Future Shape Public meeting 11 November on film here
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Future Shape – Barnet residents, staff and trade unions say YES WE CAN!
A Big thank you to all of you who turned up at the meeting last night. Over 300 plus staff took the time and effort to attend the Barnet Public Services meeting last night.
The event was resounding success and demonstrated that both staff and local residents are concerned about the future of public services in Barnet.
The meeting watched the ITV West documentary Private Gain, Private Profit in two parts to show that the threat to jobs and services is real and the need for staff to engage in the consultation with the Council.
Professor Whitfield gave a broad assessment of what this could mean to residents, service users, staff and the local economy.
Stan Davison from 55 plus spoke followed by Secretary of Barnet Trades Council Austin Harney and
It was followed by a number of useful contributions from the floor. It was clear residents, service users, staff and the Trade Unions are ready for the consultation to start. The Trade Unions have already produced 6 Briefings which raise issues about the process. Until now we have not had a response.
On 3 December the Chief Executive in what might be his last presentation (he has secured the post of Chief Executive of the GLA working for the London Mayor Boris Johnson) to the Cabinet Committee will present his report on the Future of Public Services in Barnet.
The Trade Unions are asking ALL their members to attend a rally on 3 December at 6 pm outside Barnet House before going into the meeting to hear what is being recommended for Barnet residents and the 4,000 Council workers.
A more detailed report will follow.
Remember, remember the 3 December!
Future Shape: Government Minister replies… third hand!
Icelandic banks – what YOU can do!
The government cannot stand by and allow local authorities to lose millions of pounds of council taxpayers’ cash. The government have stepped in to secure the banking system, and we need the same bold and principled action to protect local councils. Local authorities have a crucial role to play in protecting individuals, families and communities from the effects of an economic downturn. They are also crucial to rebuilding stability and confidence in our communities.”
We are asking UNISON members to sign the petition by following this link http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Aid-for-councils/#detail
What’s Going On in Adult Social Services?
Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of meetings in order to organise a major restructure and transform the way services are delivered to the public. So far we have been consulted on the general outline as to the future model of the care management end of the service. We had a good attendance in August at the UNISON meeting which resulted in a statement being put out from UNISON to the first stage consultation.
The next stage is proving trickier. Workshops looking at the way a member of the public would get an assessment and what kind of support would be needed from individual social work/ OT teams… (In other words: Who does what when and for how long)… has predictably proven to be less straightforward. Draft Job Profiles are about to be shown to the union and we will be consulting closely with staff members about these to make sure some of the disgraceful exploitation of staff and their goodwill does not continue.
What is the Future Shape of Adult Social Services?
The commissioning side of our service is being increased. Consultations around this service are still ongoing, although the bulk of the consultation has been dealt with. Even before the economic crisis we had discussed the sense of having in-house services to guarantee service delivery. Given the facts that banks have come crashing down bringing some businesses with them and the fact we know already some providers of home care are struggling to find home careworkers to cover the West of the borough we think it makes all the more sense to have in-house provision. We will be taking this up with the Commissioning team.
There have been no statements from the senior management team to say there is no intention to outsource the social work side of Social Services to date. We have asked for them and so far…
Hammersmith and Fulham Council are planning to sack and reengage 4283 workers
We have received a request for support from our UNISON colleagues in Hammersmith & Fulham. We have been told Hammersmith and Fulham Council are planning to sack and reengage 4283 workers to impose draconian cuts in terms and conditions. Part of their justification is that staff have more generous terms and conditions than other local government employers.
Community Care Officers: Highly valued – or simply highly exploited?
These are people who carry out the same tasks as social workers, in Adult Social Care. Without their input the service delivery in the Borough would collapse. They are mostly very experienced, highly thought of and respected within their teams and by their team managers. When they work with a member of the public they stay with that person to work through the issues (health, housing, care, working with family members and more) no matter how complex. The only difference is they would not investigate Adult Protection matters and they do not have a social work qualification. Their pay grade implies that where their work ends the social worker takes over and yet this is far from the practice and far from what is specified in their Role Profiles.
At a meeting with councillors on 7 October 2008, the unions were given to believe there would be movement in a further negotiation around acknowledging there needed to be an overlap in the grades. Regrettably at the negotiation there has been no movement. There is no acknowledgment there needs to be an overlap in grades. Our Community Care Officers have already indicated they are prepared to take industrial action if their pay is not increased in recognition of the complexity of the work they do.
They are far from being alone within Adult Social Services, as people who do complex work which is not recognised in pay. This is very demoralising for our members and all staff across Barnet Council in general.
This is all happening in context of the revolutionary changes to ALL of our jobs that is inherent in the Future Shape project.
Future Shape of the Council Timescales 2008/9
To view the Key milestones on Future Shape click here
Frequently asked questions – Barnet Councillors
Future Shape – frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
I have attended many meetings with staff across the Council. There have been a number of common questions from staff.
Q. Where did the idea of a Joint Venture for some of our income generating services come from?
A. If you read the 6 May 2008 Cabinet report on pages 15 & 16
“2.3 Strategic partnership
This project supports that outlined in 2.1 and 2.2, by exploring how the council can take forward proposals to develop a major service partnership or Joint Venture Company (JVC) to deliver some of the council’s predominantly income generating services. It will be used as a pilot to inform the development of a special purpose vehicle for wider commissioning and service delivery.
The JVC is a particularly attractive option as it draws on Barnet strengths of being low cost and relatively high performing and its ability to attract significant capital investment through the leverage model. Putting the funds into a JVC model or a similar venture that can trade, will allow the council to focus on building strategic capacity and enable it to focus more effectively on its place shaping role.
The ‘work has already been done in scoping development services’ is likely to be the Cabinet briefing paper written in January 2008. The paper identified the possibility of setting up a Joint Venture. It identified four groupings:
Planning and Environmental Protection
Building Control
Planning, Development Management
Enforcement and Appeals
Land Charges
Environmental Health
Environment and Transport
Parking
Highways
Greenspaces
Resources
Financial transactional processes – payroll, accounts payable/receivable
HR transactional processes – recruitment, day to day advice
Property management
Facilities management
IT and systems support
Revenue collection
Housing
Benefits
Clearly the list of services is not exhaustive; the remit of the Future Shape project team is to look at all Council services and different models of service provision. The Council have engaged consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to look at current in house services and other possible service delivery options.
A. I believe no. I think we are going to have a significant say over the future of services in Barnet. The issue for the trade unions and staff is when that process starts. Staff are key to the Future of Barnet Council.
Q. Is it true the data from the PWC spreadsheet will determine whether we are going to be privatised?
Q. What is the time scale?
A. When reports have to go to Cabinet there are clear timelines to have the report cleared before it is published online, before the Committee. Under current timescales the report would have to have been ready by the end of October in order that it could go through the various checks before publishing. The Trade Unions had understood that it was likely that we would know the basis of the report by the end of October. However last week I heard that this timescale has been extended. It is likely we may not see the report until late November which is obviously a concern.
Q. What is the three year plan?
A. I have not seen any documentation relating to a three year plan; however the Chief Executive did make reference to a three year plan at his visit to speak to staff at the depot several weeks ago.
Q. When could we be privatised?
A. It depends upon what option is chosen for your service. It could be as quick as 6 months to 2 years from March next year.
Q. Why won’t the Council sign up to Trade Unions (Briefing 3) TUPE Plus proposal?
A. Don’t know. I have not had a response to our proposal to safeguard members transferring to the private sector or external organisation. I don’t know what they agree or disagree with in the document. For example in TUPE Plus I want a commitment that any contractor will not offshore work. It is worrying that the Council has not responded to this point and the 13 other points in Briefing 3.