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Question: What does a letter look like when a service comes back in– house?

Answer: Take a look at the letter sent to staff following the decision of Sefton Council to terminate their contract with Capita Symonds

Glen William Sefton UNISON branch secretary said the firm had failed to meet its promises. “We have asked for two years for this contract to be reviewed in the knowledge it was not meeting promises of job creation or income generation.

“We certainly welcome the workforce back to the council but hope neither the council or Capita Symonds use this as an opportunity to shed jobs.”

You can view a copy of the letter sent to the Sefton UNISON rep explaining the service will be returning in-house

click on link below

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Sefton%20UNISON%20Letter%20to%20staff%20re%20TUPE%20030112.pdf

 

 

Question: “Can a Council which has gone so far down the road of privatisation decide not to award the contract to the private sector companies?”

Answer: “Yes they can as long as they have sound reasons to do so.”

Lets look at Edinburgh Council who had launched a mass privatisation programme and at the eleventh hour voted to keep services in house. In the minutes of their Council Meeting on 19 January 2012 they decided the following:

3) To further note that an internal improvement plan had been developed which had the potential to deliver significant improvements and savings to in-house service delivery and to agree:

(i) To develop the vision of the Integrated Facilities Management internal improvement plan and instruct the Chief Executive Officer to take appropriate steps to secure implementation of internal improvement.

To view the full minutes of the meeting click http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Edinburgh%20Council%205.2_Minute_190112.pdf

There it is, if the business case is not there then the Council can retain its in-house services.

Come along to the ‘Barnet Council Not For Sale Conference’ on Saturday 7 July at 12- 3 pm Greek Cypriot Centre, 2 Britannia Road North Finchley,London, N12 9RU to hear a speaker from Edinburgh tell their story. 

Dear Richard

 

I am formally requesting that you directly intervene in the Legal Services transfer to Harrow Borough Council. At a Legal Services briefing yesterday (14 June 2012) given by the Director of Corporate Governance, a significant number of staff began to raise very serious concerns about the transfer. The overwhelming feeling arising from this meeting was that Harrow is not treating this venture as a ‘shared service.’ Please find enclosed flyer which refers to ‘Harrow Legal’ which further reinforces the view of staff that this is not a real ‘shared service’ arrangement. In all the contributions there was a reoccurring theme being raised namely that Harrow seem to have a belief that their Lawyers are better than ours and that this perception is influencing the dialogue between both sides. I am concerned that without addressing these fundamental concerns it could lead to a first class service to Harrow and a second class service to Barnet.

 

I am seeking a postponement of the TUPE Transfer (due date 1July 2012) in order that there is genuine and meaningful discussions with your staff.

 

I believe you are already aware of what happened at a Planning Meeting earlier this week. I understand Standing Orders were allegedly overruled by a Harrow lawyer and as a result five decisions made have been declared ultra vires.

 

There is a real and urgent need for a meeting to scheduled with all staff to discuss the myriad of concerns raised by your staff at yesterday’s meeting. Until these concerns are addressed it would be in my opinion imprudent to sign the ‘inter authority agreement’

 

I can give an undertaking that I and the branch and our members want to work together with the Council to make this Shared arrangement work. However in light of what I heard yesterday a great deal of work needs to be done for this to happen.

 

Yours sincerely

 

John Burgess

Branch Secretary

Barnet UNISON

Read full report here

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/APSE%20Procurement%20and%20contract%20managemement.pdf

A worrying extract from page 6 of the report

“The elected members of the Council are perfectly entitled to develop and pursue their vision for the authority. They are obliged however to do so within the parameters set by law. This includes a requirement to act reasonably whilst taking into account all relevant factors and ignoring irrelevant ones. The numerous examples of failure to abide by internal procedures, as well as various potential breaches of competition law, should be relevant to any decision about whether and how quickly, the authority should implement its planned commissioning approach to service delivery. APSE has not been able to find any evidence that there has been any formal consideration of the implications of the apparently institutional inability to let and manage contracts adequately, for the Council’s future contracting strategy.

 

UNISON along with Barnet Alliance are hosting ‘Barnet Council not for Sale’ Conference

Saturday 7 July 12 – 3pm

Greek Cypriot Centre, Britannia Road, Britannia Road, North Finchley, London N12 9RU

Guest speakers

Professor Dexter Whitfield

Andy Mudd APSE Consultant

John Dix aka Mr Reasonable (local resident & Blogger)

Aberdeen UNISON

Edinburgh UNISON

Sefton UNISON

Details of other speakers to follow

Background:

Dexter Whitfield

Dexter Whitfield is Director of the European Services Strategy Unit (continuing the work of the Centre for Public Services founded in 1973) and Adjunct Associate Professor, Australian Workplace Innovation and Social Research Centre, University of Adelaide.

He has carried out extensive research and policy analysis of regional/city economies and public sector provision, jobs and employment strategies, impact assessment and evaluation, marketisation and privatisation, public private partnerships, modernisation and public management (www.european-services-strategy.org.uk).

He is the author of In Place of Austerity: Reconstructing the economy, state and public services (2012); Global Auction of Public Assets: Public sector alternatives to the infrastructure market & Public Private Partnerships (2010); Public Services or Corporate Welfare: The Future of the Nation State in the Global Economy (2001) and several other books on privatisation. He has published articles in journals, delivered papers and advised public bodies and trade unions in Europe, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Andy Mudd Consultant for Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE)

APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) is a not for profit local government body working with over 300 councils throughout the UK. Promoting excellence in public services, APSE is the foremost specialist in local authority front line services, hosting a network for front line service providers in areas such as waste and refuse collection, parks and environmental services, leisure, school meals, cleaning, housing and building maintenance.

 

APSE provides services specifically designed for local authorities, such as benchmarking, consultancy, seminars, research, briefings and training. Through its consultancy arm APSE delivers expert assistance to councils with the overt aim of driving service improvement and value for money through service review and redesign. APSE delivers in excess of 100 projects a year and clients benefit from the consultancy’s not for profit ethical approach to consultancy services.

Last month UNISON submitted the following question for the Bidders for the DRS contract  

1.    What does your model look like?

2.    When will you know?

3.    What is your legal advice about outsourcing some statutory functions?

4.     Are there any roles which your model does not believe can be outsourced?

If yes, which are they?

5.    Does your model look at secondment as an option?

If yes, which roles are involved?

6.    Does your model look at adopting dual employment?

If yes, which roles and how will this be applied?

7.    Does your model reflect that some roles will have to remain in house?

If yes which roles

8.    At the Meet the Bidders briefings a number of our members asked about the issue of conflict of interest.

How does your model deal with perceived and or conflict of interest? How does you model manage and mitigate these interests?

The Council refused to submit these questions to the Bidders, this is but another example of how ‘commercial confidentiality’ will be used to avoid public scrutiny of public services delivered by the private sector.

Dear Councillors 

You may be aware that recently staff working across back office services had the opportunity to meet the two contractors (BT and Capita) bidding to win the NSCSO contract to deliver services such as Finance, Procurement, Pensions, IT, Customer Services to name but a few.

UNISON welcomed the opportunity for staff to meet the bidders and I would like to commend the senior officers for enabling this to take place.

UNISON felt it was important to capture the feedback from our members as to what they had learnt from the presentation.

UNISON carried out a simple survey (see attached) of our members attending both presentations and we now have the results which I promised my members I would share with all 63 councillors.

Below are four key issues emerging from the presentation

·        Only 41%of members expressed confidence that BT can effectively deliver their service, as compared with only17% for Capita

·        Only 41% of members were confident that BT would not make staff redundant after TUPE transfer as compared with only 7% for Capita

·        The majority of our members want to meet the Bidders before the preferred Bidder is selected

·        The majority of members remain unconvinced that either contractor will protect terms & conditions for current staff and new starters

I hope that you will all have time to read and consider our presentation and support our request that further meeting with both Bidders be arranged for staff before the preferred bidder is selected.

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

Dear Councillors

 

I understand that you have all at some point been invited to a presentation by Andy Mudd Andy Mudd, Principal Consultant, APSE. I attach a copy of a letter sent to all 63 councillors on behalf of our Regional Secretary Linda Perks.

 

On behalf of my members I want to encourage all councillors regardless of political persuasion to take up this offer as I believe it will provide all of you an opportunity to discuss and reflect on the implications of becoming a Commissioning Council.

 

Tonight there is a presentation to members of both scrutiny committees (7 pm Hendon Town Hall) and the following week on Thursday 14 June at 7 pm in Hendon Town Hall Committee Room 3, another presentation is to all of you.

 

A hard copy of the APSE report will follow in the post.

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

0208 359 2088

Dear NSL

I am writing to you following news that one of your former employees was recently convicted of credit card fraud.

My members are contacting me about concerns that this manager had access to theior personal data including their passports.

I spoke to you yesterday and said that I would be requesting NSL issue a statement to staff about what has happened and what safeguards are being put in place to protect their data from potential fraud.

I would welcome a swift response to this request.

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON