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In the last few months Senior Library Managers, consultants and other Library staff have been in Barnet Libraries during Self-Service hours wearing green T-shirts bearing the words “Here to help”. The Council is employing them to encourage the public to use self-service machines and people to sign up for access to unstaffed opening hours. Many members of the public are under the misguided impression these are the volunteers as described by the Council in various statements concerning the Library changes. This situation has arisen because the Council has failed to recruit volunteers for Libraries.

In June this year Barnet UNISON raised objections to the Council imposing Here to Help duties on Library workers. We did this because our members had informed us of their concerns around this issue.

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Here to Help – UNISON’s Position

21^stFebruary 2017

Dear Sir or Madam

Please see below our Branch’s response to your call for views on the proposal to close two Job Centres in the London Borough of Barnet.

Closure of Job Centres in the London Borough of Barnet

Barnet UNISON are concerned about the proposed closure of two of the four Job Centres in the Borough.  The DWP appears to have not fully considered the impact this would have on those people working in and using Job Centres, and the wider community including our members working to provide support for those seeking work.

Instead of closing Job Centres we call on the DWP to consider the benefits and opportunities of working in partnership with local Government.  The proposal shows a failure to learn from the success of existing DWP and Local Government partnerships such as the Boost project at Burnt Oak

Barnet’s population, already the size of many UK cities, will rise from 373, 000 to over 400,000 within the next decade. To reduce Job Centre services by 50% in the face of this growth illustrates a lack of strategic planning by the DWP

Reducing the number of Job Centres will place greater strains and stresses on people who already are in the difficult and worrying situation of having to find work as travel costs and waiting times will increase.

The closure of half of the Borough’s Job Centres will put further pressure on our members working in council services such as libraries and social care who are providing support to people who are out of work; our members are already suffering from additional pressures from cuts to jobs and resources.

Barnet UNISON call for a more imaginative and socially responsible approach to providing Job Centre Services in our Borough. This to be  arrived at after a  full and real consultation with Job Centre workers as represented by the PCS, service users, the Council and other concerned organisations.

Barnet Unison – Local Government branch.

#SupportBarnetStrikers

6 December 2016

“Barnet UNISON oppose the Council plans for Libraries.

The Council may not plan to close any libraries in the short or mid-term but what is being proposed will reduce their quality, accessibility and  safety and to closures in the long term,

The Council are proposing to cut the staffing budget by 46%.

This means that around 30 library workers are now learning they will lose their jobs. These are men and women who have given years and sometimes decades of service to the people of Barnet.

This is poor reward to a workforce who have consistently achieved percentage scores in the high 90’s for good public satisfaction.

Such a cull of the library workers means that libraries will only be staffed for 30% of the opening times at the most.  The Council claiming that self-service machines and to a less extent volunteer are adequate replacements.

The Council are relying on technology to control access to libraries.

People will swipe their library cards through an automatic gate to gain access during these times.

But under 15 years olds unaccompanied by an adult won’t be able to do this. So young people access to our libraries are being severely curtailed.

Leaving libraries unstaffed will put those using them at risk.

Monitored CCTV with a response time of thirty minutes is not a sufficient replacement for having staff on site who can prevent incidents escalating and who can respond immediately to emergencies.

But not only are human assets of the libraries being lost, the physical space is too.

Barnet libraries are to lose between 15 to 90% of their space.  This means fewer items to borrow. Less space for computers and less space to host events such as story times or author events.

The people of Mill Hill, East Barnet, South Friern and Childs Hill will not even have the limited access library service available in the rest of the borough. Their libraries are to be handed over to voluntary groups, who will only be obliged to open for 15 hours a week.

The Council justify the wrecking of Barnet Library Service by a claimed need to save money.  The intention being to reduce the library budget by 1.6 million pounds by 2019/20.

Yet the Council originally allocated over 6 and a half million pounds to restructure the library service. Recently we have learned that over 14 million pounds are to be spent on library procurements in the next financial year. This is a lot of money to be spent on reducing the assets, efficiency, accessibility and safety of a service.

These changes will lead to a decline in use.

Why would you use a library that won’t have the books you want, where no help will be available, not enough computers available, where there will be no room to sit and study and where you will feel unsafe?

Barnet UNISON hope that this decline will not be used as an excuse by the present administration to close libraries a few years from now.

Instead we ask that the Council withdraw the plans for restructure and to engage in real consultation with library staff at all levels, and the people of Barnet on how to provide a Library service fit for the 21st Century.”

Don’t take our jobs

Barnet UNISON has sent the letter below to the following Voluntary Organisations who are bidding to take over our Libraries.

NW7 HUB

Inclusion Barnet

Mind in Barnet

Kisharon

The Hope of Childs Hill

TES Youth.

Dear Voluntary Organisation

I am writing to you on behalf of UNISON members working in Barnet Libraries. I have had the honour of representing this workforce for a long time and they have faced incredible adversity in terms of ongoing cuts to Library services in all that time. In spite of that, earlier this year they received a 97% customer satisfaction rating which I think demonstrates their high level of professionalism and their unquenching love for Libraries.

I understand that you and a number of voluntary organisations are bidding to run one of the four Partnership Libraries and this is why I am writing to you.

My request is a simple one.

Please do not bid.

I do not know if you are aware but currently 46% of Library staff are facing the sack. They are being sacked because the Council is relying on volunteers provided by you to take over four Libraries. My members have their own lives, families and caring responsibilities. They too need to work to live and they have worked hard to ensure they provide a high quality Barnet Library service.

If you are under the belief that the Council is unable to keep the Libraries open, and volunteers are the next best thing to at least keep them open, then please read on.

Below are the Agency/Consultancy figures for the last four years.

• £12,526,943
• £13,775,546
• £15,538,090
• £17,907,052

In the first two quarters of this financial year Barnet Council spent £9.3 million which, if it continues at this rate, will bring the total spend for this year to over £20 million on Consultants/Agency.

It is important you know that instead of spending money on front line Library services the Council spent almost £0.5 million on press officers.

Finally, it is hard to believe, but Barnet Council will have spent over £6 million on the project to destroy the Library service and made a donation of £500,000 to the RAF Museum for which it has no responsibility. The £6million is predicated on volunteers taking our members’ jobs and running four shell Libraries.

Anti-social behaviour

I do not believe your organisation is aware of the number of difficult and dangerous situations that Barnet library staff have to deal with. During the last 7 months Barnet UNISON has received 4 reports of physical assaults (2 on staff and 2 on members of the public) in Libraries. There were also 27 reports of aggressive behaviour and verbal abuse. The victims being equally divided amongst staff and public. Not all incidents are reported to UNISON so the real figures are likely to be higher.

Situations our colleagues have to deal with include preventing fights between members of the public, dealing with people under the influence of alcohol and drugs,  library users viewing pornography on computers, Members of the public urinating and defecating on library furniture and floors, racial and homophobic abuse, and threats of sexual assault.

I want to be very clear that our members welcome the support of volunteers as a supplement to publically running the Library service. We welcome the commitment of volunteers to try to keep the Library Service open. However, the proposal by Barnet Council undermines the role of the ‘volunteer’ by using them to take our members’ jobs and effective close publicly funded Libraries.

This is why I am writing to you, to ask that your organisation does not pursue the partnership libraries proposals and instead joins with our members and supporters in the Save Barnet Libraries campaign to keep our Libraries fully funded and staffed by paid employees. I would welcome an opportunity to meet with representatives of your organisation to discuss the issues contained within this letter.

Yours sincerely

John Burgess

Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON

Support Barnet UNISON Library workers

Dear Barnet UNISON Library workers

First of all I want to pay tribute to Hugh Jordan and those local reps and activists who have organised and taken part in strike action in defence of staff and the Barnet Library Service. For the past two years they have been under unacceptable pressure due to the proposed outsourcing and destruction of the Library Service. I truly believe the draconian cuts to the Library Service would have been far worse and imposed far quicker if they and our members had not been on strike and taken other actions. » Read more