The College announced the VS scheme on Tuesday 8th February 2011 and invited staff to apply for figures and information. Staff that are successful in their application will leave on the last working day of February 2011.

The Learning Difficulties department (LLDD) has had to cut 6 courses from its tariff and this means a loss of 70 places for the most vulnerable members of our community and society as a whole.

The Mental Health Department will also be making cuts, another blow to this already disadvantaged section of society and as soon as these are announced, we will bring them to you.

A grave example of too many cuts coming too fast and effecting the future of this and the forth-coming generations’ education and opportunities.

Recommendations

1. The Council undertakes as a matter of urgency a review of all payments to staff not employed directly by the Council.  Furthermore we recommend that the Council refer to the HMRC Guidelines in particular the advice to be found here that explains that “It’s your responsibility to correctly determine the employment status of your workers – that is, whether they’re employed by you or self-employed. This depends on the terms and conditions of your working relationship with each worker. It’s important to get your workers’ employment status right because it affects the way tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) are calculated for them. And it determines whether or not you have to operate PAYE (Pay As You Earn) on their earnings.”

Read full details here

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/start-leave/status.htm

2. Merge the Director’s posts for Adults & Children’s Service

3. Delete the Deputy Director of Children’s Service post.

4. Merge the above Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive Directorates Posts; and reconfigure Assistant Director posts to release savings.

5. Reconfigure PHR Directorate by reducing the number of AD posts.

6. Review the salaries for Directors and Assistant Directors with a view to restricting them to a ceiling of no more than £100,000 p.a. (the salary of a social worker is around £33,000 p.a.).

7. Delete Enforcement and Operations manager post.

8. Implement the savings suggested by UNISON and use the money to save frontline posts, such as (no particular order) social worker posts, Sheltered Wardens, Youth workers, the Barnet Garden Project or Children’s Centres workers or training and development posts.

9. Without any dialogue on any of our recommendations outlined above, UNISON is opposed to all job cuts and service reductions. 

To view report click here

Leave the libraries alone. You don’t understand their value.

Best-selling author Philip Pullman spoke to a packed meeting on 20 January 2011, called to defend Oxfordshire libraries. He gave this inspirational speech, which we are very pleased to co-publish with openDemocracy.

“Here in Oxfordshire we are threatened with the closure of 20 out of our 43 public libraries. Mr Keith Mitchell, the leader of the county council, said in the Oxford Times last week that the cuts are inevitable, and invites us to suggest what we would do instead. What would we cut? Would we sacrifice care for the elderly? Or would youth services feel the axe?

I don’t think we should accept his invitation. It’s not our job to cut services. It’s his job to protect them.

Nor do I think we should respond to the fatuous idea that libraries can stay open if they’re staffed by volunteers. What patronising nonsense. Does he think the job of a librarian is so simple, so empty of content, that anyone can step up and do it for a thank-you and a cup of tea? Does he think that all a librarian does is to tidy the shelves? And who are these volunteers? Who are these people whose lives are so empty, whose time spreads out in front of them like the limitless steppes of central Asia, who have no families to look after, no jobs to do, no responsibilities of any sort, and yet are so wealthy that they can commit hours of their time every week to working for nothing? Who are these volunteers? Do you know anyone who could volunteer their time in this way? If there’s anyone who has the time and the energy to work for nothing in a good cause, they are probably already working for one of the voluntary sector day centres or running a local football team or helping out with the league of friends in a hospital. What’s going to make them stop doing that and start working in a library instead?

You can read the full article here

Critics of the Future Shape/EasyCouncil/One Barnet programme have gone on the record that despite all the rhetoric about new and innovative approaches to service delivery the Council are simply embarking on mass privatisation. Unlike the failed privatisation projects (also known as Compulsory Competitive Tendering CCT) this time they are attempting to privatise the whole council.

“Is this an exaggeration?”

This week almost 800 staff working in a number of council services were told that their days working for the Council were numbered.

I attended 7 staff briefings earlier this week and listened to claims  that the Option Appraisal was an objective & evidence based process!

Furthermore staff were told that the decision was not predetermined, however I can report that staff do not believe that and I think I can say with confidence that they know this is a political decision.

It is becoming increasingly clear that we are facing the return of the mad dogma known as “Private Good Public Bad!”

In the briefings staff asked about business cases and evidence behind the decision, but we all know that there is no evidence behind these projects.

The Trade Union reports produced by Professor Dexter Whitfield have exposed the lack of evidence and inconsistency in the above programme. Last year Grant Thornton the external auditor detailed a number of serious risks about this Programme.

So why do I make this claim. I thought I would look at the list of services that have already gone through the first stage of Future Shape.

Take a look at the number of council services all of which have gone through an Options Appraisals and all have produced a decision to privatise with the exception of Legal service (apparently there isn’t market for Legal Services, amazing really considering how often the Council goes to the private sector law firms for legal advice!).

Mass privatisation……?

24 out of 25 Council services have now been told they are to be privatised!  

1. Building Control & Structures
2. Planning (Development Management)
3. Strategic Planning & Housing Strategy
4. Regeneration
5. Land charges
6. Highways Transport & Regeneration
7. Highways strategy
8. Highways Network Management
9. Highways Traffic & Development
10. Environmental Health (Residential & Commercial)
11. Hendon Cemetery & Crematorium
12. Trading Standards & Licensing
13. Registration & Nationality
14. Parking Service
15. Coach Escorts
16. Passenger Travel
17. Customer Services
18. Adult Social Care
19. Estates
20. Facilities
21. Procurement
22. Human Resources
23. Information Services
24. Revenues & Benefits
25. * Legal Services

* to be retained in-house