Barnet UNISON

Barnet Council is unique in that unlike other London Councils it has three chief executives.

The reason for having three chief executives belongs to a period when the Tories controlled Barnet Council from 2002 to 2022. In that time they embarked on a mass outsourcing project called “easy Council” later renamed as “One Barnet” (see background information for historical information).

On 17 September 2024 Barnet UNISON issued the following statement in response to the Council briefing to staff about the financial crisis facing the Council.

You can read our statement here

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2024/09/17/statement-on-barnet-council-finances/

UPDATED: Chief Executive Salary details.

Barnet UNISON has received a couple of emails on behalf of some of the Chief Executives to say that we are quoting the wrong figures.

We have this to say:

Barnet UNISON fully supports the:

Localism Act 2011 – Openness and accountability in local pay

1.1. Section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011 requires local authorities to publish an annual pay policy statement.

In the Pay Policy document that is published annually the Council set out the reasons why they publish the salaries of certain Council posts.

You can view the relevant paragraph below and here is the link

https://www.barnet.gov.uk/sites/default/files/pay_policy_statement_2024_2025.pdf

Related Remuneration and Transparency Context

1.5. The Council follows the transparency requirements on remuneration as set out in the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 issued in February 2015 by the then Department for Communities and Local Government; and specific guidance relevant to the Localism Act issued by the Department in February 2012 and February 2013.

 1.6. The Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency includes publishing information relating to salaries over £58,200. Similarly, the Local Government Transparency Code 2015 stipulates that salaries over £50,000 should be published. In order to comply with both Codes, the Council publishes a summary of posts that are paid more than £50,000. The summary is available on the website of the Council and is periodically updated.

We note that paragraph 1.4 states:

“This statement only relates to the remuneration of staff directly employed and managed by the Council of the London Borough of Barnet. It does not cover school-based employees or those working for partner organisations.”

The Barnet Group (TBG) and Barnet Education and Learning Skills (BELS) are 100% owned by the London Borough of Barnet.

In one of the emails sent to Barnet UNISON we have been informed that LBB HR is happy to provide the correct figures for salaries in both BELS and TBG.

In terms of the error in our reporting which we are correcting it is important to note that when we published the salaries of the three chief executives we included a link with the source of the information. We did this to make sure we were linking to the correct documents in relation to pay in TBG and BELS.

Barnet UNISON has now reviewed the details and confirm that we incorrectly reported the wrong figures from the two separate documents and we have amended the details below reporting the exact wording.  

1. UPDATED: Barnet Council Chief Executive salary £201,456 to £212,685

(Source: https://www.barnet.gov.uk/sites/default/files/pay_policy_statement_2024_2025.pdf )

UPDATED: We want to ensure transparency and therefore we have requested that the oncosts for the above post are provided so that our readers can see the actual costs per posts.

 

2. UPDATED: The Barnet Group (TBG) Chief Executive salary.

Please see amended correct costs related to this post as reported in the document below.

“The highest paid director cost £218,643 including £16,132 of contributions to a defined benefit scheme on the same employees (2023: £211,477).”

(Source: https://thebarnetgroup.org/download/the-barnet-group-financial-statements-2023-24/ )

 

3. UPDATED: Barnet Education and Learning Skills (BELS) Chief Executive salary

(Source: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12724128/filing-history )

Please see amended correct cost below

“Remuneration disclosed above include the following amounts paid to the highest paid director”

“Remuneration for qualifying services £138, 304”

“Company pension contributions to defined contribution schemes £33,368”

 

4. UPDATED: The Barnet Group: Plummer role salary £36,029.40 plus £3,270 Market Supplement active until July 2025. Barnet UNISON understands that there are 9 plumber roles with eight agency and only one permanent member of staff. We do not know the rate of pay for the agency plumbers. Barnet Council has 13,000 council homes.

Barnet UNISON is awaiting details of the oncosts for the role of the plumber.

The first thing to reflect upon as the Council seeks to address the serious financial; crisis is that no other London Council can afford three chief executives.

The second thing to consider is that there needs to be the same transparency extended to TBG and BELS and therefore Barnet UNISON has asked Barnet Council to apply the Localism Act 2011 – Openness and accountability in local pay 1.1. Section 38(1) of the Localism Act 2011 requires local authorities to publish an annual pay policy statement to TBG and BELS in order that there is transparency across all organisations 100% owned by Barnet Council.

Third and most important thing is that to date Barnet UNISON has not had a response to our savings proposals. It is interesting to note that the Council has reacted very quickly to our report on the pay of the most senior officers of the Council but to date has not even acknowledged our proposals to save money and avoid impacting on staff and services.

A recap on our proposals

 

1. Agency/Consultancy spend.

As a result of learning that Barnet Council spent £20 million on agency/consultants in 2023 UNISON is called for an urgent review of agency/consultancy usage and for the details to be broken down across each service area. No response.

Update: Total Agency payments year to date on 31 August 2024 is £11,950,348.29

 

2. One Chief Executive not three: plus, a senior management review.

UNISON proposes that for starters Barnet Council deletes two chief executive roles as part of the major review of all senior management roles starting from Head of Service, Assistant Directors, Directors, Executive Directors before any decisions are taken about cutting vacancies/redundancies, raising charges and or cutting services to residents. No response.

 

3. Back Office services review.

UNISON proposes an urgent review of all back-office services (including those provided by Capita) with the aim for Barnet Council to be the sole provider of back office services for Barnet Council, TBG and BELS. No response.

 

4. Capita spend.

As a result of learning that Barnet Council spent paid £24 million to Capita in 2023 Barnet UNISON has asked for these payments and future payments to Capita to be subjected to the same level of scrutiny as other in-house services. We are asking that Capita payments should be included in the external review of spending. No response.

Update: Total Capita Payments Year to date 31 August 2024 is £17,256,413.78

 

5. UPDATE Review Passenger Transport Service

There are two parts to this proposal.

Several years a decision was made to change the way the service was managed and monitored. Barnet Council outsourced the Education Service in 2016 and created a service which was to monitor and take responsibility for some elements of PTS service e.g use of agency staff (drivers and coach escorts).

A couple years ago another decision was made to hand over the line management of the coach escorts.

This decision made no sense. There are two staff in a team (driver and coach escort) yet this decision meant that there are now two different line managers. Other than ideological reasons about outsourcing this does not make sense. Furthermore, what is clear is that by operating this model of delivery it appears it has led to an increase in staffing where role of monitoring and delivering has also become blurred.

This is a frontline service for vulnerable adults and children with special educational needs. There are issues in which there are allegations/incidents that need investigating. There are examples when there is an investigation with two employers and two different HR staff involved two sets of line managers for what in the past would have been handled by one line manager and one HR member of staff.

Our proposal is as follows

• Line management of the coach escorts is returned to LBB.
• Secondly a review of the service take place to look at bringing the PTS back as one service within the Council.

6. Offer to lobby Keir Starmer with Barnet Council

Barnet UNISON is willing to visit Downing Street and lobby for more funding for Barnet Council with the Leader of Barnet Council. No response

What do we know?

There are spending control meetings taking place.

Council have announced that tea and coffee is being withdrawn from council workplaces.

Flue Jab: th enumber of flu jabs that is on offer to staff has been reduced this year due to the financial crisis.

Some feedback from members that the council is trying to cut back on payments to individuals. We are dealing with a few cases. If you are being told something is being withdrawn due to the crisis, please contact the branch at contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

Key meeting date for noting.

On Monday 18 November 2024 Cabinet Committee  7pm Hendon Town Hall.

At this committee there will be a discussion about the financial recovery plan.

End.

Background information.

Below are links to explain the history behind the mass ideological experiment which was unleashed on Barnet Council staff and residents 14 years ago.

100 PLUS reasons why One Barnet is high risk and bad for residents and services

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2012/08/28/100-plus-reasons-why-one-barnet-is-high-risk-and-bad-for-residents-and-services/

 

Barnet Casino – animation explaining mass outsourcing ideology aka easycouncil

https://youtu.be/o6I9kP6nCMg?feature=shared

 

What is The Barnet Group?

Barnet UNISON animation explaining the creation of The Barnet Group

1. https://youtu.be/m7wB0hY45Rk?feature=shared
2. https://youtu.be/oN6cxEjMXhk?feature=shared