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Barnet Council Capita consultation : Complete ASAP

Austerity, Local, News, Report, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

To All Barnet UNISON members living in Barnet

I am writing to you as a member of Barnet UNISON and according to our postcode information a Barnet resident.

Barnet UNISON campaigned for over a decade to oppose mass outsourcing to Capita. Sadly the outsourcing meant hundreds of redundancies as jobs were moved out of London. The issues with Capita were not just redundancies, service issues started to emerge across a large number of former Council services.

Barnet UNISON has been campaigning in the community for the past year to bring back services in-house following the collapse of Carillion and Capita’s dramatic share price fall last February 2018.

Following the serious fraud recently committed by a Capita employee the Council has reviewed both contracts and is in the process of bring back Finance and Strategic HR as from 1 April 2019.

Other former Council services currently provided by Capita are now being reviewed to see if they should come back in-house.

Barnet UNISON is campaigning for services to come back in-house.

As a Barnet resident and UNISON member I am encouraging you to take part in Barnet Councils Capita online consultation which you can access.

The deadline to complete the consultation is Friday 15 February 2019. It is really important that Barnet Council hears from residents about Capita.

There are 12 questions including some multiple choice and written responses.

In order to encourage and assist Barnet residents to complete the Capita online consultation I strongly recommend residents read this helpful guidance produced by Barnet Alliance for Public Services here

****Important links******

 

  1. Barnet Council Capita consultation here.

 

  1. Helpful guidance here

 

Bet wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

 

Update for Capita Staff in Finance and Strategic HR

Austerity, Local, Report, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

Dear member

I am currently involved in TUPE transfer consultations for Finance and Strategic HR with Capita and Barnet Council.

***Please note: I have asked for meetings with Capita in relation to HR and Finance workers who currently provide a Traded Service for Schools. At this moment in time this group of workers are not included in this TUPE consultation. However I have had asked for legal advice from UNISON on this decision. Traded Service for Schools are identified in Phase Four groups of services we are being considered for insourcing.

I understand two meetings with staff with Barnet Council and Capita have been arranged on:

Staff briefings

Tuesday 22 January, 2.30 pm in the Boardroom Building 2, NLBP

Wednesday 23 January, 9.30 am in the Boardroom Building 2, NLBP

It would be useful if you can attend one of these meetings. However, as it was published at short notice I will be asking for other meeting dates to be made available for staff.

One to One meetings.

If any Barnet UNISON members wants a one to one meeting with Capita/Barnet Council and would like a UNISON rep to attend please contact the Barnet UNISON Office on 0208 359 2088 or email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

Formal TUPE transfer meetings.

These are formal meetings that I attend with Capita and Barnet Council. The next meeting is in 30 January after which they will be weekly until the staff transfer on 1 April 2019.

Communication

Capita and Barnet Council will be providing regular updates and some frequently asked questions. It is important that if you have any issues or concerns you raise them as soon as possible.

Key UNISON meetings for members

There are a couple of branch meetings at which Capita is on the agenda in order staff can ask questions. You can view the details of these meeting meetings on this link https://bit.ly/2DrdO1C

What about the other Capita Services?

The council confirmed further information on the approximate timescales to review the remaining services:

Phase 1 – Finance and Strategic HR (the focus of this TUPE consultation)

Phase 2 – Highways and Regeneration (review between Jan to Sept 2019)

Phase 3 – Barnet-based customised services – Estates, Social Care Direct,          Safety, Health and Wellbeing , Strategic Planning, Procurement, Insight,     Cemetery and Crematorium (review between Jan to Sept 2019)

Phase 4 – Revenues and Benefits, Customer Services, Information Services,      Planning (Development Management) and Regulatory Services,           transactional HR services (including pensions administration). Will form          part of the Year 7 Contract Review of both contracts from September 2019     onwards.

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

 

 

Capita: Counting the workers back into easyCouncil  

Austerity, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

On Wednesday 12 December, 2018 I sat in three Capita staff meetings here in Barnet.

It was a joint meeting with Barnet Council and Capita following the decision the previous night to start insourcing services at the Policy and Resources Committee (P & R).

The P&R Committee agreed to look at insourcing services back into Barnet Council in four phases.

Phase 1 – Finance and Strategic HR

These services are due to transfer back in-house on 1 April 2019

 

Phase 2 – Highways and Regeneration

These services will be considered for insourcing between January and September 2019.

 

Phase 3 – Barnet-based customised services – Estates, Social Care Direct, Safety, Health and Wellbeing (SHaW), Strategic Planning, Procurement, Insight, Cemetery and Crematorium

These services will be considered for insourcing between January and September 2019.

 

Phase 4 – Revenues and Benefits, Customer Services, Information Services, Planning (Development Management) and Regulatory Services, transactional HR services (including pensions administration).

These services will be considered for insourcing in 2020.

 

Public Consultation

The Council are consulting Barnet residents about both Capita contracts starting sometime next week and ending in February 2019. More details will be found on the Council web site.

Please note: Barnet UNISON branch meetings begin in January 2019

Wednesday               9th January   Barnet House           CR4

Thursday                   10th January NLBP 4                      Central

Tuesday                     15th January Barnet House           CR2

Wednesday               16th January NLBP 4                      Willow

Wednesday               23rd January NLBP 2                     G2

Tuesday                     29th January Barnet House           CR3

Wednesday               30th January NLBP 4                      Central

Thursday                   7th February Barnet House           1.1

 

Blackburn with Darwen Council: Why they ended the contract Capita

Austerity, Local, News, Report, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

The following email was sent to all 63 Barnet Councillors 30 November 2018

“Dear Councillor

Please find attached Barnet UNISON Briefing Number 3 which provides an insight into a number of decisions made by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council at the following Executive Board Committee meetings.

To aid transparency I am including the link to the relevant reports referred to in our Briefing.

The Blackburn with Darwen story covers a 17 year relationship with Capita when local government was in a very different environment unlike today. Take a look at the which services start to come back and the reasons given for the final group of services to be brought back in-house.

Best wishes

John Burgess”

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

0208 359 2088

www.barnetunison.me.uk

 

To view flyer click on link below

Briefing Number 3 – Blackburn and Darwen

 

#Capita commence formal redundancy consultations in #Barnet

Austerity, Local, News, Report, Solidarity

 

 

Yesterday, 22 November 2018 Capita formally commenced a 52 day consultation for the Capita Corporate Programmes team.

The proposal is cut the size of the workforce from 29 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) to 8 FTE which is a 72% cut in the workforce.

Please note: In 2013 when the Corporate Programmes Team transferred to Capita the team was 13.39 FTE. 

The staff to work in Barnet on LBB projects and programmes and work across the following teams/areas:

  • Capital
  • Transformation
  • Technology & Change
  • Customer Transformation Programme

Barnet Council have told Capita they have no requirement for a team of this size for 2019.

Barnet UNISON have raised concern that this proposal has clearly arisen as a result of closed door negotiations with Capita. The negotiations are as a result of the Councils decision to review both Capita contracts at a special Policy and Resources Committee on 19 July 2018 which:

“RESOLVED – That the Committee:

  1. Agrees to review the council’s partnership with Capita, and authorises the Chief Executive to develop a Full Business Case.
  2. Agrees that the proposed strategic aims underpinning the Full Business Case should be to:
  3. a) Deliver high quality services;
  4. b) Secure best value for money for Barnet’s residents; and
  5. c) Strengthen the council’s strategic control of services.
  6. Notes the three options identified and considered in more detail in paragraphs 2.4 to 2.7 and Tables 1 to 4.
  7. Agrees that option 2 – realigning the CSG and DRS contracts to bring back in house those services listed in Table 5 – is the proposed preferred option to be tested in the Full Business Case.
  8. Agrees that option 3 is fully tested and considered in the Full Business Case.
  9. Agrees that the Full Business Case should review the joint venture arrangement for the delivery of Development and Regulatory Services.
  10. Agrees that the Full Business Case should be considered by Policy & Resources Committee, for referral to Council for final decision.”

(Source: http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=692&MId=9725&Ver=4 )

Barnet UNISON has registered concern that this may be the first of a series of redundancy meetings for Capita employees working in other services provided by Capita as a result of negotiations with Barnet Council. We are also concerned that this could be viewed as an attempt to circumvent any TUPE transfers of staff back to the Council.

 

Sheffield Council: Why they decided to bring all services back in-house from Capita

Austerity, Local, News, Report, UNISON Campaign

 

To view Barnet UNISON Briefing Number 2 Part Two click on link below

Briefing Number 2 – Sheffield Part Two

“Some of the resource saving opportunities identified in the proposed options could be utilised to invest in service delivery and improve the service delivered to Sheffield citizens (and potentially increase council revenue collection).”

http://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/documents/s32596/Future%20of%20Revenues%20Benefits%20FBT%20Services%20-%20Cabinet%20Report.pdf

Sheffield Council: Why they decided to bring their IT back in-house from Capita

Austerity, Local, News, Report, UNISON Campaign

“The current partnership agreement has a break clause in 2020 which would enable the Council to end the contract then and avoid the full impact of the termination costs and some of the exist costs. We have considered this option and discounted it because it would prevent us from making progress with our Technology 2020 Strategy in the required timescales. It would also mean that we would be continuing to pay for the ICT Service at the contractual rate for at least another year and we would miss the opportunity to take the savings earlier. Making a decision now would also impact the assessment of the remaining services (see paragraph 1.10).”

(Source: http://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/documents/s31155/Technology%20Strategy%20and%20Sourcing%20Approach.pdf

The following Barnet UNISON Briefing was sent to all Barnet Council Councillors

Briefing Number 1 – Sheffield Part One

 

Breaking News: “Seriously are they really keeping Capita?”

Austerity, Local, News, Report, Solidarity, Trades Dispute, UNISON Campaign

 

Barnet UNISON was bitterly disappointed to read that Barnet Council is now back tracking on a decision agreed at a Special Policy and Resources Committee on 19 July 2018.

The decision was to review the council’s partnership with Capita, and authorise the Chief Executive to develop a Full Business Case for all of the following Options:

  1. Keep both Capita contracts as they are now.
  2. Bring some Capita services back in-house from both contracts.
  3. Bring all the services back in-house from both contracts.

“all three options should be fully tested, consulted on and considered in a Full Business Case before a final decision was made”

Barnet Council has now announced that only these services will be brought back in-house:

“It is intended that the report will recommend that Finance and Accounting (excluding transactional services provided from the Darlington shared service centre) and Strategic HR be transferred back to the council by the end of this financial year (March 2019).”

The announcement goes on to add:

“The arrangements for remaining services are still to be considered and timescales will be confirmed in due course. However, it is also likely that the report will recommend that Highways and Regeneration be reviewed as one of the earlier phases.”

The news may come as a surprise to our members, especially in light to recent fraud and the damning Grant Thornton report which is going to be discussed at the Audit Committee on 22 November.

However, Barnet UNISON is not surprised by the decision: this is Barnet.

Last week we sent a report to all Councillors on the Policy and Resources Committee entitled:

 “How bad does it have to get?”

You can read our report here:

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Capita-review-Barnet-UNISON-FINAL.pdf

The sheer number of  Councils ending their contracts with Capita in 2018 is very worrying.

These big contracts are just as complex as the one in Barnet and often involve the same services that Barnet outsourced to Capita.

If Southampton, Sheffield, Blackburn and Birmingham can end contracts with Capita and still make savings then why can’t Barnet?

Barnet UNISON is not giving up on our aim to see all services brought back in-house.

This is why we are directly asking all of our members working for Capita this question:

“If you have any information, questions or concerns that you think we should know about, strictly in confidence, please make urgent contact with the Barnet UNISON office on 0208 359 2088 or email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk”

In the meantime take a look at this infographic below for 2018 only.

 

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