Category: Local

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In early September this year UNISON requested information on how many workers in both Adults’ and Children’s Services have left social services and how many have joined since December 2014. We know that during the year from April 2014 to March 2015 53 qualified locum agency social workers for Adult Social Care and a further 50 for Children’s Social Care, were employed by London Borough of Barnet. However, we think this number may now be higher.

We believe the total number of social worker posts is some 115 for Adults Services and 200 for Children’s Services. This number also says nothing about the problems of recruiting and retaining occupational therapists, who are critical in terms of identifying aids, adaptations and techniques for people with physical disabilities to enable them to live as independently as possible.

We are seeing large numbers of colleagues leaving for a variety of reasons. In fact almost no one with a senior leadership position in children’s social work three years ago is still here today.

Once upon a time – and not so long ago – the one thing Barnet Social Services had going for it both in Children’s and Adults’ Services was a fairly stable workforce. This meant that, despite all of the changes, experienced staff stayed and were able to ensure continuity with vulnerable people and their families as well as services linked to those people and families.

For a London setting this was refreshing and rare. The worry is that we now have the same difficulties as other London authorities. This is borne out by the fact that the latest figures shared with UNISON show that we have 20% vacancy rates across the two services – now comparable to other London authorities.

This is bad enough, but demand for those services is rising at the same time as the colleagues doing that work are leaving. UNISON has raised the social work crisis to the attention of the senior council officers.

We are clear that this crisis is one of the unintended consequences of pursuing mass outsourcing ideology, our members are telling us why they are planning to leave and it is all about growing employment insecurity. It is one thing to promote Commissioning Council as a solution to the financial crisis; it is irresponsible to pursue a policy that is pushing the future of social services in Barnet over a cliff.

UNISON is very concerned staff and the community are being exposed to risks which do not need to be there. These services mean people live, die or thrive. Our members work hard to make sure people thrive. Many now live with a constant fear that what they are doing is not enough and there will be a serious incident. It is the nightmare of any worker in Social Services.

UNISON is extremely concerned about the effect on morale and safety for our members and the community. One thing is clear: we will not stand by and allow our members to be scapegoated for systemic failings. Another is that we will continue to fight outsourcing and all the risks it brings to our members and community!

That is exactly what our UNISON members had to say on the picket line on Wednesday 7 October. Our members are rightly concerned about the future of the service as they have been identified as another service to be outsourced. Members revealed they have been concerned about the increasing reliance on agency drivers and loaders and the impact it is having on the quality of the service to residents.

We still have some members who remembered the last time this service was privatised by the Conservative council; it was in chaos. The refuse service has been repeatedly quoted as highly recommended by Barnet residents. Now all that hard work is at risk as consultants begin to take a look at it. Our members are already the lowest paid workers in the council and they are all too well aware that outsourcing will mean lower pay and longer hours.

A large number of our members are also local residents too. They really care about the quality of the service they provide and that is why they are prepared to take more strike action if it is required

To view Barnet Voice 2 click here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: “Its official Barnet Council UNISON members to take 24 hour strike action on 2 November”

Barnet UNISON members who still work for Barnet Council (excluding community schools) will begin a 24 hour strike action on Monday 2 November

The dispute involves social workers, coach escorts, drivers, occupational therapists, schools catering staff, education welfare officers, library workers, children centre workers, street cleaning & refuse workers, all of whom have made it clear they want to remain employees of Barnet Council and don’t want to be outsourced.

In November 2015 a number of Barnet Council Committees will be making decisions about the future employment of staff working in

· Education and Skills and School Meals

· Adult Social care

· Children’s Centres

This is all part of the wider strategy to reduce the workforce to a small core of commissioners.

Our Picket Lines will be:

· Barnet House from 7 am.

· Mill Hill Depot—Starts 6 am onwards.

· Edgware Library —Start 9 am onwards.

UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said: “Our members want to work for the Council, they want to be directly accountable to the residents of Barnet. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will have to place the shareholders’ legal demands before local residents’ needs. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which uses zero hours contracts. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which will not pay the London Living Wage as a basic minimum. Our members don’t want to work for an employer which won’t allow their colleagues to belong to their Pension Scheme, and our members don’t want to work for an employer which will take jobs out of the borough. That’s why 87% of our members working for the Council voted ‘Yes’ to taking strike action. So far the Council has failed to come close to agreeing to any one of these demands. One of our members has written and produced a music campaign video called “UNISON Army” which pretty much sums up the mood of our members take a look https://youtu.be/9AcYT2YTFLE ”

End.

Notes to Editors.

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

Shadow Chancellor joins #BarnetStrikers on their picket line.

 

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To view letter from Mark Serwotka General Secretary PCS please click here

The Barnet Group, where our branch members in Barnet Homes and Your Choice Barnet are, is hoping for the go-ahead from Councillors 14^th October to launch a new company with the specific intention of getting out of the Local Government Pension Scheme. We are concerned if this goes through it will set a precedent for the rest of the Council to follow. We are hoping that the Councillors also refer this decision to Full Council for a proper debate on whether a race to the bottom with workers’ terms and conditions is really the best way to deal with recruitment and retention issues??

Extract from Barnet UNISON report:

The central attraction in setting up TBG TCTC is in order to avoid the Local Government Pension Scheme. As stated in 2.3.2:

“Being restrained by offering the same benefits as the Council is considerably more expensive for the business, especially the cost of the LGPS.”

And 2.3.7:

“A further benefit in establishing a separate Trading Company is that it will limit the risk of the pension deficit. This means there will be no risk of it increasing further and therefore the liability to the Council will not increase over time.”

To view our report click here