Category: Local

For Immediate Release: Monday 7 October 2013

Today Capita Plc announced it plans relocate Barnet Council services across the UK which will mean hundreds of jobs lost to the community of Barnet. The Capita proposal will seek to relocate services to Blackburn, Carlisle, Belfast and Sheffield to name but a few. Details of all the Capita relocations are contained within the recently released Capita contract and can be viewed here

Last November 2012 Capita Plc won this contract to deliver the following services Customer services; Finance; Human Resources; Procurement; Estates; Information Services; Revenue and Benefits; and Corporate Programmes. The transfer was supposed to take place on 1 April 2013, but was delayed due to the Judicial Review challenge made by Maria Nash, a Barnet resident.

Capita Plc took over control of the contract on 1 September 2013.

Over the next 90 days Capita Plc will be carrying out consultation with staff and trade unions. Details of their transformation plan can be found on the Council website here.

John Burgess, Barnet UNISON Branch Secretary, said: “We have all been dreading this day coming. Capita must have made a fortune already in terms of redundancy payment savings as a third of the work force have managed to escape to other councils in order to avoid being made redundant as their jobs are moved up north. I speak to staff working in these services on a daily basis I have known many of them for over ten years so it is going to be painful sitting in with them when the news is broken today. In the current economic climate I know our members are petrified of being made redundant. I wonder how long it will be before these hardworking staff are labelled as “scroungers”, soon to be unemployed simply because their jobs were exported out of London. Our branch is committed to trying to convince Capita to reconsider their proposals. Today we wrote to Capita asking them to work with staff and the trade unions to come up with a different solution which not only protects jobs in the community but looks to develop employment opportunities for residents in Barnet. ”

***** Ends *****

Notes to Editors. Contact details: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on 07738389569 or 0208 359 2088 or email: john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk

Links

1. Capita relocations of services can be found here http://www.barnet.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/3165/final_transformation_method_statement_mar2013_capita_redacted1pdf (see page 28 of 135 Transformation Method Statement 4th March 2013)

2. Capita CSG contract can be found here http://www.barnet.gov.uk/downloads/940431/customer_and_support_group_csg_formerly_nscso_contract

3. Barnet UNISON letter to Mark Wyllie Capita Partnership Director link here

 

On Thursday 19 September Barnet Council issued this Press Release here

Barnet UNISON welcomes the publication of the contract. It is a substantial set of reports which are now available for public scrutiny.

This contract does have significant implications for local jobs as this contract proposes to move jobs across the UK.

In order to aid to aid scrutiny we have listed the documents and hyperlinked each report back to the Council website.

We welcome contributions from our members on any of the documents contained within this document.

If you have any comments, observations please email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk.

List of Documents Relating NSCSO Contract

1        NSCSO Contract

1.1 Contract Overview

1.2 Contract Document

1.3 Contract Schedules

2        Output Specifications

2.1 Corporate Programmes

2.2 Customer Services

2.3 Estates

2.4 Finance

2.5 Human Resources

2.6 Information Systems

2.7 Procurement

2.8 Revenues and Benefit

3 Service Delivery Plans

3.1 Corporate Programmes Method Statement

3.2 Customer Services Method Statement

3.3 Estates Method Statement

3.4 Finance Method Statement

3.5 Human Resources Method Statement

3.6 Information Systems Method Statement

3.7 Procurement Method Statement

3.8 Revenues and Benefit Method Statement

3.9 Enterprise Wide Insight Method Statement

3.10 Schools Method Statement

3.11 Traded Services to Schools

3.12 Transformation Method Statement

3.13 Detailed Transformation Plan

3.14 Transition Method Statement

3.15 Transition Plan

4 Price and Performance Mechanism

4.1 Payment Mechanism

4.2 Payment Mechanism Appendices

5 Service Provider Commitments

5.1 Service Provider Schedule of Commitments

 

Hi All,

A couple of dates for your diary…

RECRUITMENT DAYS

Wednesday October the 16th 12.30 to 1.30pm and Wednesday November the 20th 12.30 to 1.30pm

There will be a Recruitment stall outside Bhse so stop by and say ‘Hi’.

PLEASE

Encourage your colleagues who are non-members to join!!!

UNISON MEETING

Room 63 First Floor Bhse,  Wednesday the 20th of November 12 till 1pm

All Welcome!!!!

If you would like to get involved with these events or feel that you would like to take a more active role in YOUR UNION – Please let me know

Best Wishes,

Patrick

Patrick Hunter

UNISON Convenor for Barnet Homes

Barnet House, 1255 High Road, London N20 0EJ
Tel: 020 8359 4474 / 07943520836
patrick.hunter@barnetunison.org.uk

To view our Flyer on Stress and how we can help click here

London Living Wage for Barnet Council staff.

On Tuesday 10 September 2013 the Leader of Barnet Council was asked a question (see Number 27) about London Living Wage by Alison Moore Leader of the Labour Party.

“The last Council meeting agreed unanimously to bring forward proposals to pay all directly employed council staff at least London’s Living Wage if the One Barnet programme went ahead. Now that both One Barnet contracts have been signed, will the Leader bring forward a report to the next General Functions Committee or Cabinet meeting implementing London’s Living Wage for all directly employed staff that currently fall below £8.55 per hour?

Answer by Councillor Richard Cornelius

That will be too soon, but we will bring forward early proposals.”

UNISON has formally raised this as an important issue as we understand it would lead to an increase in pay for almost 900 staff and fully supports the Councils commitment to make sure this is implemented. UNISON will also be seeking a commitment that all contractors delivering services on behalf of the council are paying the London Living Wage.

 

“I found myself just crying, you don’t realise how down you’ve been feeling, then it hits you. I just want to leave”

These are the words of a worker who has been outsourced and has an “at risk” letter and has found out that her new employer has recruited externally to posts which were a match for her post. What kind of an employer would keep people dangling with “at risk” letters and recruit to posts leaving them still at risk? A private sector employer? No, Your Choice Barnet!

The original proposals saw a reduction of 13 equivalent Support Worker posts. We have calculated 14 have left the service voluntarily and yet we still have a number of Support Workers with “at risk” letters hanging over them. Meanwhile vacancies are being filled with agency staff!

UNISON is trying to get some stability in the workforce as we believe this benefits our members and the service users who are dependent on establishing trusting relationships with the people who are supporting them. We are advocating for as many of the Zero Hour Contracts Your Choice Barnet operates as possible to be turned into permanent contracts.

 

Contrary to what senior have officers have produced in a report to councillors on the General Functions Committee (GFC) here, there is a serious problem with the TUPE consultation. This has been the most complex TUPE so far and as such UNISON has responded to this report in a letter to all councillors on GFC. To view the report the many questions on joint employment contracts here.

To view UNISON DRS update click here

Yesterday a group of residents organised a funeral march, they made several stops across the borough and gave the following eulogy.

“We are gathered here today to bid farewell to Barnet Public Services.

It is sad, of course, to lose a single service, but to lose the majority of this family is truly tragic. Perhaps you did not know all of them, but all of us were acquainted with some of them. They were there to serve us and they provided jobs for some of us. The purpose of these services – like the motivation of those who provided them – was purely to do the job well. They were not perfect, any more than any of us are, but these services were answerable to US, the public. We could reach them directly and press our case when necessary. There were personal connections and there was continuity. They were part of our community.

They were ours, we valued them and we fought hard to save them. They would have lived but for the key to their survival – the date of the decision of their execution – being hidden from view and the executioners’ misleading statements about it when asked.

Now those services as we knew them are gone.

The public – is private,

the motivation and purpose are profit – not service,

and our community rightly grieves.

As we mourn our loss, we extend our sympathies to those who have the added hardship of being forced to move or who have lost their job. As we watch our public services being buried far from their home, we worry how call-centre workers with no connection to, knowledge of, or interest in us and our community will respond to our needs.

We worry especially about what will happen to us and to our loved ones as the first priority of even more vital services – becomes profit, for we have seen how this has harmed some and endangers more people in the privatised care regimes under Fremantle and Your Choice Barnet. Fighting for the right to be consulted about the care of those we hold dear, we are told by such organisations that they don’t have to listen to us, because they are private companies. So how will we ensure that our environment, our buildings, the goods sold in our shops, our highways, our estates and our personal data are safe in the hands of Capita, an enormous organization with a far-from-perfect record of delivering on its promises in the public service sector?

By their actions, the executioners – and you know who they are ­– have dealt a body blow to local democracy. And although we have lost the initial battle, there is much to fight for.

As we bid farewell to public services, let us rededicate ourselves to that fight and to restoring that democracy: To holding the council and Capita to account for every drop in standards, every failure to deliver services, and every penny not accounted for.

Do NOT rest in peace, Capita and Barnet Council:

 

WE ARE WATCHING YOU!”

Yesterday Capita Group issued the updated Final Measures letter detailed the latest proposed changes for Council services.

Full consultation will commence sometime after transfer of Council Services on Sunday 1 September.

You can view the Measures letter here