Your Choice Barnet Consultation Paper – UNISON response

Executive Summary

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Inadequate financial arrangements at the setup stage together with poor financial monitoring has resulted in a shortfall in working capital thus requiring £1m loan to improve cash flow to meet day to day payment liability.

The change of the charging basis from block to usage basis and its impact was neither anticipated nor understood leaving an income shortfall of £1m.

The flat charge rate does not reflect the actual costing which can include enhanced payments resulting in income never catching up with costs to produce required profit.

There has been little or no evidence of understanding the business to anticipate deliverable growth for the future.

Winning new business was identified in the Business Plan 2012 as a key area which was critical to the success of the LATC. And yet the Business Plan – a Plan accepted by Barnet Homes – never looked at what might make YCB less competitive, namely the costs.

The inherent continuous pressure on income stream resulting from the methodology used for determining Personal Budgets is either not understood or ignored.

The current proposal undermines the need for qualified, professional, skilled staff to work in areas of care, the consequences of which are dangerous for service users and also for staff.

The Waking night service is set to be radically reduced as there has been no evidence to support the need for this service.

The removal of enhancements of a predominantly female workforce who are also often of black and ethnic minority backgrounds leaves YCB as an ‘associated employer’ open to potential Equal Pay challenges.

Recommendations

1     Return YCB services to L B Barnet

In the event that YCB ignores the above recommendation UNISON recommends the following actions as a matter of urgency:

2     Extend block contract

3     Retain enhancements for staff

4     Cease the benchmarking exercise, see Appendix D

5     Delete the post of Director of Social Care

6     Reinstate fully staffed night shifts

7     Provide an undertaking that an independent forensic financial review is carried out to establish business sustainability and viability of YCB

8     Require Winterbourne training as mandatory for all Board members and senior management.