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30 April 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Yesterday was a very sad day in the employment history of Barnet Council. Lord Justice Underhill, sitting in the high court, ruled against a severely disabled Barnet resident, Maria Nash, who challenged the north London council’s proposed contract with Capita on the basis that it failed to consult before outsourcing.

John Burgess UNISON Branch Secretary said:

“I have seen numerous reports in the media and the word which I really take great exception to is the use of “Victory”. In particularly this line:  “This is a clear and complete victory for the council. We won and our opponents lost.” (Leader Barnet Council 29 April 2013)

 

For those unfamiliar with the human casualties arising from the One Barnet mass outsourcing programme, there are almost 1000 jobs affected by this decision. There are at least 400 local jobs at risk of redundancy in the next 12 months as a result of Capita’s plan to relocate jobs to Belfast, Carlisle, Southampton, Blackburn to name but a few locations.

 

Barnet Council deliberately chose not to include a clause in the tender to include a requirement from the winning contractor to bring jobs into our community. Only last week I had to sit in a Full Council meeting and listen to the Deputy Leader of Barnet Council say the following:

“In Quarter 2 2012/13, Barnet was ranked in second place in London for the total number of ‘high performing and low cost’ services” (Deputy Leader, Barnet Council April 2013)

 

Up and down the country some politicians are standing shoulder to shoulder with their communities fighting to keep jobs local. BUT here in Barnet our members are saying hard work and loyalty count for nothing. 

Our next task will be to enter into urgent negotiations with Capita to try and see if they will change their plans to ship hundreds of jobs out of our community and instead deliver services here in Barnet and so avoid hundreds of redundancies.”

***** 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. Update on true cost of Capita NSCSO outsourcing click here

2. Details of jobs lost to the community here

3. Capita – Update on TUPE consultation – For details click here

4. 397 jobs “The true cost of One Barnet outsourcing” details click here

5. To view link to the Judgement here

 

“Today is a very sad day in the employment history of Barnet Council. Lord Justice Underhill, sitting in the high court, ruled against a severely disabled Barnet resident, Maria Nash, who challenged the north London council’s proposed contract with Capita on the basis that it failed to consult before outsourcing.

The result is that barring a successful Appeal the contract will be signed with Capita at some point in the not too distant future.

I have seen numerous reports in the media and the word which I take great exception to is the use of “Victory”. In particularly this line:

 “This is a clear and complete victory for the council. We won and our opponents lost.” (Leader Barnet Council 29 April 2013)

For those unfamiliar with the human casualties arsing from this mass outsourcing programme, there are 600 jobs all at risk with at least 400 local jobs at risk of redundancy in the next 12 months as a result of Capita’s plan to relocate jobs to Belfast, Carlisle, Southampton, Blackburn to name but a few locations.

Barnet Council deliberately chose not to include a clause in the tender to include a requirement from the winning contractor to bring jobs into our community. Only last week I had to sit in a Full Council meeting and listen to the Deputy Leader of Barnet Council say the following:

“In Quarter 2 2012/13, Barnet was ranked in second place in London for the total number of ‘high performing and low cost’ services” (Deputy Leader, Barnet Council April 2013)

Up and down the country some politicians are standing shoulder to shoulder with their communities fighting to keep jobs local. BUT here in Barnet our members are saying hard work and loyalty count for nothing.

Our next task will be enter into talks with Capita to try and see if they will reduce the hundreds of redundancies which have already been identified in their plans which won the contract.”

After months of TUPE consultation with Barnet Council and Capita about the proposed mass privatisation of key council services, the true human cost has finally been revealed in the latest Measures letter sent to the Unions today.

Since the decision to award the contract to Capita, UNISON has been trying to ascertain the true cost to staff and jobs.

This letter reveals the massive scale of job losses. Out of *597 posts currently providing Council services to Barnet residents only 200 will remain within the borough of Barnet, meaning *397 posts will be deleted/redundant.

The number of job losses in our community is significantly much higher than was being claimed by the council when the contract was first announced in December 2012.

Did this have to happen?

No, Barnet Council could have inserted a clause into the contract which stated the Council would only consider bids which promised to bring jobs to their community. This is not an uncommon factor when councils are looking at outsourcing as an option. Indeed Capita have recently won a contract with Staffordshire County Council to deliver services which includes a commitment to bring 1,613 additional jobs to their community.

UNISON will continue through the TUPE consultations with Capita and the Council to try and reduce the number of redundancies.

* Still awaiting a decision for Procurement services (12 posts)

TUPE regulations http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1655

Brief report of staff consultation meeting held at Flower Lane for Your Choice Barnet staff 13.3.13

It’s fair to say the meeting was fiery as staff expressed their anger freely.

The financial problem for Your Choice Barnet is one of cashflow as they will no longer receive the block contract but receive payments in arrears reflecting the change to one where individual services are invoiced. This cashflow problem equates to £1million.

In addition there is a deficit of £1million as LBB will pay service users only a flat rate irrespective of whether the care they need is at night or at the weekend. Also a market rate will apply. It is also the case that YCB has been providing more service to the service user than is reflected in their care plan and therefore leaving a shortfall.

An obvious question was immediately that BH knew the payment arrangements would change before going into the LATC with YCB and so why did they not immediately see the finances for YCB would be compromised?

The response was that at the point of creation of the LATC Barnet Homes did not know the volumes they were taking over.

We pointed out that the Business Case had been very confident about being able to make surpluses, knowing LBB was talking about paying market rates. What has changed?

Ans: The Business case was based on assumptions

In the Business Case of May 2011 much had been made of the freedom for the LATC to step outside SLA’s and for example purchase its own IT equipment. Yet we are now in a situation where LBB is insisting YCB stays with LBB for its IT, knowing this is going to Capita. Is this not the case of a not-for-profit organisation being used to prop up the business case for a contract to be successful with a for-profit organisation?

Ans: in a procurement exercise YCB had established they could find a cheaper IT provider. LBB stepped in to say that IT should remain as provided through the Council (Capita) and YCB need only pay the amount they had established through their procurement exercise. LBB will make up the difference.

In other words LBB is prepared to subsidise a service when it means securing a contract for Capita, but this would then seem to be at the cost of staff working for YCB!

In other parts staff criticised the move to reduce night time care on the basis that there was little need. The staff providing that service contradicted the view in the report that they are not needed as they could point to many examples where they had been needed.

More later….

In my role as Branch Secretary I am currently taking part in consultation over the transfer of over 550 staff from Barnet Council to Capita Group. Unfortunately, I have had extensive experience of transfers of staff out of Barnet Council, more so in the last 12 months. However, the Capita transfer is the biggest and most complex transfer I have ever been involved in.

The big difference with this transfer to Capita is that Capita have announced that the majority of the jobs will be based out of the London Borough in Barnet. The jobs are been exported to Belfast & Carlisle, Blackburn & Southampton to name but a few destinations. The impact of these proposal is that hundreds of local jobs will be lost to our local community at a time when there is need for jobs.

In the discussions with Capita we are trying to negotiate an alternative to jobs being moved out of Barnet in order to keep jobs and prevent redundancies and I have asked for support from the Council to help in this aim.

However, last week I was shocked and upset by the news that the first One Barnet Project ‘Your Choice’ was failing, so badly that it needed a £1million loan from Barnet Homes just to survive, But the loan is not enough, ‘Your Choice’ submitted a proposal which if implemented would decimate low paid care workers terms & condition.

I take no comfort from saying “we told you so!” as last year UNISON submitted several reports on the proposal to create a LATC where we said: “The options appraisals and business cases for Adult Services and the Housing Service and the business plan for the LATC have serious weaknesses and the process has been deeply flawed. They Council should not be making decisions on the future of services and public assets based on such poor information, analysis and advice.” (UNISON January 2012)

Unsurprisingly Cabinet Committee ignored our comments.

BUT now we can see our worst fears have been realised.

The problem is that instead of ‘biting the bullet’ and admitting this One Barnet Project had not worked, ‘Your Choice’ is trying desperately to hang on to a business model that simply won’t work.  

Take a look at the ‘Your Choice’ consultation document (to view click here), there is no information or evidence to explain why the Councils Business Case produced in May 2011 (to view click here) could be so WRONG.

A lot has been made on the money spent on consultants and legal advisors for the One Barnet Projects. Many a time councillors defending the One Barnet Programme have responded that they have learnt lessons from previous mistakes. In which case why are the Council not publishing the ‘One Barnet Lesson Learnt reports?’

UNISON is asking the Council to honour the Councils Business Case (which stated in Business Case at paragraph 7.4 “Commercial risk ultimately remains with the Council and in the unlikely event of failure, the services will need to be brought back in-house.”)

We need to learn the lessons from Winterbourne and the Francis Inquiry.

We believe the proposals in the consultation document are de-skilling and reducing support at a time when the focus post Francis inquiry is on need for better trained and skilled staff and more supervision.

“What does this mean for the other One Barnet Projects?”

The stakes are so much harder for the Capita contract and the Development & Regulatory Services (DRS) contract (preferred bidder has not yet been announced, it could be either EC Harris or Capita).

What worries me is that if the Councils Business case could be so wrong for what was a very simple contract, what is the chance that the bigger One Barnet Projects could also go the same way?

Where has this been done before?

There are very little examples of Local Authority Trading Companies around the UK. Here are a few but because they are so new there is little to report.

 

1. Essex County Council’s Essex Care Ltd

 

2. Kensington and Chelsea London Borough’s Chelsea Cares Ltd, went into liquidation in its first year.

3. Wokingham Council’s Optalis Ltd Optalis was set up in June 2011

4. Northamptonshire County Council’s Olympus Care Services Limited, Olympus started trading in March 2012.

5. Stockport MBC created Solutions SK to provide a wide range of services. Integrated Solutions SK was established, alongside, but under the management of Solutions SK, in 2009 to provide a wide range of adult social care services. It has recently disclosed that it has not won any external contracts and is failing to deliver the services that the council pays it for. The council agreed at Meeting of Extraordinary, Adults & Communities Scrutiny Committee, Wednesday, 19th December, 2012 (Item 4.)

“That the Executive be recommended to give approval to the return to the Council of the home support elements of Individual Solutions SK as soon as is practicable having regard to any HR and legal requirements and that further consultation be undertaken with any affected staff on the proposed transfer back to the Council.”

Link here http://democracy.stockport.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=7511

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barnet UNISON Press Release: 1 March 2013 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Beware of the “Ides of March” – The One Barnet Social Care Experiment is not working!

Today approximately 170 staff will be presented with a redundancy consultation document (to view click here ) which contains within it the most draconian attack on low paid social care workers since the infamous Fremantle Care workers dispute. The Council Cabinet Committee back in May 2011 agreed to create a Local Authority Trading Company (LATC) named ‘Your Choice’. The transfer of staff to the LATC ‘Your Choice’ took place on 1 February 2012.  At the time the Council website issued the following statement:

“Your Choice Barnet is projected to start delivering a surplus to the council from 2013/14. The surplus is projected to reach £263,000 by 2014/15 and £493,000 by 2015/16.”

Today staff are to be informed that Barnet Homes are having to ‘bail out’ Your Choice with a loan of £1million in order to prevent Barnet Group defaulting on the contract with Barnet Council. The projected surplus figures quoted are clearly not going to materialise.

Last year UNISON submitted several reports on the proposal to create a LATC.  

“The options appraisals and business cases for Adult Services and the Housing Service and the business plan for the LATC have serious weaknesses and the process has been deeply flawed. They Council should not be making decisions on the future of services and public assets based on such poor information, analysis and advice.” (UNISON January 2012)

The proposals contained within the consultation document issued to staff and the trade unions today if implemented will see care worker terms and conditions slashed dramatically. This sends a message to potential new recruits to care work that these jobs are valued less than a shelf stacker in the local supermarket. One of the proposals is to reduce the number of waking night staff.

“For continence issues, those who require changing in the night do not require the use of hoists as they are already in bed.” (Paragraph 4.3).

It takes two staff to safely use a hoist, the implications if the above cut is implemented is that if a service user is incontinent during the night they will have to wait until the morning before they can be helped.

These proposals in our view are de-skilling and reducing management oversight and support at a time when the focus post Francis inquiry is on need for better trained and skilled staff and more supervision.

A ‘Your Choice Care worker said:

“There is a sinister undertow to these proposals. The people who will lose out as always are the vulnerable service users who take second place in what is now a business not care provision”

John Burgess, Branch Secretary said:

“The proposals including within this report are quite frankly unacceptable. The recent decision to outsource back office services to Capita has led to a series of statements from the Council.

“we will have £120 million to spend on public services in Barnet which we would not otherwise have. This will help to protect frontline services such as social care and libraries.”

In which case the Council should follow the example set by Stockport Council and bring back these services under the direct control of the Council in order to ensure there is no erosion of service delivery to vulnerable adults in the London Borough of Barnet.”

 

***** 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 Cabinet Agrees to create a Local Authority Trading Company

http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/Data/Cabinet%20Resources%20Committee/201105241900/Agenda/Document%2011.pdf

2. New trading company set to be launched

http://www.barnet.gov.uk/news/article/40/new_trading_company_set_to_be_launched

3. UNISON report on Local Authority Trading Company: Privatising Adults and Housing Services

http://www.european-services-strategy.org.uk/news/2012/local-authority-trading-company-latc-for-adult/latc-analysis-2012.pdf

4. Francis Inquiry

http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/anticipating-francis-inquiry-report

 5. International support for Fremantle workers

http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=3620

6. Fremantle Care workers dispute

http://www.katebelgrave.com/2011/03/working-for-nothing/#more-244

 

7. Stockport Council bring back services in house

http://democracy.stockport.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=7511

 

8. Chelsea Cares goes into liquidation

http://kensington.londoninformer.co.uk/2011/10/chelsea-care-doomed-to-failure.html

 

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

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

1. G4S still no show

Week Four and still no sign of G4S in our weekly meetings. UNISON was told G4S are taking over the cash collection which is currently provided by the Finance Service. The delay and uncertainty for members is unacceptable. UNISON was informed there would be an update by the end of the week. Deadline has been and gone

2. Staff Handbook/Policies

We were told this would be made available to all NSCSO staff by Wednesday at the latest. Deadline has been and gone..***update it has now arrived. 30 consultation has begun.

3. Capita response to UNISON letter – waiting for a response

4. Barnet Council response to UNISON letter – response due in 10 days

5. “Will I be entitled to my redundancy payment if….”

This is the most frequent question I am, asked and quite frankly it is disappointing that the employment matrix which was shared with UNISON several weeks ago has still not been produced for staff.  It is critical for all staff working across NSCSO to be able to see what their employment options are after the transfer to Capita.

6. Capita Service Presentations

Capita provided presentation for IS/ICT services which they want to roll out for all 8 services transferring to Capita. This was in response to UNISON’s request for more detailed information about the staffing implications of the transfer. Contacgt the branch if this is not shared in your service.

7. “Less consultation – not a good idea”

On Monday the Council announced that they wanted these meetings to be fortnightly. UNISON objected and added that they wanted more meetings to discuss the growing number of concerns being raised by UNISON and our members. This is a TUPE transfer like no other. There are significant numbers of staff at risk of redundancy after transfer. UNISON is seeking to reduce the numbers of staff being made redundant. Reducing the meetings is not going to help this process.

UNISON reps will be turning up at the agreed time and expect to meet with Capita, LBB, Barnet Homes, G4S.

8. Embargoed Tripartite minutes

Members are quite rightly asking for mire details about the Tripartite meetings. I had asked that the minutes of these meetings be provided to staff on the intranet. Astonishingly the Council & Capita opposed this proposal. Last week, UNISON made a proposal that at each meeting the minutes would be agreed and if there were any items that needed to be embargoed they would be removed and the rest of the minutes circulated to staff. Unfortunately this reasonable request was not accepted. UNISON fully supports the transparency agenda and will report back on these meetings. We registered our disappointment about the use of embargoing of Tripartite minutes.

9. Capita Talent Connect

UNSION was informed that the above website which was providing employment opportunities would be ready this week. Deadline has been and gone

UNISON has been actively engaged in weekly Tripartite talks with representatives from Capita and the Council. I expect information to be provided to all NSCSO staff which will help provide some clarification on what will be happening after transfer to Capita.

It is important for all members in NSCSO to come along to the UNISON briefings.

Today UNISON submitted a response to the Measures letter submitted by Barnet Council which you can view here