Category: Local

Branch campaigns

“We told you so!” UNISON response to Care Quality Commission (CQC) poor ratings

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Barnet UNISON Press Release:  10 March 2015  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: “We told you so!” UNISON response to Care Quality Commission (CQC) poor ratings for Care settings in Barnet

“The service was not safe as we found that people using the service were exposed to significant risk to their safety.” (CQC Report 3 March 2015)

UNISON is dismayed at the inadequate ratings for Supported Living provided by Your Choice Barnet (YCB).

BUT, we had predicted that this would happen.

In a report on 31 May 2013 Barnet UNISON raised safeguarding risks as a result of a restructure which resulted in over one third of the existing staff leaving supported Living as Support Workers and being replaced with even lower paid Assistant Support Workers. Assistant Support worker roles are paid at approximately 33 % less that of a Support Worker role. We added that the current proposal undermined the need for qualified, professional, skilled staff to work in areas of care, the consequences of which would be dangerous for service users and also for staff.

How right we were and the CQC report provides evidence here:

· “One relative commented, “None of the cuts have led to improved care, all work has to be done in a hurry.” (CQC Report 3 March 2015)

· “Relatives told us of the effect that a changing work force had on people. One relative said, “My relative lost their key worker, it was very upsetting for them.” Another said, “When a worker leaves my relative feels it like the loss of a family member.” (CQC Report 3 March 2015)

· “However, we met and saw staff that were knowledgeable, enthusiastic and engaged with people, we noted these were all permanent staff.” (CQC Report 3 March 2015)

The restructures of staff in 2013 and 2014 were as a direct result of serious financial failings of the outsourced one Barnet project called YCB. Even a 1million bailout was not sufficient and led to YCB imposing a 9.5% pay cut on staff from 1 April 2014.

The CQC report fully supports concerns raised by our members about the risks to service users from the attacks on terms & conditions. This was always likely to be the case.

Barnet Council were aware of the report yet at no point were the findings publicly shared at any of the Scrutiny Committees.

“We contacted the commissioners of the service to obtain their views about the care provided in the service.” (CQC Report 3 March 2015)

“The ratings for this location were awarded in October 2014.” (CQC Report 3 March 2015)

CQC found the following breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.”

1. “This was a breach of Regulation 9 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulation 2010.”

2. “This was a breach of Regulation 10 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.”

3. “This was a breach of Regulation 13 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.”

4. “This was a breach of Regulation 14 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.”

5. “This was a breach of Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulation 2010.”

6. “This was a breach of Regulation 22 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulation 2010.”

7. “This was a breach of Regulation 23 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010.”

The service has failed to deliver the growth to sustain a high quality service and has clearly failed to provide a quality service for vulnerable adults in Barnet.

It is time to call an end to the outsourcing ideology and put the needs of service users and parents and carers first.

UNISON Branch Secretary John Burgess said:

“The driving motivation for our members in this dispute is their fears about what is happening to the quality of services. Low pay in the care sector does not deliver high quality services. This report gives a stark warning of the consequences of ongoing attacks on the pay of care workers. Therefore in light of the content of the CQC report we are calling on Adults & Safeguarding Committee to instruct Council officers to bring this service back in house in order to bring stability to the service and restore confidence of the services users, parents/carers that their children will receive a service to be proud of.”

Notes to Editors.

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

Background:

In February 2012 Barnet Council transferred Learning Disability and Physical and Sensory Impairment services for adults to a Local Authority Trading Company (LATC) called Your Choice Barnet (YCB). About 160 staff (145.6 Full Time Equivalents) in Adults services transferred to the LATC.

Following a restructure in 2013 and cuts to pay on shift allowances there are now only about 105 FTE working for YCB a 30% cut in staffing levels.

Links

1. CQC Report Supported Living inspection report here http://www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-112848964

2. CQC report with highlights by Barnet UNISON here http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Barnet%20Supported%20Living%20inspection%20report%202014%20UNISON.pdf

3. Winterbourne quote: “The complaints heard at both the first inquiry and this one testified not only to inadequate staffing levels, but poor leadership, recruitment and training. This led in turn to a declining professionalism and a tolerance of poor standards.” (Page 45, Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry February 2013 Executive summary).

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/213215/final-report.pdf

4. UNISON response to Consultation Paper 31 May 2013

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/Full%20UNISON%20response%20to%20YOUR%20CHOICE%20May%202013.pdf

5. UNISON response to Task and Finish Report 25 November 2013

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/UNISON%20response%20to%20Task%20and%20Finish%20Report.pdf

6. “I Found Myself Just Crying” – Your Choice Barnet

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/1263

7. Why UNISON Your Choice Barnet Care Workers are taking strike action.

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/2015.01.15.%20YCB%20FLYER%20PUBLIC.pdf

8. UNISON Your Choice Barnet Care Workers “9 Point Flyer

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/2015.01.15.%20STRIKE%20YCB%20FLYER%20nine%20point.pdf

9. Support UNISON Your Choice Barnet Care Workers strike action video

http://youtu.be/9jVXn6_BcVY

10. The Capita £110million payment

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s21029/Appendix%20I%20-%20Capita%20Payments.pdf

11. Your Choice – in built pension burden creates artificial loss to justify pay cut http://lbbspending.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/nochoice.html

12. Sign Petition to Stop the ongoing destruction of services for adults with disabilities in Barnet

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-the-ongoing-destruction-of-services-for-adults-with-disabilities-in-barnet

“Inspectors rated supported living service as ‘inadequate’

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“Inspectors rated supported living service as ‘inadequate’ (Barnet Press March 2015)

The above headline refers to a report publicshed by Care Quality Commission (CQC) on a service provided by Your Choice Barnet. UNISON were not made aware that there had been an inspection in August or that the report has been issued in October 2014. It was publicised 3 March.  This meant we were shocked to find out it was front page of the Barnet press this week.

Barnet UNISON found the report online here http://www.cqc.org.uk/provider/1-352049593

We have downloaded the report and highlighted in yellow some of the serious concerns raised by CQC, which you can read here

Important – National Pay overpayment

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Dear Colleagues

It is very important that all of our Barnet Council members read the following information as there has been an overpayment made by the Council and they are seeking to reclaim it by making a deduction from your salary for a period of four months starting in March 2015. Or you can download the report here

Below is a statement from Barnet Council.

National Pay Award – Pay Adjustments

Following the national pay agreement at the end of 2014, we have been asked to make adjustments to your pay to ensure you receive the correct salary.

In June 2014, Capita were asked by the Council to apply an increase of 1% to the spine points with effect from 1st April 2014. This was based on the National Employers’ position that this was the final offer on the table in negotiations between employers and Trade Unions.  This increase was applied by the Council in good faith to help staff after a number of years of pay freezes and to apply what we expected to be the final position.

During the year, at a national level, the trade unions and employers were in protracted negotiations and eventually agreed to a 2.2% pay increase, applied from 1st January 2015, and not back-dated to April 2014 as expected.

This means that there is a difference in what has been paid to local government (green book) employees, and what should have been paid (for 9 months April 2014-December 2014). This will affect basic salaries and overtime payments.

We are therefore making adjustments to pay where an overpayment has been made. (Please note, had the 2.2% applied from April 2014 we would have been backdating the increase instead).  This is to ensure the correct pay, tax and pension contributions are made.

To do this, we are intending to make the deductions over the next 4 months, starting in March 2015, to avoid any significant impact by taking a single payment.  Any adjustments to tax, national insurance contributions and pension will be made automatically.

If the proposed repayment schedules will cause particularly hardship to individuals, the council will consider alternative proposals. Employees should agree these directly with their line manager who should notify the payroll team of the agreed arrangements.

The adjustment will appear as BAS PAY ARR T/S on the payslip.

If you have any queries please contact BarnetHRPayroll@capita-services.co.uk

Please note, the cut-off deadline for payroll this month is the 10th March.

1. Barnet UNISON response to above statement

a) National Pay negotiations

This is a quick recap on the history of the national pay negotiations. As all members will know UNISON campaigned against the 1% offer which is why we took strike action on 10 July last year.

Throughout the summer UNISON was campaigning to escalate the strike in October 2014. However a revised offer was put to our national negotiators and so we were asked by our negotiators to consult our members. Our branch officers looked at the offer and realised it was not a better offer and therefore advised our members to reject the offer. Our members overwhelmingly rejected the final offer. We passed this information on to our national negotiators, however, other UNISON members across the UK voted to accept the final offer.

You can view details of the final offer here

b) UNISON Pay Conference 24 March 2015

I can report there has been serious concerns raised by a larger number of UNISON branches across the UK about the final offer which fails to deal with the ‘cost of living crisis’ being experienced by our members. As a result of this concern a Special UNISON Local Government Conference has been convened to talk solely about Pay on 24 March 2015. Our branch will provide feedback on the outcome of this conference.

Once we had the news that the revised offer had been agreed, Barnet UNISON immediately wrote to the Council seeking confirmation as to whether the Council would be looking to claim the money back. It wasn’t until January that we were first made aware the Council was seeking to reclaim the money back.

Over the last four weeks there have been a number of meetings about what is being reclaimed and when. Unfortunately school staff have been contacted by Capita HR Payroll before negotiations had been concluded. It is important that all of our members in schools are aware that they can re-negotiate the repayments.

c) How did this happen?

This is a frequently asked question. In the past Barnet Council has never paid the national pay offer whilst negotiations are still on-going. This meant that quite often negotiations were never agreed until September and subsequently all staff would receive a backdated amount in their October pay roll and their spinal point adjusted. As a result of paying early and the revised offer not starting until January 2015, the Council suddenly realised they had made an overpayment of nine months’ pay. As far as we know none of the contractors who are paying the revised national pay award made the payment earlier and so do not have any issues about reclaiming overpayments.  

d) Support for members.

We understand that for members these deductions will come as a surprise and may cause hardship.

It is therefore important that all members understand they have the right to re-negotiate the repayments. In the Council statement it states you should speak to your line manager in schools it may be your Head teacher.

If you need help with the negotiations please contact the UNISON office on 020 8 359 2088 or email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

National Pay Award update for TUPED ex Barnet Council staff

I have been contacted by ex-Council staff working for contractors who should have by now passed on the revised final offer. For any staff still unclear as to what they should have been paid, we have the national pay award, which we can provide, which explains:

1. The non- consolidated payment which should have been paid in December 2014

2. The new pay scales including the 2.2% from 1 January 2015.

I understand that some colleagues may have heard there have been problems with regards to the payment of the offer to the Council workforce. As far as I am aware this is specific only to Barnet Council staff. You can read about what has happened here.

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