Barnet Homes employ 18 people within the Sheltered Housing service both in the schemes and in Barnet House. If the judicial review is not successful then these members of staff will either be TUPE’d to whoever gets the bid for this provision or they will be made redundant.

Barnet Homes is currently cutting its workforce and year on year staff will be being made redundant. Because of this there are no positions available for redeployment. These members of staff represent a large number of our workforce.

Other providers of Sheltered Housing schemes are already looking at employing their own staff by funding allocated from Housing Benefit. This option is not available to Barnet Homes but as they already have a contract with LBB this service could be added to this and could be extended to include not only the schemes now covered but residents living in their own and private rented properties.

Barnet Homes currently manages a small bock of flats for Homes for Islington and has set up new business to Barnet residents not living in council property. This is run by Assist, our Lifeline Service.

If Barnet Homes do not have to bid for this service it will save unnecessary tendering and redundancy costs for our staff that will otherwise have to be met by LBB. This is not against procurement rules because Barnet Homes is owned by the council and they are the only shareholder.

Quality and Accountability

Staff have the expertise for the job, they are used to working with vulnerable people and working with our partners such as social services and housing.

They have the extra capacity to provide a good service. Barnet Homes has Councillors and residents on their Board it has to be more accountable because it is owned by LBB and has to report directly to them.

Workers know the area well and we are based in Barnet.

Costs

There will be a saving of the tendering costs and the costs of redundancy for the Sheltered Housing staff which will have to be provided by LBB. Most of the Sheltered Housing staff have worked for LBB and Barnet Homes for many years and costs for redundancy will be high. There will not be costs for setting up a SLA as this service can be added to the contract already in existence between Barnet Homes and LBB.

Sheltered Housing residents are revolting

20th November 2009 admin Local

As part of our working with the community I can report that residents are marching on

30th November

For details click here

7 December

A HISTORIC RALLY on behalf of Sheltered Housing residents who face warden cuts

Meet at TRAFALGAR SQUARE

Monday 7th of December at 3PM,

and march from there to 10 DOWNING STREET to hand in a NATIONAL PETITION at 4 PM.

It is a non-partisan event: members of ALL major political parties have been invited to join us in putting aside party divisions and thinking instead of the needs of Sheltered Housing residents throughout the country!

For more details go to their web site

http://www.shelteredhousinguk.com/

Barnet Press cover easyCouncil story

29th October 2009 admin Local

To view click here

Barnet UNSION signs up to UNISON Million Voices Campaign

29th October 2009 admin Local

To find out more ablout the campaign click on ths link

http://www.unison.org.uk/million/index.asp

Barnet UNISON Schools Conference a clear success!

27th October 2009 admin Local

“Very useful. A good chance to let UNISON know what sort of practices are going on in schools. Nice to feel listened to!”

“As this is the 1^st meeting, I think that it is too early to comment, as the sessions, if continued will develop, as and who attends”

“I found the amount of support available (on staffing and learning) brilliant”

“Reinforced my understanding of issues involving school support staff”

“I found it enlightening”

“Good to know we are not alone”

This was just some of the positive feedback from those who attended our schools conference. The last comment has a particular resonance. Schools support staff are certainly not alone. We have some 900+ members in schools and yet a lot of you feel alone!

This has a lot to do with the way in which we organise in schools. It is difficult for you to attend meetings and we do not have representatives in every school – but the issues are so similar… This conference was an attempt to break through that and we have agreed to

ü organise meetings in some of the schools present at the conference.

ü organise a meeting specifically for caretakers as they have yet to have their jobs looked at following the schools remodelling exercise.

ü Send out the job descriptions for Levels 1,2,3,4 T.A s

ü Organise a meeting for Nursery Nurses to discuss the key worker aspect to their role.

It was really shocking to hear how many colleagues are being held at Level 1 T.A. when in fact no one should be on this level for more than a few weeks! This is just one of the issues we will be tackling throughout the year. Colleagues attending were also shocked to hear about the proposed transformation of Whitefield School to National Challenge Trust Status. Whitefield School is one of the first schools we will be holding a meeting. We will be writing more about this campaign to all our schools members.

Many colleagues found the feedback from National UNISON speaker, Christine Lewis, very informative and people really liked to hear about the training opportunities which are available through the council on the Return2Learn scheme.

There will be another conference which will take place during the next half term. Make sure you don’t miss the next one. Contact the Barnet UNISON office if you are reading this and want us to come to your school and hold a meeting.

Prize winner receives her min laptop!