Future Shape – The questions which need to be answered and we do!

Barnet Council’s Future Shape programme is currently examining options for the provision of a wide range of services. The Council is excluding in-house provision in principle and is constructing barriers to a genuine assessment of the potential of this option. Staff have raised a number of questions in meetings and presentations on the future of Council services. Some arise from statements made by senior officers in staff presentations and reports. They require a response and explanation.

1. Can in-house services innovate on the scale required by Future Shape?

The Council has failed to engage with staff and trade unions to explore their ideas and proposals for innovation and service improvement, despite being urged to do so (Barnet UNISON Briefing No 5, 2008). The council has spent £2.5m on Future Shape consultants but what has been achieved? These scarce resources would have been more effectively spent on developing and improving services with staff and trade unions. It could be started today. However, the Council continues to engage consultants claiming they are ‘independent’ and that Council staff do not have the required skills to carry out the work. This is not the case. None of the current projects – the Regulation bundle (planning, environmental health, trading standards), Adults, Hendon Crematoria and Cemetery, Transport, Support Services and Customer Services, develop the One Barnet concept. They simply adopt the outsource contract model. The opportunity to develop a more innovative approach will be lost.

 

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