{"id":10325,"date":"2025-07-31T12:51:36","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/?p=10325"},"modified":"2025-07-31T12:51:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T11:51:36","slug":"money-for-agency-companies-and-capita-but-not-for-our-members-or-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/2025\/07\/31\/money-for-agency-companies-and-capita-but-not-for-our-members-or-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Money for Agency Companies and Capita \u2013 But Not for Our Members or Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Barnet-Council-Agency-spend-2024-to-2025.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"743\" height=\"674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Barnet-Council-Agency-spend-2024-to-2025.png 743w, https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Barnet-Council-Agency-spend-2024-to-2025-300x272.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 743px) 100vw, 743px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Barnet UNISON members are being told there\u2019s no money \u2013 cuts to jobs, services and even our paid time off to represent you are being pushed through.<\/p>\n<p>Yet at the same time, Barnet Council\u2019s spending on agency staff, consultants and Capita has reached record levels.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The reality:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00a324.02 million<\/strong> spent on agency workers in the last year \u2013 an <strong>all\u2011time high<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>\u00a327.03 million<\/strong> paid to Capita in the same year \u2013 even though their role is now limited to Customer Services, IT, Revenues and Benefits (and Payroll has now been taken back in\u2011house from April 2025).<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, frontline services and trade union facility time are under attack.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We have been here before. During last year\u2019s redundancy consultations, the Council told staff the cuts were unavoidable because of the financial crisis. They promised to look at savings and new income streams.<br \/>\nBarnet UNISON set out clear concerns in our briefing, <em>Three Chief Executives and a Plumber<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/2024\/12\/13\/three-chief-executives-and-one-plumber-the-unfinished-story\/\">read here<\/a>), including the spiralling costs of agency staff and Capita contracts. Sadly, those warnings were ignored.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More questionable spending decisions<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Council depot is being partly handed back to Network Rail \u2013 forcing the Council to rent expensive alternative premises despite claiming there\u2019s \u201cno money\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Staff at Colindale are now facing consultation on charging for car parking. One member summed up the feeling:<br \/>\n<em>\u201cThey took away the water, then the tea and coffee, and now they want to take away the free parking. What\u2019s next?\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What happens next?<\/strong><br \/>\nWe are now waiting for the next chapter in the Council\u2019s cost\u2011cutting plan: a report from consultants <em>Peopletoo<\/em> is due to be considered by Cabinet on <strong>Tuesday 16 September<\/strong>. This will set out their proposals for \u201csavings\u201d and \u201cincome generation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Barnet UNISON will keep members updated as soon as we know more \u2013 and we will continue to challenge a system that finds millions for agency staff and Capita but claims it can\u2019t fund the people and services our community depends on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Barnet UNISON members are being told there\u2019s no money \u2013 cuts to jobs, services and even our paid time off to represent you are being pushed through. Yet at the same time, Barnet Council\u2019s spending on agency staff, consultants and Capita has reached record levels. The reality: \u00a324.02 million spent on agency workers in the last year \u2013 an all\u2011time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,106,48,59,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local","category-membership","category-news","category-solidarity","category-unison-campaign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10327,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10325\/revisions\/10327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.barnetunison.me.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}