Barnet UNISON

Barnet UNISON Press Release: 15 February 2013 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: STOP the Privatisation of our Regulatory Services

Barnet UNISON is backing Avaaz petition which is states: 

“We are concerned that Barnet Council is about to hand over its Regulatory Services (in particular the Environmental Health and Trading Standards services) to a private company. Councils have statutory responsibilities to monitor the private sector in order to ensure the health and safety of their residents. The current high- profile national public-health scandal about processed foods emphasises that private companies do not adequately monitor their own activities, leaving the public at risk. If Barnet Council is allowed to privatise these services, it will set a dangerous precedent for other councils. We call for an immediate stop to the privatisation of council Regulatory Services throughout the country.”

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_the_privatisation_of_Regulatory_Services/?tFMrBab

John Burgess, Branch Secretary said: The recent national scandal concerning meat processing is threatening to expose a catalogue of failures by food manufacturers to monitor their own suppliers. The lack of robust regulation & monitoring of a critical service strikes a chord with our own concerns about our council’s determination via the One Barnet Programme to outsource key critical regulatory services, such as Environmental Health & Trading Standards . We are asking our members and their families, residents to sign this petition. Furthermore we asking all citizens of the UK to sign the petition in order to stop the privatisation of regulatory services now before it is too late.

***** 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. Barnet Council leader not worried by One Barnet outsourcing court case

http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/barnet_council_leader_richard_cornelius_not_worried_about_one_barnet_judicial_review_1_1868176

2. Barnet’s ‘easyCouncil’ faces judicial review over outsourcing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/22/tory-council-challenge-high-court

3. Fear and loathing in Barnet

http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/inside-outsourcing/2013/02/fear-and-loathing-in-barnet—why-public-sector-outsourcers-their-shareholders-and-the-coalition-gov.html

4. UNISON report on Environmental Health Services Summary report ; Full survey report Statistical report

5. UNISON report on Trading Standards Summary report; Full survey report ;Statistical report

Background

Barnet Council is implementing a policy known as the One Barnet Programme, sometimes referred to as the ‘Commissioning Council’. This mass privatisation policy is designed for the Council to divest itself of responsibility to deliver services to its residents.

The first One Barnet project known as New Support Customer Services Organisation (NSCSO) will be for back office services such a Finance, Revenues & Benefits, Estates, IT, HR & Payroll etc, it is estimated to be worth up to £750 million.

It involves approximately 620 council workers. There is a high probability that the winning bidder will not deliver these services from Barnet so there is a high risk of significant redundancies at the moment of transfer.

This contract was awarded to either Capita at the Barnet Council Cabinet Resources Committee on Thursday 6 December 2012.

The second One Barnet project is known as Development & Regulatory Services (DRS) which includes the following services:

Trading Standards & Licensing, Land Charges, Planning & Development, Building Control & Structures, Environmental Health, Highways Strategy, Highways Network Management, Highways Traffic & Development, Highways Transport & Regeneration, Strategic Planning & Regeneration, Cemeteries & Crematoria.

This contract, worth up to £275 million pounds, will be awarded to Capita Symonds or EC Harris at the Barnet Council Cabinet Resources Committee on 8 January 2013.

This involves approximately 300 council workers

Both contracts are for ten years with an option to extend for a further five years.

UNISON’s position

Over the past four years UNISON has published over 40 detailed reports on the Future Shape/EasyCouncil/One Barnet mass privatisation programme.

Our message has remained clear.

 

Provide a level playing field and follow good practice and include a fully funded in house service improvement model to run alongside the procurement process.

 

Our proposal: In-house model

There are a number of examples of where Councils have followed this approach to good effect. Most recently Edinburgh City Council considered the potential for using private contractors to deliver a wide range of its services. It embarked on separate procurement processes for 3 blocks of services utilising the Competitive Dialogue process in an attempt to obtain the best offers available from the market. At the same time in-house teams were asked to work on service improvement plans or Public Sector Comparators, so that when it came to the award of contract, the Council could be sure that the services it was purchasing would genuinely optimise its use of scarce resources. In the end the Public Sector Comparators proved to be more attractive than any of the external offers and no contracts were awarded.

For a fuller explanation click here

Barnet UNISON has produced a list entitled “100 PLUS reasons why One Barnet is high risk and bad for residents and services” which you can view here

What are YOU eating????????

First it was horsemeat instead of beef, then it was pork instead of beef, then it was donkey instead of beef, then they started accusing other countries outside the UK , then they realised it could be happening inside the UK!

This story is going to grow and grow. No doubt there will be a public inquiry, MP’s will be asked to resign, and private companies will be summoned to explain themselves to a Parliamentary Select Committee.

It is blatantly obvious that there is little or no scrutiny of the meat/food processing for public consumption and the consequences of this are being played out in the national media.

After carrying out a study entitled ‘The Damage’ into the impact of the Cuts on vital council services UNISON wrote to councillors across the UK

The first two reports are available to read online below:  

1. Environmental health:

Summary report

Full survey report

Statistical report

2. Trading standards:

Summary report

Full survey report

Statistical report

Barnet ‘Commissioning/EasyCouncil’ as part of the One Barnet Programme is about to hand over its Regulatory Services, including Environmental Health & Trading Standards over to the private sector.

The above UNISON reports reinforce Barnet UNISON’s view that outsourcing of regulatory services to the private sector is simply wrong and a could have a critical impact on the health and well being of the residents of London Borough of Barnet. 

Three simple things for you to help our campaign.

1. Please sign our Avaaz Petition – Stop the privatisation of Regulatory Services

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Stop_the_privatisation_of_Regulatory_Services/?tFMrBab

2. Please sign our London Borough of Barnet Petition – Stop the privatisation of Regulatory Services http://petitions.barnet.gov.uk/NoOutSourcingDRS/

3.  Please join the Barnet Spring March click here for details

1. Watch the film ‘A Tale of Two Barnets’ http://ning.it/PUBMVP   

 

2. Listen to Ken Loach talk about the One Barnet Billion Pound Gamble Film http://ning.it/PIzXpv

 

3. Watch the Billion Pound Gamble Film Trailer http://ning.it/PvZYxF

 

4. Listen to Mr Reasonable explain all about the OneBarnet magical box http://ning.it/P4vPVW

 

5. Watch the Billion Pound Gamble Animation http://ning.it/Qp5Adx

 

6. Watch Barnet Residents occupy Hendon Town Hall http://ning.it/W7a08n

 

7. Listen to a Barnet resident speak at Barnet Full Council meeting http://ning.it/WgcUZ2

 

8. Learn about the Occupation of Friern Library here http://ning.it/W7alIe  

 

9. Save Friern campaign showing how to campaign against the cuts http://ning.it/XhYQ1R

 

10. Watch the excellent short film called ‘A Polite Revolution’  http://ning.it/W7b7Fc  

 

11. Learn about why Barnet’s ‘easyCouncil’ is facing a judicial review http://ning.it/WhYBDt

 

A Polite Revolution from Oonagh Cousins on Vimeo.

Update on Failure to Agree

The big news from the proposed restructures in Children’s Services is not just the redundancies, but the downgradings with increases in responsibility and workloads! Colleagues are not happy about this. Meetings are being set up with the respective senior management groups to try to reach an agreement on a way forward.

View the responses to the proposals here

Update on Failure to Agree

The big news from the proposed restructures in Adults Services is not just the redundancies, but the downgradings with increases in responsibility and workloads! Colleagues are not happy about this. Meetings are being set up with the respective senior management groups to try to reach an agreement on a way forward. View the responses to the proposals here.

For those working in Adults Services, please attend the UNISON meeting 12.30pm Oak Room to discuss latest update and our position.

 

The Trade Union movement is facing its biggest challenge in over 30 years. The Conservative Home blog, think-tank of the Tories, is celebrating the drop in overall union   membership as one of its major achievements.

We are all organising to halt the attacks on our members’ terms and conditions, to resist mass redundancies, and last but not least to oppose the relentless privatisation of public services.

If you want to demonstrate against the Tories, then where better to do it than in Barnet on March 23rd? Barnet has a Tory Council which is using mass privatisation to make hundreds of Council workers redundant and is attacking the Council trade unions for campaigning to defend their members’ jobs. The Council is proposing to delete almost all agreed time off for trade union representatives to carry out their duties.

It is important that the trade union movement organises within its own community to support and build alliances with residents. We have seen that if residents learn about these cuts, they are prepared to act to defend them.

Barnet Trades Council is calling on all trade union branches across our borough to make a pledge to send their banners and members to the Barnet Spring march on Saturday 23 March. We are also extending our invitation to the wider trade union movement across London and  beyond. There is an alternative worth fighting for and the Trade Unions are very much part of it.

You can download flyer here

Barnet UNISON has been involved in a five year campaign to oppose the mass outsourcing of Council services. The Council has refused to engage on alternatives to outsourcing.

Two years ago Barnet Council cut our Facility Time by 65% and added a further cut last year. Our branch has recently been presented with a proposal to cut the remaining facility time to a level by which the branch will be unable to represent our members. This is at a time of massive change for our members. Over 600 hundred workers are facing a transfer to Capita later this year and we have learnt most of the jobs are to be based out of London.

This is a direct attack on our union and the ability of our members to belong to a union.

Why the attack on Barnet UNISON?

● We are guilty of doing our utmost to defend our members’ terms and conditions.

● We are guilty of working with other local trade unions and the community our members serve to defend public services.

We are joining the community and other Trade Unions for the BarnetSpring March at a time of increasing austerity. Residents fear having a multi-national, Capita, take over the lion’s share of the   Council’s services with a 10 year contract and that this will have a detrimental impact on local democracy.

We will not be silenced and our voice will be stronger in the months to come.

If you support public services and oppose the Coalition Government’s Austerity policies, then there is no better place to be than with our  unions and community on the demonstration March 23^rd: now known as the BarnetSpring.

Download our flyer here