ASSIST – the 4th emergency service – to be privatised
ASSIST ‘The 4th Emergency Service’
The Barnet Group have put out to tender part or all the services that our colleagues at ASSIST provide.
During the pandemic, Barnet Group management were calling ASSIST the 4th Emergency Service because of the vital services they provide to the most vulnerable in our community.
The service has been starved of investment, deliberately, by both the Barnet Group and the London Borough of Barnet, making it impossible for the service to ‘bid’ for contracts that would ensure the continuation of the service and enable it to expand.
UNISON have been informed that the yearly deficit to keep ASSIST open is £300k – but £140k yearly is the amount of unbilled service that ASSIST provides to the Barnet Group – and would have to be paid to any new provider, should any decide to bid on the tender.
Now LBB and TBG have decided that a new LBB directly funded role is merited in The Barnet Group a new ‘Head of Business Development & Transformation’ in Your Choice Barnet with a salary ‘outside’ of our Job Evaluation process but will be well in excess of £60k per year.
When will The Barnet Group and The London Borough of Barnet learn that it is frontline services to the public that should have priority when it comes to funding, not overpaid consultants?
What is to ‘Develop’ or ‘Transform’ if our services are privatised?
The message to the Barnet Group and the London Borough of Barnet is:
The only TUPE out of the Barnet Group that is acceptable to ASSIST UNISON members is a TUPE back in to LBB
where the service came from in the first place.
Please send messages of support to ASSIST