Update on Apthorp consultation: Save Apthorp

 

Redundancy Consultations

If you do not consult employees in a redundancy situation, any redundancies you make will almost certainly be unfair and you could be taken to an employment tribunal. Source Making staff redundant: Redundancy consultations – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Up to now the Barnet Group have not provided answers to questions posed – tomorrow we will be 14 days into a ‘Consultation’ period of 45 days where 93 Care workers have been placed ‘At Risk’ of Redundancy at Apthorp Lodge – Covid heroes every one of them!

So far, the information requested by UNISON from the Barnet Group and NOT provided is:

  1. A Consultation Document
  2. A list of Vacancies in YCB and Barnet Homes
  3. A list of Agency staff usage in YCB
  4. Whether colleagues in The Barnet Group will be offered Voluntary Redundancy in the hope of freeing up posts for those wishing to redeploy.
  5. A ‘script’ for the 121’s
  6. Staff ‘At Risk’ have not been provide with the Fremantle managing change policy.
  7. Who is funding the redundancy process?
  8. An answer as to who decided to break with ‘custom and practice’ in the Barnet Group of informing recognised Trade Unions of impending restructures and giving accompanying Consultation documents before the start of consultation.
  9. ‘Hard copies’ of all documentation in relation to this consultation will need to be provided and distributed to staff – No answer
  10. Staff have requested that 121’s take place face to face for all parties concerned in the consultation – No answer

The 121’s with staff are scheduled to begin on Monday the 6th of September at 9.15am.

If you are in need of support, advice and representation please contact the branch at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk or ring 0208 359 2088

 

What is going on, just who owns Apthorp care home?

News has come to light which suggests that Barnet Council does not own Apthorp care home.

See Land Registry which shows that the owner is CATALYST HOUSING LIMITED (Industrial and Provident Society No. IP16561R) of Ealing Gateway, 26-30 Uxbridge Road, London W5 2AU.

Apthorp Lodge Land Registry Title

Let’s go back to Barnet Council delegated Powers report which made the decision to close the home which has created untold stress and anxiety for residents and their relatives along with the 93 Covid heroes who work there.

“In March 2021 and May 2021 routine fire safety assessments, followed by additional building conditions surveys identified that significant and intrusive works would be required to bring the building up to standard. Indicative costs were estimated to be in the region of £2.7m.”

The report fails to mention that the costs which are high should be paid by the owner of the property instead it is the reason to justify the decision to create havoc at Apthorp.

Furthermore, the communication over this decision is all over the place.

In the communication to staff and trade unions the time to get out states 31 October 2021 yet in this report it states:

“This report recommends that, to ensure residents’ needs are being met appropriately, the adult social care team should work with YCB to support residents to move to alternative care homes by end November 2021.”

There are so many questions that are unanswered about this grievous decision see our next post

In the meantime, we are still waiting to hear back from the Chair of Adults & Safeguarding Committee in answer to our request to address the meeting on behalf of our 93 Covid heroes. The silence is deafening.

Details of our lobby on Tuesday 14 September at 6 pm are here below

2021.08.31 Apthorp lobby leaflet

What happened to the 11 Barnet Council Care Homes and day centres in 1999?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barnet Council back in 1998 made a decision that it would outsource all of its Elderly Services residential and day care services.

They not only wanted to get rid of the workforce they handed over the property to the lucky contractor.

Imagine that 11 prime real estate locations and they only required to build four new settings (they only built three new homes, more on that in a later post).

Barnet UNISON commissioned a report to counter this proposal.

Here is what we recommended to Barnet Council back in 1999

 

Recommendations 

We recommend that:

  1. Barnet maintains ownership of its residential homes and continues to

    directly employ staff engaged in these homes. Any reorganisation and

    redirection of resources in favour of specialist or domiciliary care should be in

    the context of in-house provision and joint work with health organisations,

    rather than transfers to the independent sector.

 

  1. The residential and domiciliary services, including home care, day care and

    respite care, be subject to a comprehensive Best Value service review which

    includes a detailed examination of quality and cost.

  1. The council works with the trade unions and staff to develop the in-house

    service. As part of this a review of the operation and management of the

    service should be conducted with the full involvement of the trade unions, users and the wider community in accordance with the Best Value requirements .

  1. Alternative funding options and the impact of phased improvement work on

    the capital programme require further detailed investigation before any

    decisions are made.

 

You can read the FULL report here Barnet Res Care 1999 report

 

Needless to say, our report was ignored, and the staff and Council properties handed over to contractors.

Next post will be on what happened next?

 

Did we get high quality care homes fit for the future?

 

What happened to the work force?

 

End.

Barnet UNISON request the right to speak on behalf of 93 Covid Heroes

On Tuesday 24 August 2021 Barnet UNISON wrote to the Cllr Rajput Sachin Chair of the Adults & Safeguarding Committee

Extract below:

“ I am writing to you today on behalf of our members who provide care services at Apthorp care home.

 

 

On Friday 20 August 2021, 93 staff were informed that as a result of a Council decision to close Apthorp residential home on 31 October 2021 they are all at risk of redundancy.

 

 

This decision has understandably left our members devasted especially considering their hard work looking after vulnerable residents during the height of Covid when there were no vaccines available.

 

 

I must profess I am also concerned about the speed in which the home is to close. These are vulnerable residents and the consequences of moving can sometimes be fatal.

 

 

Our members want to know the real reason as to why the home is closing.

 

For your information these are the questions we submitted to Your Choice Barnet and we are seeking answers:

 

 

  1. Who made the decision to close Apthorp?

 

  1. When did the meeting on the future of Apthorp take place?

 

  1. What information about Apthorp was provided to the decision makers?

 

  1. Please provide copies of the information provided to the decision makers.

 

  1. Please provide a copy of the minutes of the meeting and the actions agreed.

 

I note that there is an Adults and Safeguarding Committee meeting on Tuesday 14 September 2021 at 7 pm.

 

 

Our members have asked that we seek permission from the Chair of this Committee in order we can make our case for this decision to be delayed.

 

I am formally requesting that UNISON is allowed to make representation to this committee.

 

 

Our members will be attending this meeting it would be helpful if they could see that this committee will do the right thing and provide these care workers with an opportunity to put their case against closure.

 

Stay safe.

 

Best wishes

 

John Burgess

 

Branch Secretary.

 

Barnet UNISON

As of Thursday 26 August 2021, we have not yet had a response to this request.

End.

Update: 93 Covid heroes face the sack

Monday 23 August 2021

Care staff working at Apthorp residential and day care service were told last Friday 20 August 2021 that Barnet Council had made the decision to close Apthorp.

There are approximately 93 care staff working at this location.

Apthorp provides services for vulnerable older people.

Apthorp was originally owned by Barnet Council until it was sold off with 10 other Council residential homes and day services to Catalyst Housing who contracted Fremantle Trust to take over the Council care workforce.

The current Apthorp buildings were part of a deal which meant Catalyst Housing were given all 11 real estate locations to develop for themselves and in return they would provide modern state of the art residential and day care services on four of the sites.

Only three were built.

What were the staff been told?

In a letter from their employer it states:

“the Council and Your Choice Barnet have taken the decision to vacate Apthorp Care Home by 31 October 2021. You will be aware that we have been carrying out some fire safety works in the building. Whilst all emergency works have been carried out, further surveys have taken place which highlight that significant levels of repairs are needed. The scope of works required in Apthorp Care Centre are extensive and would be extremely disruptive to residents of the home.”

At the meeting some staff responded to this devastating news by claiming that moving vulnerable residents from Apthorp to another home at this time will result in blood on someone’s hands because some of the residents won’t react well to the move.

There is documented evidence of the serious and sometimes fatal risks when moving vulnerable and elderly residents out of their homes. What is worrying about this plan is that Barnet Council are attempting to fast track the move of residents in less than two months which does not provide ample time to prepare and support vulnerable residents.

“Two decades to run down a service, wasted millions of public monies and now 93 Covid heroes are to be sacked.  

The world is upside down, seriously it is less than 12 months since our members were trying to care for vulnerable residents struggling to deal with Covid. There was no vaccine back then and the lack of PPE was an issue for members who were risking their own lives and those of their own family every day they went into work.

I won’t forget the fear in the voices of care workers as Covid was letting rip across Care homes. I can never begin to understand the terror our members were going through every day and all for the magnificent sum of £8.72 per hour! So here we are now August 2021 and our members have been told their workplace is closing, through no fault of their own.

Barnet UNISON will be supporting every single one of our members at this time we will also be seeking to find out who made this decision and why, this is not over. Keep watching this space…….”

(John Burgess Branch Secretary Barnet UNISON).

“The workers at the care home and day centre will have their lives thrown up in the air some few months after banners at the care home proclaimed them as heroes for how they dealt with the pandemic. There has been absolutely NO engagement with staff, residents, their families or the trade unions at any point to consider how Apthorp could be made viable. The cornerstone of activism for people with disabilities – nothing about us without us – has been utterly and completely ignored.

The elderly and the workforce are ignored and presumably they are just furniture to be moved around as The Great and The Good see fit. They are not worthy of any consideration. They have received no apology for this shocking turn of affairs.”

(Helen Davies Branch Chair Barnet UNISON.)

“We know the Care workers are ‘fit for purpose’ – they worked through the most unprecedented times in living history giving care to the most vulnerable in our community – in many cases end of life care to the clients they obviously love while putting themselves and their loved ones in danger to deliver care for their patients.

Their reward? The Barnet Group have announced their plan to make 93 Covid Heroes redundant. To sack the very workers that a few months ago were described as ‘Heroes’ because the company they work for obviously didn’t complete any meaningful due diligence when transferring staff and buildings from Fremantle, begs the question as to who should be facing redundancy.” (Patrick Hunter Barnet UNISON Convenor Barnet Homes.)

“The planned closure of the Apthorpe care home is the latest Adult Care policy decision that will have a major impact on service users, job losses for care workers and another policy decision that will ultimately cost council taxpayers dearly.

It marks 22 years of knee-jerk decison-making by Barnet Council which havve been devoid of economic and social impact analysis and cost benefit analysis since Barnet’s care homes were privatised to a Catalyst/Fremantle ‘partnership’.

Some partnership when eleven homes left the Council and only three return twenty years later. So what has happened to the land of the other eight homes?”

(Dexter Whitfield, Director, European Services Strategy Unit)

End.

Note to Editors: Contact details: Helen Davies Barnet UNISON on or 020 8359 2088 or email: Helen.Davies@barnetunison.org.uk

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good

The Good News is that with the support of our Bin workers, Barnet Council has agreed to restore National Green Book Weekend and Bank Holiday rates of pay which will mean large numbers of our lowest paid members will be earning more money.

The Bad

In February 2021 Barnet UNISON submitted a proposal for a COVID thank you payment for all frontline workers, care workers, school staff, depot workers.

The Bad news is that this proposal was rejected.

Details of our proposal is here.

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021.02.11.-COVID-thank-you-payment.pdf

and the Ugly.

On Friday 11 June 2021 Barnet UNISON enters into negotiations with The Barnet Group and Barnet Council about the serious inequalities in the workplace that are bad for the health and well being of our members and their families.

End.

You can’t be disciplined for taking strike action. Thanks UNISON

“Employers can no longer mistreat staff who take part in industrial action, says UNISON”

“UK law had previously prevented employers from sacking staff involved in strike action or other workplace disputes, but not from disciplining or making life difficult for them, says UNISON.

But now, disciplinary action against workers who go on strike will be unlawful. This follows today’s judgment at the employment appeal tribunal (EAT) over a case taken by care worker Fiona Mercer against the Alternative Futures Group (AFG).

She had been involved in organising, and subsequently took part in, a long-running dispute over AFG’s plans to cut payment for sleep-in shifts undertaken by its care staff.”

Read more here.

https://www.unison.org.uk/news/press-release/2021/06/employers-can-no-longer-mistreat-staff-who-take-part-in-industrial-action-says-unison/

 

 

We Are Barnet rally Weds 19 May 2021

 

Support #WeAreBarnet frontline workers by registering to join our second public rally on Weds 19 May 2021 6.30 to 7.30 pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/we-are-barnet-campaign-public-rally-19th-may-tickets-152488777037

#WeAreBarnet #EqualityAndJustice

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