Ten years of ‘Future Shape’, ‘easyCouncil’, ‘One Barnet’

On Tuesday 6 May 2008, two things happened that changed my life.

The first was my meeting with the Chief Executive Leo Boland and Nick Walkley (later to become Chief Executive) where they informed me about their next project they called ‘Future Shape’.

The second was the Cabinet meeting which met that night and rubber stamped the ‘Future Shape’ proposal.

Click here to view the Cabinet report

https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/Data/Cabinet/200805061900/Agenda/Document%203.pdf

It’s been a roller coaster emotionally, mentally and physically the last ten years.

I don’t know how I am still here, but I do know that I am lucky to have an incredible team of office staff and activists all of whom strive hard to do all that they can for our members.

To mark this anniversary since the birth of Future Shape the branch enlisted the services of Dexter Whitfield to write a report on the last ten years.

I am proud to announce that the report was published today Monday 30 April, 2018 at 8 a.m.

As an added bonus, Jeremy Corbyn took time off his busy schedule to come along to meet some of the Barnet campaigners who have been active this last ten years in a very hostile environment of relentless outsourcing and cutting public services.

It is a very detailed report, but there again it had to be because there has been so much going on in our Council.

You can read our Press Release here

Damning report into EasyCouncil, Outsourcing including forward by John McDonnell

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Barnet-UNISON-Capita-report-2018.pdf

Below are three short video messages from Dexter Whitfield on his report.

Dexter Whitfield on campaigning against outsourcing

 

https://youtu.be/zDt8VKKQ-Vs

Dexter Whitfield on outsourcing failures

https://youtu.be/IiD17Pt7OwY

Dexter Whitfield on true costs of Barnet easyCouncil

https://youtu.be/V0SytYCj1HA

Finally  I am proud to see so many UNISON reps across the UK issue the following message:

UNISON reps across the UK call on public bodies to end contracts with Capita

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/?p=6109&preview=true

 

UNISON reps across the UK call on public bodies to end contracts with Capita

We the undersigned call on all public bodies to end contracts with Capita and begin plans to return services in-house.
FACTS reported in the last week from various media outlets
• Capita employs 70,000 staff
• Capita reported a £513.7m pre-tax loss for 2017
• Capita asking investors for £701m in a rights issue that it will use to fund restructuring and toward paying down debts.
• Capita flogs Asset Services division for £888m
• Capita has seen the value of shares collapse from £13 a share to 160p in the past three years.
• Capita confirmed a fully underwritten £701m rights issue at 70p per share. Some £150m will be used to hack overheads with the cost-cutting programme forecast to yield savings of £175m per annum from the end of 2020.
• The London Stock Exchange-listed organ revealed that sales for the calendar year fell 4.3 per cent to £4.2bn, and it made a loss from operations of £420m. A series of write-offs and the cost of disposals meant losses sunk further.
 
In light of the above headlines and the collapse of Carillion, we believe it is in the public interest and public finance that all public bodies with contracts with Capita act now to bring those services into public ownership.
 
Signed
John Burgess Barnet UNISON rep
Helen Davies Barnet UNISON rep and NEC rep
Chris Jobson Barnet UNISON rep
Liz James Barnet UNISON rep
Patrick Hunter Barnet UNISON rep
Hugh Jordan Barnet UNISON rep
Sandy Nicoll, HE General Seat
James Robinson – deputy secretary of Knowsley unison
Liz Wheatley Camden UNISON Branch Secretary
Alex Tarry London Met UNISON Branch Secretary
Polly Smith Nec (pc) Local government service group Unison rep
Gina Stone Unison, UCLH Branch Secretary
Theresa Rollinson, Unison Doncaster and Bassetlaw, HSGE (pc )
Kath Owen NEC, HE women’s seat.
Stephen Smellie NEC Scotland
Paul Couchman. Branch Secretary, Surrey County LG
Billie Sarah Reynolds Co Deputy Convenor SE Region UNISON LG
George Binette, former Camden UNISON Branch Secretary, Trade Union co-ordinator, Hackney North & Stoke Newington CLP (personal capacity).
Naomi Junnor Steward and vice convenor Fieldwork stewards, Glasgow City Branch
Florence Hill retired Unison member Bolton
Luisete Bento Batista NEC Manchester
Tony Wilson UNISON NEC North West.
Helen Astley, Chair of the Herefordshire Local Government UNISON Branch, LGSGE member – West Midlands Region and TULO – Hereford and South Herefordshire CLP.
Vicky Perrin Unison NEC Yorkshire & Humberside
Angela Ruth Waller Local Government Service Group Executive Yorkshire and Humberside Female Seat (pc)
Gem Dean Gemma dean, branch secretary Herefordshire health unison branch
Andrew Berry, UNISON National Labour Link Committee, London Rep.
Jane Doolan NEC LG seat , SGE and Branch Secretary Islington LG Branch
Berny Parkes: Co-Chair Dorset County Branch Unison; Secretary South Dorset CLP (PC)
Arthur Nicoll Comms Officer, Dundee City Unison and Scottish LG Committee.
John Walker, Equalities Officer, Herefordshire Health Unison
Jim McFarlane, Branch Secretary Dundee City UNISON and NEC member (pc)
Sean Fox NEC Greater London &Haringey UNISON Joint Branch Secretary
Declan Clune Secretary Southampton and South West Hampshire Trades Union
Paul Rafferty, Chair, UNISON AQA Branch (pc).
Janet Bryan UNISON NEC
Rose Brown UNISON NEC
Dan Hoggan Greenwich Unite Local Government Branch
Roger Lewis Please add Roger Lewis, assistant branch secretary, Lambeth unison, PC
Paul Gilroy UNISON NEC
Karen Reissmann UNISON NEC
Jordan Rivera SGE candidate Health Greater London
Janet Maiden SGE Health
Phoebe Watkins Camden Branch Co Chair
Lorna Solomon UNISON Homerton Hospital Branch Secretary
John McLoughlin UNISON SGE rep
Tony Phillips UNISON Branch Secretary LFEPA
Jon Woods UNISON SGE
Glen Williams, Branch Secretary, Sefton UNISON, Local Government.
Shazziah Rock UNISON Sandwell General Branch
David Hughes Local Government SGE
Sarah Littlewood Deputy Branch Secretary Hull LG Branch.
Lisa Dempster Deputy chair Knowsley Branch
Steve Kearsley Unison Rep Halton BC Branch.
Sarah Pickett Labour Link Officer University of Brighton Branch.
Dave Anderson, former Hampshire LG UNISON

Global giant ISS restricts rights of former Barnet Council catering workers

Dear Barnet UNISON catering members,

This week Barnet UNISON registered a ‘failure to agree’ over the imposition by ISS of a number of their policies on our members working in the catering service.

It is important that you understand why Barnet UNISON is objecting to this proposal.

The current Barnet Council Disciplinary policy states:

“at all stages of the procedure the employee will have the right to be accompanied by a recognised trade union representative or a Barnet work colleague.”

 

However, in the ISS Disciplinary Policy it states that:

“Only at the formal disciplinary hearing stage of the procedure will the employee have the statutory right to be accompanied or represented by a:

  • Trade union representative;
  • Recognised staff group representative; or
  • Work colleague.”

 

What does this mean for you?

It means that if you are asked to attend an investigation meeting, ISS would refuse to allow your Barnet UNISON rep to attend this meeting with you.

In our view, this is an attack on your right to trade union representation at all stages of the disciplinary procedure.

This ISS decision is our ‘line in the sand’ which is why we have registered a ‘failure to agree.’

This decision by ISS is one of the reasons why Barnet UNISON strongly opposes outsourcing, because we can see that workers in the private sector have inferior Terms and Conditions to those of the Council.

ADVICE

If you are asked to attend a disciplinary investigation, please contact the Barnet UNISON office immediately on 0208 359 2088 or email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

In the meantime we will keep you informed of any changes.

John Burgess,

Branch Secretary, Barnet UNISON.

 

 

 

 

Birmingham City Council CIO Peter Bishop on bringing IT back in-house. Reposted by Barnet UNISON

Birmingham City Council CIO Peter Bishop on bringing IT back in-house. Reposted by Barnet UNISON

The council is winding up a controversial contract with Capita.

https://www.cio.co.uk/cio-interviews/birmingham-city-council-cio-peter-bishop-brings-it-back-in-house-3674416/

Birmingham City Council CIO Peter Bishop was handed a big task when he joined the local authority body in June 2017.

Europe’s largest council was winding up a controversial contract with much-maligned outsourcing giant Capita, and Bishop was put in charge of bringing IT services back in-house.

“My focus has been dominated by the negotiations that are involved with that,” explains Bishop, who serves as the council’s Assistant Director for Information Technology and Digital Services as well as its CIO.

“It’s a £45 million per annum contract. You can’t walk away from that without carefully considering all your options, and we’re not walking away, we’re just setting a very clear stall that we are going to migrate and become the systems and services integrator that Capita are at the moment.

“It means that I’ve got to redesign everything that we do, because [the contract’s] the best part of 12-years-old and your internal capacity and capability needs to be completely rethought to cope with that alone, let alone deliver any of the other stuff.”

Capita is currently responsible for all the procurement, management and support for IT services.

Now the council will take control of all of that, with the aim of simplifying operations and saving money from a deal that’s been derided for its cost.

The changes will be implemented over the course of three years. Year one will focus on preparing and designing the new model, year two on delivering it, and year three on stabilising as the Capita contract finally comes to an end.

Bringing the work done by Capita back under the council’s control will make a major contribution to the £43 million in IT cost base savings that Bishop’s been asked to m

“We’re applying the principles of simplify, standardise and share across everything we do in the IT services,” says Bishop.

“Every set of services that we buy are going to be looked at in terms of can we test the market and different service delivery options, and can we take advantage of technology that comes with those new service models.”

IT strategy

The Capita transition programme is part of a strategy signed off in 2016 that aims to simplify the council’s IT setup and put technology and information at the centre of its operating model

Other components include using data to support council staff and drive better services for citizens, improving information risk management and increasing workforce agility, productivity and collaboration.

The strategy also aims to improve how staff use employee and financial information and implement new service models that harness the power of digital in health and social care.

“There’s a plethora of stuff that’s in there. Things like how we can tackle homelessness through better joining up of data across the council, which is a great use case for our information management strategy.”

Innovation at the council

The council will be rolling out a number of new digital services to its citizens, including a new digital platform for local residents and businesses called the Brum Account.

The Jadu Continuum Platform provides users with 24/7 access to council services such as waste management. They can track requests in real time on the new services as they’re gradually added to the platform.

“It potentially covers anything and everything the council does,” says Bishop. “We’re focusing on the high volume transactions around waste, revenues, housing, repairs, and they’re starting with the high volume stuff because that drives most of the customer contact.

“It really gets people to think about how they deliver customer journeys. It also helps me with one of my other significant programmes of change, which is re-engineering the IT service model.

“For a council of our size, that’s very extensive. We need to reduce the proliferation of assets and data and technology that supports the business, which we can’t afford. The Brum Account is a great example of how you can uncover areas of technology which aren’t really adding any value, like multiple systems that are doing the same thing.”

Vendor strategy

Bishop takes a best-of-breed of approach to his vendor strategy, so the council can find the right product, reduce any duplications, and move from the private cloud into a hybrid public-private cloud.

He’s also creating an enterprise architecture approach to the solutions the council needs so it can take a strategic advantage of its investments.

“The important bit for me is that innovation needs to drive more value at the back end. We’re doing a European Union funded project around keeping people independent for longer by providing them with wearable devices tracking how much exercise they’re doing and we’re just using a local provider for that.

“If we could integrate that into our adult social care model to effectively prescribe a wearable Fitbit-type device to keep you energised for longer, then that’s the kind of thing we will work on.”

Birmingham’s digital future

Bishop joined the Birmingham City Council in June 2017, after two years as director of commercial and change at Worcestershire County Council.

He’s now swapped a two-tier conservative shire that’s politically stable with a limited political remit for a unitary body that is responsible for all the local government needs of more than one million people.

The city has its challenges, but it’s developing into a major tech hub, with a large and affordable talent pool, local tech networks including Silicon Canal and Innovation Birmingham, good transport links, and 18 universities within an hour’s drive of the city.

It will also be the host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which Bishop will use to build digital services and infrastructure that will have a long-term legacy.

“We want more than just a great games,” he says. “We want something that adds value back to the communities that are here. That’s why we’re thinking about how Openreach can put fibre to the premise, how we can deliver 5G in those key corridor areas that support games but don’t then become a permanent arrangement, and extending public Wi-Fi.”

His more immediate objectives include building a team that can deliver his digital strategy, implement some of the big procurement work to support the transition from Capita.

Bishop believes that he’s come to the UK’s second biggest city at just the right time, and that technology will help it have a bright future.

“Birmingham’s got great potential,” he says. “I think it might have lost its way for a bit, but it’s really getting it back together, and part of my role is to really drive that to help all my colleagues across the council and the citizens of Birmingham to get all the value they expect out of the money they give us.”

 

Jeremy Corbyn on #BarnetCouncil, #Capita and losing control.

Jeremy Corbyn on #BarnetCouncil, #Capita and losing control.

It is never dull here in Barnet. In the House of Commons yesterday (21 March 2018), Jeremy Corbyn during Prime Minister Question Time, took the opportunity to comment on Barnet Council and Capita and the recent loss of control of the Council as the result of the deselection of 4 Tory Councillors.

Its amazing how he finds the time to keep up to date with what is going on in Barnet Council.

 

Happy International Women’s Day! – Move On Up!

101 years ago today women in Russia began taking strike action and this sparked the revolution of 1917. In those times this day was called “International Working Women’s Day”.

UNISON is the one union in Britain dominated by a female membership. We should take inspiration from our predecessors.

Have you completed your ballot on pay? Today is the last day of the ballot so please have your say and make your voice count.

We recommend a rejection of the offer on the basis that the public mood is with us and we believe we can do better than accepting below inflation pay ‘offers’.

What has the “rigged economy, John McDonnell, Barnet UNISON motion” got in common

If it is good enough for the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell then its good enough for Barnet UNISON members, we have taken up the challenge and we are mobilising to campaign to bring back service in-house. We were fortunate to have John McDonnell speak at our AGM on 8 February 2018 you can view what he had to say here https://youtu.be/orDpOHNiowI

We passed following motion “Time to Take our Services Back!” below at our AGM.

We have now had confirmation that the motions have been approved for both UNISON Local Government Conference and UNISON National Delegate Conference in June 2018.

We hope our motion presents our union with an ideal opportunity to escalate and lead an organised grassroots campaign to bring outsourced services back in-house across our membership service groups. Let’s deliver “Deeds not words” and help banish all outsourcing from the workplace.

Motion: Time to Take our Services Back!

This union notes:

  1. Carillion went bust and the immediate effect was for building works on key public sector projects to stop. Potentially thousands of people lost their jobs as Carillion relied on numerous small businesses to deliver on its projects.
  2. Within a month of Carillion going bust Capita’s share prices nose-dived and speculation began as to whether it too would survive.
  3. Capita is one of a handful of big companies which bid to run public services on the promise of saving money. These companies employ tens of thousands of workers. Capita employs over 50,000.
  4. Capita advises Northampton on its finances. 1st February Northampton’s County Council Chief Finance Officer issued a section 114 notice banning any Council expenditure as it was overspent.
  5. Capita has several hundred contracts up for renewal this year.
  6. The initial response from the Local Government Association (LGA) has been to advise Councils not to do anything which might jeopardise the viability of companies like Capita.
  7. Forensics Company collapsed putting in jeopardy the validity of hundreds of court cases but was given further public funds to keep going.

This union believes:

  1. UNISON’s policies of opposing privatisation and outsourcing have been vindicated in the wake of these failures.
  2. The predicament of these companies presents risks to thousands of workers but also opportunities to thousands of workers as the arguments for services being run in-house strengthen.
  3. UNISON has an opportunity to seize the time by organising and campaigning to bring public services in-house and to stop the further outsourcing of other services.
  4. Vigorous and mass public campaigning has a real possibility of weakening the resolve to outsource other services and of discouraging the renewal of other contracts.
  5. The response of the LGA and the response to the collapse of the Forensics Company are outrageous as the onus of saving firms which have taken millions of public sector money to provide public services lies not with public bodies.

This union resolves:

  1. To write to all branches with outsourced members encouraging them to issue press releases calling on their employers to publicise their contingency plans in the event of private contractor failure. Model press releases to be circulated with this notice to assist branches.
  2. To link together the branches which have been able to issue press releases in order that these branches can directly share and develop with one another their experiences of campaigning within the workforce and the local community to bring services back in-house.
  3. To oppose calls to bail out private companies in place of demanding services are brought back in-house.

Solidarity feel free to share widely

 

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