Barnet UNISON & Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS) have organised a Public Meeting and have invited Professor Dexter Whitfield as the Guest Speaker.
The meeting takes place on Tuesday 15th March at 7pm in the Greek Cypriot Community Centre, 2 Britannia Road, London N12 9RU.
Barnet Council last week passed a Budget making £54 million in cuts/savings which included cuts to frontline services and increases in fees and charges to Barnet residents.
Barnet Council is embarking on policy called One Barnet Programme formerly known as Future Shape and more widely referred to as ‘easycouncil’. This programme has already begun, 24 out of 25 council services have already been told they are to be privatised. Up to £4 million has been spent on consultants and other staff resources in the last three years with no discernable savings for Barnet residents. A further £9.2 million has been put aside for consultants to help deliver this mass privatisation programme.
Dexter has been commissioned by the Council Trade Unions to produce a series of critiques and proposals on the Councils Future Shape Programme (now rebranded One Barnet) You can view all his analysis/reports on the following link here
Dexter will be addressing in his speech the following:
- Costs and consequences of Barnet council policies.
- Community needs decided by multinational companies.
- The effect on jobs, terms and conditions.
- The erosion of democracy and transparency.
- Implications of the governments White Paper on public sector reform
This will be followed by a Q& A session
Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary addressed members at our AGM last week and said “the council that couldn’t cut more and couldn’t care less, the council that is in the vanguard of Tory ideology”.
More recently Professor Dexter Whitfield had an article on PFI published in the Guardian newspaper & in the Barnet Press
End.
Contact: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on 07738389569 or email: john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk
Background
Dexter Whitfield is Director of European Services Strategy Unit (continuing the work of the Centre for Public Services founded in 1973) and is Adjunct Associate Professor, Australian Institute for Social Research, University of Adelaide. He has carried out extensive research and policy analysis of regional/city economies and public sector provision, jobs and employment strategies, impact assessment and evaluation, marketisation and privatisation, modernisation and public management (www.european-services-strategy.org.uk).
He has undertaken commissioned work for a wide range of public sector organisations, local authorities and agencies and worked extensively with trade unions in the UK at branch, regional and national levels, and internationally. He has advised many tenants and community organisations on housing, planning and regeneration policies.
Dexter is the author of the following books:
- Global Auction of Public Assets: Public sector alternatives to the infrastructure market & Public Private Partnerships (2010);
- New Labour’s Attack on Public Services: Modernisation by Marketisation (2006),
- Public Services or Corporate Welfare: The Future of the Nation State in the Global Economy (2001),
- The Welfare State: Privatisation, Deregulation & Commercialisation (1992)
- Making it Public: Evidence and Action against Privatisation (1983).
He was one of the founding members of Community Action Magazine (1972-1995) and Public Service Action (1983-1998). He has published many articles in journals and delivered papers and advised public bodies and trade unions in Europe, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
