure Playground staff who have played a magnificent role in getting themselves organised and gaining public support.  This shows that if we organise win can win.”

The One O’Clock clubs have almost total union density and quickly organised themselves to fight cuts alongside parents who use their service.

UNISON stewards in the clubs were delighted by the news and commented:

“We feel we’ve won the first battle! It was the first victory because of the nature of what they were trying to do — these cuts were not budget-led. In fact the new set up would have cost more. The council had been planning this attack for some time, and after the election they jumped on the Lib-Con government’s bandwagon. The council’s arguments were totally implausible. They claimed they were replacing unqualified people with better qualified staff… In that case, why not use the existing procedures? Management just ended up looking stupid. It was clear they wanted to attack the union and attack the service we run.”

But nobody in the Lambeth branch is ready to sit back and enjoy their victory, the fight goes on and they have vowed to fight for every job and every service.

Barnet UNISON may remember Essexx UNISON speaking at our  Annual General Meeting. At the time Essex were promoting the privatisation of the whole fo the Council (sounds familiar!).

Later we heard that this had been ditched but a contract was signed with IBM. Today I received a cutting from the local press the articles headline

“Is county councils ambitious IT project on hold”

“Mystery surrounds the future of the scheme designed to save taxpayers money. In a bid to save up to £300 million, Essex Councty Council recently joined forces with software giant IBM.

However it has emerged the council’s leader for the project has been placed on indefinite leave.

You can read the full article here and here.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said:

 “Greater openness in spending is the best way to root out waste, spot duplication and increase value for money. That is why I have been asking councils to ‘show me the money’ so local taxpayers can see where their hard earned cash is going.”

Barnet has already published their details for April to June 2010.

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/expenditure_by_supplier_apr-jun_2010.xls

I am glad this data has been published because I have been asking, unsuccessfully, for the data on consultancy spend for several years. Whilst no organisation as large as the council can ever be fully staffed it is important there are effective controls on staffing costs.

There are a number of questions I will be asking:  

• If we need all the consultants listed has a full business case has been produced?
• How is the council capturing the skills and expertise of the consultant to transfer to Council staff.
•  
• What is the purpose and how will the work of the consultant will be performance managed?
• Are we complying with HRMC guidelines for the employment of consultants?