At our meeting we told Councillors that our exclusion from the Future Shape Groups meant we were not able to take part in the consultation. Last September we identified key issues for our members e.g. Pay, annual leave and Pensions, but to date these issues were not viewed as a priority at this stage. We have asked that the Trade Unions need to be fully involved in a future discussions about the Future of Council Services. We were informed a Future Shape report had been agreed at Corporate Directors Group, and a copy would be shared with the Trade Unions once more data had been added from the consultants.  

As for the final Future Shape report for the 6 July Cabinet Committee we will be given the report once it has been signed off by the Lead Cabinet member.  

Speculation in the NLBP village on what maybe being recommended is rife and understandable. I want to draw your attention to the 15 June Cabinet Resources Committee.  Section 3.2 says

“The service provided by the in-house Legal Service is in high demand to deliver on the Council’s priorities. Moving to the Council’s ‘Future Shape’ will involve additional and extensive legal input.”

Full report click here  

It is understandable that if there is going to be major change you will need a good legal team. It is interesting but not unexpected to see other Councils are also already making plans

“Currently, the “Consortium Councils” are the London Boroughs of Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, Havering, Hillingdon, Merton, Redbridge and Sutton.”

The Trade Unions need to examine the Tenderers’ Scores; it is interesting to see Essex County Council put in a tender.

“Which firm of solicitors were the successful bidders?”

Unfortunately this information is in the Exempt report, once it is approved at the committee the name of the firm will be made public.   

Back to Future Shape:

“Does this appointment of a panel of solicitors give an indication as to what we should expect in the Future Shape Cabinet Report 6 July?”  

I suppose we will have to wait for the report.

We may not have Susan Boyle working for Barnet but we do have talented staff. Whilst we wait for news on what Future Shape will mean for staff and public services I hope staff will be given the opportunity to contribute to any Future changes.  

Some Good News

Those of you who have had the time to look at the Future Shape website will have noticed the term ‘Quick Win’ on a number of slides. I believe the term ‘Quick Win’ has been acknowledged as an inappropriate term conveying a negative message.

Where is the good new news?

If and when services are packaged together they need to go through a robust process before any decisions are made.

Cemeteries and Crematorium services were put down as a ‘Quick win’ a Consultants report recommended the privatisation option. The Trade Unions produced a report which raised concerns about the process & recommendations in the report. I am pleased to report the service is going through the correct process. The Trade Unions and the staff are now part of the process. This is key.

Back to Future Shape, it is important that staff don’t panic if they see their service being packaged up for a possible privatisation model. There is still a great deal of work which would need to take place before any decisions about moving forward to a procurement including if an in house bid would be included.

From the little that is being made available the Seven Groups reflect the complexity of the problem facing Public Services across Barnet. It is important that decisions are not rushed which is why the Trade Unions are confused why there are different completion timescales for the Groups which are clearly interlinked.

To visualise the complexity we have constructed a diagram.

To view image click here http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Future_Shape_jenga1.JPG

This evening approximately 100 Barnet residents took up their democratic right to protest against the budget proposal to delete the sheltered housing service.

Feelings are strong on this issue. In a time when ‘apathy rules’ it is good to see that people feel able to take up this issue. It was a major effort for most of the residents who turned up with walking sticks, zimmer frames, wheelchairs. Service users, relatives and friends have made an extraordinary effort to save the service.

Consultation has taken place. I hope the views have been taken on board. I don’t think anyone would disagree that we should be ensuring the vulnerable are fully supported.

We won’t know until Cabinet meet on 8 June what the decision is, I am sure there will be a lobby of the meeting and residents will want to sit in to hear the decision.

At a time when public confidence in politicians both local and national is at an all time low… it would be a significant sign to the electorate that sometimes the voices of the community are heard and solutions found.

Here are some pictures of the lobby

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28819825@N02/sets/72157618490276622/

Nursery Nurses
Negotiations on re-grading for Nursery Nurses are still ongoing. We are awaiting confirmation of the offer before conducting a consultation ballot of our members.

Cover arrangement in schools
Guidance is now out called ‘Rarely cover implementation process’ To view this online click here

Cover is probably one of the biggest issues for support staff. It always seems to be our members who are asked to take on extra duties and not receive the correct grade for the work. Your excellent work is recognised, it is just a shame when we want staff to be paid for this work the same old lines roll out ‘…cuts to the budget, posts will have to go…’

National Negotiating machinery
The negotiations addressing the possibilty of a School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSNB). Before UNISON would agree to joining the SSNB all our members would have to be consulted. This could have massive repercussions for all our members working in Schools.
The latest newsletter can be read online here.

Representatives of the GMB, RMT, UNISON, PCS, NUT all took part as part of the Barnet Trades Council. At the end of the demonstration Councillor Alison Moore and local MP Andrew Dismore gave speeches adding their support to the campaign. The provision of sheltered housing means that many relatives feel reassured their beloved elderly relations have a degree of security by being in sheltered accommodation and so find it easier to relax knowing help is close at hand for their relative. So there were younger family members on the demonstration making it quite clear what this support means to them also.

But when you get old, wouldn’t you want to know this type of provision exists? If you do then maybe it’s time you joined the campaign on its next stage and took part in the rally outside Hendon Town Hall at 6pm on 19 May 2009.

To view pictures of the demonstration, click here.

Just some of the claims

£4.47 for dog food, £115 for 25 light bulbs, £305.50 to “cure noise problems”, with her boiler, £312 for the fitting of mock Tudor beams, £600 for hanging baskets and pot plants, £765 claim from Ikea, £768 from Marks and Spencer’s for a bed, £1,350 in house repairs, £1,500 gardening bill, £2,000 to replace a leaking pipe under a tennis court, £2,074 for furniture and £2,339 for carpets, £3,194 bill for gardening, £9,000 a year for gardening, £13,000 in moving costs, £14,553 solicitors’ fees and stamp duty, £30,000 for doing up his £120,000 constituency, £75,000 to fund a second home in Westminster £35,000 in mortgage interest payments,

The former Prime Minister used his parliamentary expenses to remortgage his constituency home for £296,000 – nearly 10 times what he paid for it – just months before buying a west London house for £3.65m.

The prime minister paid his brother, Andrew, £6,577 for arranging cleaning services for his Westminster flat for 26 months

You can view it all online BBC website here.

Rank hypocrisy… politicians want to take your pension and hand you over to the private sector in order to bail out the inefficiency and gross negligence of the financial sector

I recognise not everyone is a Local Government Anorak. The day before the Budget the Treasury Department released a report ‘Operation Efficiency Programme – Final Report’ view it here.

It is clear whoever wins the General Election next year, the Government will get in!

Local Government is set to face hardship it has probably not had to face in over a generation. I know Council workers will ask what they have done to deserve this doomsday scenario of council services. The answer is nothing. In Barnet Council staff have delivered almost £60 million in savings and delivered a Four Star service.

What can’t happen is that Council Services across the UK are decimated in a crude attempt to offset £billions of debt bailing out the financial sector.

The role of the trade unions, staff and residents will be key to how council/public services are delivered in Barnet.

Make sure you make time to attend the rally at the Future Shape Cabinet Meeting on Monday 6 July 2009

Members will have heard about the Newcastle story. It is a real life story of staff, managers, elected members and residents coming together to design & deliver first class services and deliver efficiencies.  

Here are two links to national papers out today

Read in Guardian Today

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/05/public-spending-newcastle

Read in the Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hilary-wainwright-key-to-economic-recovery-lies-in-unlocking-workers-creativity-1679023.html

Whilst what is done in one council can never be easily transplanted to another Council, there is still a lot that we can take from Newcastle to help address the financial challenges facing public services in Barnet. What I found key was unlocking the potential of the staff  to help design services for the future. All too often public services will call on the services of the big consultancy companies such as KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloittes etc  at a considerable cost.

Tonight I will be going to:

Public Service Reform…but not as we know it!

Debate alternatives to privatisation
18:00 to 19:30, 05 May 2009, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA  
Speakers: Hilary Wainwright (author); Rt Hon Hazel Blears MP, Communities and Local Government Secretary; Jon Cruddas MP; Heather Wakefield of UNISON and Kenny Bell, UNISON

http://www.compassonline.org.uk/events/index.asp?date=27/05/2009&ec=NULL