Search Results for: one barnet

Barnet UNISON welcomes the publication of the Barnet Council’s commissioned Library review.

Austerity, Demonstration, Libraries, Local, National, News, UNISON Campaign

British Library, Kings Cross.
March to protest about cuts to libraries, museums and the arts.
Barnet Unison were on the march along with striking Barnet library staff.
05/11/16 BP AMS

Barnet UNISON welcomes the publication of the Council’s commissioned Library review.

It is a thorough and detailed body of work and while we are not in total agreement with its findings or recommendations, we commend those who worked on it for its evidence based and independent approach. This included a willingness to engage with UNISON and Library workers.

This is an initial response from Barnet UNISON, focusing on the salient concerns to us a trade union.  Further and more detailed responses will follow as we consult with our members working in Barnet Libraries.

Much of the Review concurs with our warnings to the Council before and since the implementation of the current structure and operation of Barnet Libraries. We have been raising these concerns, which focus on the accessibility and the quality and breath of service since 2014.  However   the Council proceeded on their course and the resulting public dissatisfaction and restriction of access (particularly for children and people with disabilities) are plain to see in the Review’s findings.

Barnet UNISON is glad to see the professionalism and hard work of Library staff, at all levels recognised in the Review but   the continuing achievements of these workers is despite the Library Restructure of 2017 not because of those changes. Barnet Library workers have had to overcome significant challenges, including a reduction in numbers of almost 50%, the loss of public and work space, a disruptive working schedule and having to deal with the often justified but misdirected frustration and anger of the public.

Barnet UNISON fought a long campaign to defend the jobs of Library workers from 2014 to 2017.  This involved considerable effort and self-sacrifice by UNISON members working in Barnet Libraries. This campaign was not only about defending our members but a bid to maintain the quality and availability of libraries for the people who live, work, study and visit in Barnet. But regrettably many library workers lost their jobs in April 2017. In many cases this was a sad and premature end to decades-long careers.  These Library workers were sacrificed to the Council’s belief that their skills, knowledge and experience could be replaced by machines and volunteers

Nearly three years after this loss the   Review has found:

“The reduction in staffed opening hours has gone too far, particularly given the low number of volunteers. The reductions act as a deterrent to many library users from using the library and act as a particular barrier to young people who cannot access the library on their own during SSO hours if they do not meet the minimum age requirements.”

And

 

“The loss of staff and the fact that they move between libraries more makes it harder for users to develop positive relationships that support library use for all ages. This is not a criticism of staff. It is a loss for the community”

To help redress this the Review advises that the Council;

“To increase staffed opening hours by increasing staffing resources in the short to medium term at least until adequate numbers of volunteers can be recruited and the use of volunteers stabilised”

UNISON support the increase in staffing resources but on a permanent basis. Even if “adequate numbers of Volunteers” are found they are not suitable replacements for Library staff

The Review also calls on the Council;

“To review the extent of budget reductions and explore the scope for additional investment in the service given the relative decline in the take-up of the service”

While the Council have published no plans for further cuts to the Library Service, the implementation of the Review’s recommendations would require additional funds being allocated to the Service. Attempting to implement the changes described without additional resources will result in further burdens and stress on an already overstretched work force.

 

Barnet UNISON ask the Council;

  • When and how will staffing resources be increased?
  • What additional funds will be allocated to the Library Service?
  • How will the Libraries be made more accessible to the public?
  • What measures will be put in place to more accurately record library usage?

 

Barnet UNISON hope the Review will spur the Council to at least begin to repairing the damage done to Barnet Libraries in 2017. Damage which our Union and others warned the Council would result from their Library strategy.  We call on the Council to truly engage with us and those who know the service best, Library workers, in making our Libraries truly fit for the 21rst Century.

 

Barnet Bin Workers Update: “Where is the money coming from?”

Austerity, Local, Report, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

“Where is the money coming from?” or “I thought the Council was in financial trouble?”

At Policy and Resources Committee tonight (20 February 2019) the Corporate Risk register has been produced.

Barnet UNISON notes;  Risk Number STR032

“Implementation of new recycling and waste collection rounds

If issues with the implementation of the new recycling and waste collection rounds continue into the New Year this could lead to further service disruption and financial strain resulting in resident dissatisfaction and reputational damage.

Chief Executive, Statutory Duty,ENV – Modernising Environmental Services

-Ongoing communication with residents on new/revised collection days.-Additional and narrow access vehicles deployed to complete rounds.-Issues with blocked access and assisted collections followed-up.-Additional resources put into Contact Centre to handle increased volume of customer contacts.-Social media monitored and follow-up daily.”

(Source: Corporate Risk Register https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s51240/Appendix%20O%20Corporate%20Risk%20Register.pdf

Barnet UNISON agrees with the risk identified if the Bin collection service does not return to the excellent service standards it was achieving before the Bin collection service was changed on 4 November 2018.

Feedback from the workforce.

Reports have been coming in this year from across our members working in the Bin collection service about an army of agency workers (sometimes as many as 80 agency workers a day) being deployed to ensure the bins are collected here in Barnet. We are also hearing that there is plenty of overtime for any staff wanting to work extra hours. We are hearing reports the service is sometimes working until late into the evening (10 pm) in order to collect bins for that day.

Unfortunately Barnet UNISON has been unsuccessful so far in obtaining the details of agency workers spend for the Bin collection service or the amount of overtime being used to clear the bins.

Our concern as it clearly identified in the Council Corporate Risk register is that it appears the Bin Collection service is heavily reliant on an army of agency workers and overtime.

Barnet UNISON is fully aware of the financial pressures on Council finances as identified in the reports for the Policy and Resources Committee this evening. Barnet UNISON is attending numerous consultation meetings with staff across the Council who are being subjected to cost saving proposals/restructures because the Council needs to make savings.

It is therefore deeply troubling to see the Bin Collection service appear to be relying on army of agency workers and lots of overtime 16 weeks since the service was changed.

In the absence of any information from the Council we note that at Environment Committee on 21 January 2019 it was agreed:

“That the committee noted that a report in relation to the bin collection arrangements be added to the work programme and submitted to the next meeting on 14 March”

(Source: Environment Committee, Monday 21st January, 2019 7.00 pm https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=695&MId=9733 )

Barnet UNISON was present at Environment Committee, Monday 21st January where officers reported that they had spent an extra £250k trying to collect the bins. If our members reports are correct that figure will be a lot higher.

We await to read the detailed report on the Bin collection rounds going to the Environment Committee on Thursday 14 March 2019.

Watch this space……….. 

***Please note that the use of emphasis/underlining is made by Barnet UNISON.

 

BREAKING NEWS: Barnet UNISON motion: More money for our members

Local, National, News, Report, UNISON Campaign

This branch notes that in 2016 we had 2570 members at the year end.

This branch notes that in 2016 UNISON received total subscriptions of £365,691.

This branch notes that in 2016 of the £365,691 received by UNISON head office we received £95,147.

This represents 26% of the total income provided by our members.

In 2017 our branch carried out a consultation on branch funding.

92.86% of members voted for a change to our current funding arrangement.

Our branch notes that our national union recorded surpluses of approximately £10million and £3million in the 2015 and 2016 accounts respectively, and holds reserves of over £200million.

Our branch has been fighting Barnet Councils ideological obsession with outsourcing for over a decade.

Our branch represents members working for 189 employers (as per WARMS on 24th November 2017).

Our branch receives no resources to represent a significant number of our members working in the private and voluntary sector.

Our branch believes it is wrong to take members’ money if our branch is not able to provide basic support and representation.

Our branch notes that National Pay bargaining has continued to fail our members.

Our branch notes that it is simply unacceptable to expect our members to wait and hope for a change in government in order to end the public sector pay freeze.

We want our branch to be able to use all of our resources for the many not the few.

The fact remains that the overwhelming bulk of this work is done in our branch.

It is our view that the current funding formula for our branch is out of date and does not effectively support our members who are paying their subscriptions.

Our branch proposes

  1. That branches receive all of our members’ subscriptions, without any deductions, into their respective UNISON branch bank accounts.
  2. UNISON branches will commit to purchasing support services from UNISON Regional, UNISON National or a third party to demonstrate value for money to our members.
  3. For this motion to be presented at the Regional Council AGM 2018 and if it is successfully voted on at the AGM for it to be considered as a regional motion at National Delegate Conference (NDC).

4. For this motion to be presented at Barnet UNISON’s AGM for consideration and if successfully voted on, for it to be a branch motion going through to NDC.

BREAKING NEWS: Barnet UNISON Library strike postponed

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Support Barnet UNISON Library workers

Support Barnet UNISON Library workers

Dear Barnet UNISON Library workers

First of all I want to pay tribute to Hugh Jordan and those local reps and activists who have organised and taken part in strike action in defence of staff and the Barnet Library Service. For the past two years they have been under unacceptable pressure due to the proposed outsourcing and destruction of the Library Service. I truly believe the draconian cuts to the Library Service would have been far worse and imposed far quicker if they and our members had not been on strike and taken other actions. » Read more

Barnet binmen say: ‘Leave our service alone!’

Local

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

Barnet UNISON Press Release: OVER ONE MILLION PEOPLE TO BE CONTACTED ABOUT BARNET STRIKE

Local

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OVER ONE MILLION PEOPLE TO BE CONTACTED ABOUT BARNET STRIKE

On Friday Barnet UNISON informed our members that we were using an online social media tool called Thunderclap.

Over the weekend the results have been incredible, with the latest figures showing 1,041,021 are about to read the reasons we are taking strike action on Wednesday 8 July.

You can read the update here.

Barnet UNISON members who still work for Barnet Council (excluding community schools) begin a 24 hour strike action on Wednesday 8 July

The dispute involves coach escorts, drivers, social workers, 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 the Barnet Council.

UNISON Picket Lines will be at the following workplaces:

· North London Business Park—Start 7 am onwards.

· Mill Hill Depot—Starts 6 am onwards.

· East Finchley Library—Start 9 am onwards.

On Wednesday 8 July the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is expected to announce further devastating cuts to local authority budgets during the emergency budget. The Local Government Association (LGA) has warned that councils in England could face a £3.3 billion reduction in central government funding for local services in 2016/17. This will mean councils will need to make big savings next year, equivalent to 12 per cent of their total budgets.

· “The LGA also predicted that the upcoming Spending Review would see Whitehall funding reduced by a further 11% in 2017/18 and 4% in 2018/19, before increasing by 7% the following year.

· This means councils face a funding gap of £9.5bn by the end of the decade, the outlook claims.”

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2015/06/councils-face-%C2%A333bn-funding-cut-lga-warns

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. They can see for themselves that cuts to local government are being driven by an ideological obsession with outsourcing services. Our members can see that the outsourcing of council services does lead to an attack on members’ Pay,Terms & Conditions and the establishment of a divisive and unfair two tier workforce. I am pleased to see that despite all the odds the Greek people have rejected the politics of Austerity and provided a message of hope for all of us facing the Austerity endgame. I am therefore pleased to report that Jeremy Corbyn (Labour Leadership candidate) will be standing shoulder to shoulder with UNISON members on our picket lines this week. Barnet UNISON will be later joining other trade unions and disability rights campaigners on a lobby of Parliament in defence of Public Services and Trade Union rights on 8 July, at 1 pm in Parliament Square, (opposite Westminster Abbey).”

End.

Notes to Editors.

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

Background:

1. Six years ago Barnet Council introduced a policy known as Future Shape which morphed into ‘easyCouncil’*.This imposed a series of tariffs on residents wishing to access a range of services. A basic service would be offered to residents at a fixed price, but ‘fast track’ services might be available if you paid extra.

This approach was quickly abandoned by the consultant driven One Barnet Programme, which led to the following Council Services being outsourced/privatised in the space of three years:

1. Social Care for Adults with disabilities to Your Choice Barnet

2. Housing Options to Barnet Homes

3. Parking Services to NSL

4. Revenues & Benefits, IT, HR & Payroll, Pensions, Health & Safety, Finance, Estates, Property Services, Procurement, Projects all now part of Capita CSG

5. Environmental Health, Planning, Building Control, Hendon Cemetery & Crematorium, Highways, Trading Standards & Licensing all now Capita RE

6. Legal Services

7. Registrars & Nationality Services

8. CCTV

9. Music Trust

10. Public Health

11. Mortuary Services.

Over the past three years our members have seen hundreds of colleagues transferred to other employers. This has often meant redundancy as the new employer has moved jobs out of the borough and Greater London to places as far afield as Belfast, Carlisle, Coventry, Southampton and Darlington.

Barnet has branded this final phase as the ‘Commissioning Council’.

On 3 March 2015 Barnet Council agreed its next Five Commissioning Plans all of which are looking at ‘Alternative Delivery Models’, jargon for working for a different employer.

The Council Services now at risk of outsourcing are:

1. Early Years – 13 Children’s Centres

2. Library Services

3. Adults & Communities services

4. Street Scene Services e.g. Waste & Recycling, Street Cleansing, Parks and Transport

5. Education & Skills and School Meals services.

2. Disappearing Council – short animation https://youtu.be/YQ5t63fSu-s

 

3. “The easyCouncil Loco-motion” https://youtu.be/Wi0bdgofsmM

UNISON asks Barnet Council to postpone privatisation talks

Local

On Wednesday 3 June 2015 Barnet UNISON attended two meetings at which Education & Skills and Schools Meals staff were informed that the Council were in talks with Capita & Mott MacDonald (Cambridge Education) about taking over their services.

It would be fair to say that the general feeling of the meeting was that the current proposal for privatisation was not supported and there was a strong view from staff that the prospects of the current proposal generating growth were bordering on fantasy.

Today, 8 June at a UNISON meeting staff mandated the branch to write to all Councillors on the Children’s, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee outlining our concerns and seeking a postponement of the process.

UNISON recommendations:

Barnet UNISON strongly recommends that the Council should:

1. Postpone the Competitive Dialogue until the revised Outline Business Plan is completed and agreed by the Children, Education, Libraries and Safeguarding Committee.

2. Revise the financial modelling for trading income in the JVC option as a matter of urgency.

3. Revise the Education and Skills Outline Business Plan to take account of the financial, organisational, risk and operational implications of subcontracting the bulk of the workforce to another private contractor.

4. Seek confirmation from the bidders about their long-term plans for all the Education and Skills services and to reject proposals that involve subcontracting of services, except for obtaining specialist advice and skills.

5. Exclude the Catering Service from the JVC option and retain in-house.

6. Revise the Equalities Impact Assessment for Education and Skills to include a full employment profile of those employed in the services.

7. Re-examine the responsibilities, accountability and the decision making process, contract clauses and the method of monitoring and scrutinising the performance of a major subcontractor.

8. Require open book accounting for the JVC, a profit-sharing agreement and an annual report from the JVC as part of transparency for schools and the public.

You can read our full report here

Barnet Council’s new Interim Chief Executive, Andrew Travers, explains OneBarnet

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On Wednesday 24 October 2012 Barnet Alliance submitted a Petition called Stop the One Barnet Programme

http://petitions.barnet.gov.uk/StopOneBarnet/

This allowed a Barnet resident to speak to their petition, take questions and listen to the interim Chief Executive to respond.

Barnet Council’s new Interim Chief Executive, Andrew Travers, explains OneBarnet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v8zJ27RHOA&feature=plcp

TRANSCRIPT BELOW

Mr Travers, Barnet’s Acting Interim CEO is asked by Hugh Raynor, Chair of Business Overview and Scrutiny Committee, to take a seat.

Thank you very much Chairman. The One Barnet Programme as set out in the current report, has its genesis originally in 2008 so has been considered as Council policy from that point and in numerous occasions since then.  If I could just sum up some of the challenges that are recognised in that Programme and the response then maybe that would give a flavour of why I think the Programme exists as it does today.

Firstly, the Programme, I think, recognises a period of exceptional challenge for public services and for local authorities so we know that we are in a period of extreme austerity. I think we can probably anticipate that that will continue for a number of years. One of the consequences of that is that the Council’s support from Central Government, I mentioned earlier, is likely to decrease by somewhere between 30 and 50%. This level of reduction is unprecedented. Coupled with that we know that Barnet is a growing and changing place. Population growth is rapid, has been in the last 10 years and continues for the next 10 years and also the expectations of citizens for public services are increasing and expectations are the way in which the Council can tailor its services to the public – is a clear and important factor. So for those reasons of context the Council has, I would recognise that, has considered quite carefully about how it responds to the unprecedented challenge and needs a carefully thought through response.

But also I think given the nature of the challenge needs to think quite radically about how Council services can be brokered in that context and I think that is the clear context for the Programme that has informed member decision making about it. In terms of the implementation of the Programme the way in which it has been taken to all of this is effectively to consider service areas on a case by case basis against that background and against the 3 objectives of the Programme which are around a new relationship with citizens; a one public sector approach; and a relentless drive for efficiency. So taking service areas on a case by case basis, as I’ve said,  to consider options for future delivery against that context and agenda and then to select a preferred option for delivery and then to that an impact a preferred option. And as I’ve said earlier there are some projects which have already been implemented and some that are in the process of being implemented.

Taking the Programme as a whole we are trying to track both financial and non-financial benefits of the project within the Programme. As we’ve been saying said the financial benefits over a 10 year period are anticipated to be about £111million. There are 115 non-financial benefits which are tracked within the Programme which in effect are the wider aspirations driven by the 3 objectives that I’ve referred to.

Council has recognised and officers have recognised that this is a very challenging Programme to deliver. Change of this nature is clearly always difficult. The number of different delivery approaches within the Programme are such that we need to make sure we manage the risk of delivery very carefully. The way in which we have sought to do that is to try and make sure that the Council increases its capacity within its core workforce to manage a Programme of this nature effectively but has also supplemented that with a number external expertise in respect of commercial, contractual and legal matters so in that way we try and make sure we deliver the Programme safely and effectively and we protect continuity of services for residents now and through the change process.

Just to finish, Chairman I think worth noting that there are a number of approaches being taken in the 1 Barnet programme as to how outsourced services are to be delivered. There are clearly a wide range of services that are delivered at the moment in-house. There are some services which are being delivered through a shared service, for example with legal service with Harrow. There are some services delivered via the Barnet Group Arms Length Company and there are some services which it is planned to deliver through outsourced arrangements. So the context and the approach really resulted in the Council seeing itself as being a Commissioner of services and commissioning those services from those agents best able to deliver and there is a rational process of its own in that and we try and manage those risks as effectively as we possibly can. Thank you Chairman.

 

OneBarnet 7 Critical reasons not to outsource council services

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#OneBarnet 7 Critical reasons not to outsource council services http://ning.it/OV8i6R #failedprivatisation

1. G4S is not an isolated incident http://ning.it/OV8pPC #failedprivatisation

2. Bournemouth Council chiefs set to bring back 22 staff from outsourcing partner Mouchel http://ning.it/MhCJRY #failedprivatisation

3. Bournemouth Councillors were warned by senior council officer http://ning.it/OV8Jhi #failedprivatisation

4. Somerset council takes back services & 160 staff back in house from Southwest OneCouncil http://ning.it/OV8MtB #failedprivatisation

5. Four out of five government departments are trapped in outsourcing deals http://ning.it/OV8Ucq #failedprivatisation

6. BT overcharging Liverpool council by £10m a year, report claims http://ning.it/MhCRAW #failedprivatisation

7. Suffolk council accused of ignoring £100m ‘overspend’ on BT deal http://ning.it/MhCSoB #failedprivatisation

  

 

 

 

 

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