UNISON write to Leader of Barnet Council

Uncategorised

6 December 2010

 

Dear Lynne

 

RE: Budget Consultation 2011-12

I have been reflecting on what happened at the end of last week. As you know on Friday Council staff attended Budget a number of briefings and 818 of them received protective redundancy notices, something I have not seen in 16 years of working in Barnet Council.

I noted your comment at the last Cabinet when you said you had not come into politics to have make cuts to services but that we are in unprecedented times.

The consultation process has begun and I will be submitting more detailed response with the other Trade Unions in due course but I think that as we are living in extraordinary times I wish to give you some initial comments.

 

If there was one current feeling I would like to report from staff it would be confusion. The confusion is not that they don’t recognise that we are in difficult financial times, but at the approach the Council is adopting in response to responding to this problem and why they are not being engaged in the process. It is a theme that the Joint Trade Unions have documented in over 20 reports over the last two years.

 

In times when every income source is precious to the council, staff working in services that generate income are angry and shocked that the Council would want to share that income with another organisation.

 

I would like to draw your attention to two significant income generating services albeit there are others.

 

Parking.

A decision has been made to privatise this service but no evidence has been offered by management to support the decisions being made. UNISON submitted a detailed report to which, to date, we have no response. I have bullet pointed below some of the key issues:

·         “Did you know that many pcn.s are contested by vehicle owners and are eventually resolved through an adjudication process. Last year Westminster was next to bottom in winning adjudications (21%) i.e. 4 out of 5 drivers that contest their parking ticket in Westminster get off without paying anything.

·         In 2008/09, that council’s private sector process provider (Vertex) did not contest 14,000 appeals which equates to approximately a loss of £1.12m.

·         Why is Westminster being quoted particularly by senior officers, as the example to follow?”

·         “Did you know in the last year across London private sector parking enforcement companies performed 29% worse than in-house operations,

·         How does the decision to appoint and external provider to deliver parking control in Barnet benefit our community?”

  • The only significant change in the Barnet Parking Team over the past two years is that the Council chose to release the senior managers who had delivered a parking account surplus of £6m. Under current management arrangements this is forecasted to be at least £3m. less in the current year.

All of the above is evidence based and understood by staff working in Parking, which is why they do not understand the rationale for privatisation.

Hendon Cemetery & Crematorium

Almost two years ago the Council was on the verge of privatising this service. UNISON submitted a critique and the recommendation was changed, senior officers were tasked to carry out a full Options Appraisal. One of the key drivers was the urgent need for new Cremators. The Options Appraisal was completed in July 2010 and the overwhelming best Value for Money option was the in-house proposal. The urgent work which needed to start has still not taken place and this service has now been added to the Future Shape DRS bundle.

 

You may be aware that four Funeral Directors signed our staff petition which we submitted to Cabinet. I am aware that they are frustrated that the plans for the new Cremators has not been progressed and as a consequence and there is a growing and significant risk that the Funeral Directors could easily take their business elsewhere.

 

In these extraordinary times how can it be acceptable that we could lose significant income as result of failing to implement the outcome of the Options Appraisal?

 

Frontline Services

I have mentioned two services that generate income which supplements funding for frontline services. I do so because I was shocked to read that we are proposing to delete 4.5 mental health social work posts (Home Treatment Team) and the one social worker in the soon to be closed Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit (BIRU). These are frontline of services, and despite the best efforts of the Director of Adult Services to mitigate the risks, they will almost certainly have a detrimental impact on service users. I could identify make similar concerns about the cuts across Children’s Services where we are seeing closures of children centres and youth services.

 

I would wish for you and your Cabinet colleagues to think again about how the One Barnet programme is being taken forward and to look to a “different relationship with staff and the trade unions & citizens” one in which all are equal stakeholders in future development of Council services. The Trade Unions submitted a report to Cabinet entitled “The Wrong Transformation” our recommendations presented a different and more inclusive approach to the financial challenges we face.

 

I am happy to meet up to provide clarification on any issues or concerns you may have with my feedback. I would be grateful for a speedy response, especially to the particular issues raised in this letter.

Yours sincerely

John Burgess

Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON

CC: Barnet UNISON members