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Barnet UNISON submitted a report to Your Choice Barnet on Friday 31 May (to view our report click here)

Below is the response which came in today

“John,

Many thanks for your response to our consultation paper. I have responded below to the recommendations you have made in that report:

Recommendation 1 Return YCB services to L B Barnet – We do not believe that returning YCB services to LBB offers value for money for our customers and deals with the original drivers for the creation of Your Choice and therefore we do not agree with this recommendation.

Recommendation 2 Extend block contract – Whilst continuing on a block contract delays the need for some of the proposed changes, ultimately we do not believe that extending the block contract offers value for money, especially as this means LBB paying approximately £1million per year more than the market rate for these services. LBB appear to be satisfied the rates they have set in the marketplace deliver good value for money services and therefore our goal will be to continue to work towards delivering services at this rate. We therefore do not agree with this recommendation.

Recommendation 3 Retain enhancements for staff – We have decided to place this recommendation on hold pending the outcome of consultation with our customers

Recommendation 4 Cease the benchmarking exercise – We should be benchmarking and understanding the costs of delivering our services against our competitors in the marketplace and therefore we seek to continue to undertake this. As previously discussed we will seek to consult over any changes that we wish to make arising from this activity. We therefore do not agree with this recommendation.

Recommendation 5 Delete the post of Director of Social Care – I assume this is the Operations Director post for Your Choice, previously held by Amanda Jackson. I can confirm that this has been deleted.

Recommendation 6 Reinstate fully staffed night shifts – We have decided to place this recommendation on hold pending the outcome of consultation with our customers

Recommendation 7 Provide an undertaking that an independent forensic financial review is carried out to establish business sustainability and viability of YCB – I can confirm that we are satisfied that subject to achieving our overall target of savings, YCB is a sustainable and viable business and therefore do not agree with this recommendation.

Recommendation 8 Require Winterbourne training as mandatory for all Board members and senior management – We obviously already do provide full safeguarding training to all YCB staff and have just undertaken an external audit of our safeguarding policies and procedures which were found to be satisfactory, but I can confirm that we are willing to agree to this recommendation in principle, subject to understanding it in more detail so please lets have a further discussion about this.

In respect of the wider proposed changes I have listed an updated position in respect of these below, that we plan to announce shortly:

Senior management changes – The Board agreed to proceed with the deletion of the posts of Director of Operations at Your Choice and Deputy Manager at Valley Way.  The current manager posts at Community Space, BILS and Supported Living will be deleted to create a single, more senior post.  The recruitment process for this post is in progress.

Middle management changes -The Board agreed to proceed with the introduction of service co-ordinator roles at Community Space, BILS and Supported Living, replacing the previous management posts. The recruitment process for the eight service co-ordinators is in progress.

Co-location of Community Space and BILS -The Board agreed that, due to the poor condition of the Flightways building and the planned demolition, we still need to find an alternative venue – but that Community Space was not the right solution. We will work with families of BILS service users to identify a more suitable location.

Supported Living changes -The Board acknowledged that we had underestimated the impact on service users of the proposals to remove waking nights posts and to split the role of support workers. We therefore need to carry out consultation with families of supported living service users before this can be reconsidered. The recruitment process will be postponed until the new structures are agreed.

Reduction of Valley Way waking nights staff – The Board agreed this was still the preferred proposal but that consultation needs to be undertaken with families of Valley Way service users before this could be implemented.

We are seeking to move forward on the senior and middle management changes from from 1 July 2013, as previously planned and will obviously seek to adhere to all contractual notice periods. For the remaining proposed changes, we will put in place arrangements to consult with our customers on these immediately. Where individuals have agreed voluntary redundancy these will still be honoured, and for those services where further consideration is taking place, at the support worker and assistant support worker level, we will offer individuals the option to remain with the organisation pending the outcome of consultation or to leave as planned. If staff leave, temporary staff will be appointed to ensure service continuity.

Regards

Your Choice”

 

Tomorrow Tuesday 11th June at 7pm the Budget and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee meet to discuss the DRS business case. It is a public meeting so anyone can attend. I can report that over 133 questions have been submitted to this Scrutiny committee which is the largest number of questions I have ever seen submitted to a committee.

You can read the questions HERE

THURDAY 6 JUNE, 6-7PM
MARTIN WALK, JUNCTION WITH COPPETTSS ROAD  MUSWELL HILL N10 1JS

Having heard about the shocking fire of the Muswell Hill Mosque which has left it gutted, Barnet UNISON wishes to express its condemnation of such an act and express our sympathy with those directly affected. It follows the deplorable act of the killing of Lee Rigby 2 weeks ago in Woolwich. The relatives of Lee Rigby appealed for no actions of hatred to be taken against any other members of any community. Their calls have been ignored; racist and fascist organisations are using that event to stoke terror and hatred on our Muslim population. The burning down of the mosque has sinister echoes of the 1930s in Europe when Jewish people were under brutal attack.

There is a desperate attempt here to divide our communities and get us to fight amongst ourselves as Miss Dynamite once said in a song: “avoiding acting to the real shit that’s happening to us”.

As far as this branch is concerned, whatever your religion, the colour of your skin, gender, sexuality, we are all in this together and UNISON respects all its members and the communities we serve.  No one needs to feel that they are despised and worth less. If any members of our branch can go to the vigil (details shown below) tonight to show solidarity with the Somali community, then please do so and let us know. If you can come to the branch office and pick up a UNISON flag to take there, that would be appreciated. Other groups and trade unionists will also be there.

See below the statement from Unite Against Fascism about the vigil and please do consider signing the on line petition from Unite Against Fascism, the first signatories of that statement are shown below.

http://uaf.org.uk/2013/06/vigil-for-muswell-hill-mosque-fire/

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/woolwichstatement/

Diane Abbott MP, Jean Lambert MEP, Brian Simpson MEP, Ken Livingstone former Mayor of London, Bruce Kent, Len Duvall London AM, Murad Qureshi London AM, Reverend Hazel Barkham, Varinder Singh Sikhs Against the EDL, Louise Baldock (Liverpool city councillor), Martin Mitchell (Blackpool councillor)

Earlier this week I heard the news that Stan had passed away at the weekend. Feel honoured and proud to have known and worked with him for over 15 years.  Stan was forever optimistic that positive change would happen for all of society, even when his illness was clearly causing him great pain he was still able to show all of us the strength of his convictions. Stan has spoken on a number of UNISON campaigns, marches and public meetings and so is known to many in our union. I along with my fellow trade unionists have been humbled by his many achievements and his energy and intellect. He never shirked from a challenge; so I was not surprised when he turned up to speak at the Barnet Spring march even though a blizzard was raging.  

On behalf of Barnet UNISON I want to pass on condolences to his family.

 John Burgess, Branch Secretary, Barnet UNISON

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 6 June 2013

 

On Tuesday 11 June 2013 Barnet Council’s Budget and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee are to scrutinise the headline grabbing One Barnet Development Regulatory Services (DRS) contract award to Capita Symonds Ltd (Capita). This is the second big One Barnet contract Capita will have won from the council in less than six months.

 

Regulatory Services covers a range of key functions Barnet residents and government consider essential – including maintaining local roads, determining planning applications, enforcing trading standards and food safety – the function of many of these services is to regulate commercial operators in the public interest. 

 

Undoubtedly a key factor in the decision to award the contract to Capita is the claim of £39.1 million of “guaranteed financial benefits” over the lifetime of the 10 year contract.

 

But as the old saying goes “If it looks too good to be true, then it is probably is.” – the key to everything is in the detail.

 

Of the £39.1million “guaranteed financial benefits”¹ only a seventh (£5.3m) is cost savings which is significantly less than the Council’s own 2011 Business Case which claimed cost savings of £19,703,105.

 

The lower Capita cost savings represents a little over £0.5m annual savings.

 

This leaves £33.8 million (86%) of the “guaranteed financial benefits” dependent on winning new business.

 

The report states “Capita Symonds’ proposal for a greater use of automated and web self-service channels and social media may negatively affect certain groups with protected characteristics as there is a risk that they may not directly benefit from these improvements.”  These groups, which include older adults, disabled and vulnerable residents make up a large proportion of the borough’s population and many may feel alienated by these service ‘improvements’.

 

The Capita contract being recommended is entirely dependent on increasing fees and charges to Barnet residents and businesses with the clear intention to seek more work from outside the borough.

 

Our members working across these services are fearful that the Easy Council approach to delivering services will emerge with additional fees/charges if you want to ‘jump the queue’ for services. Is this an indirect stealth tax for council tax payers and local businesses?

 

John Burgess UNISON Branch Secretary said “Should the Council be dabbling in risky business ventures, or should it concentrate on simply providing high-quality value for money services that the people of Barnet expect and deserve? In the current stark economic climate questions need to be asked by councillors at the forthcoming scrutiny committee as to the wisdom of supporting something which is critically dependent on 86% income growth to succeed and where there is no evidence of any other local authorities having expressed an intention of joining the Joint Venture so far.”

 

¹ These Financial Benefits are not necessarily cashable savings which can be realised in cash terms.

 

***** Ends *****

 

Links

 

1. What is One Barnet watch this short animation http://ning.it/Qp5Adx

2. UNISON report on One Barnet DRS contract http://ning.it/11OQWlQ

3. UNISON financial report on One Barnet DRS contract http://ning.it/12mocvO

4. One hundred PLUS reasons why One Barnet is high risk and bad for residents and services http://ning.it/NAyJLY

5. 397 jobs “The true cost of One Barnet outsourcing” http://ning.it/11OSuMT

Executive Summary

Full Report click here

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. 

Your Choice is claiming that the proposed changes to staff terms & conditions are not going to have an impact on service quality.

For the sake of transparency UNISON is providing you with the cuts and changes for staff and we will leave it for you to decide if service quality will change.

Currently Support Workers are paid £12.40-£13.56/ hr and Assistant Support Workers are paid £9.49-£10.07/ hr

M As & When hours: Your Choice rely heavily on As & When hours. We learnt that staff now working As & When have already had their rate cut by 25% before the consultation began.

 

M 28 support workers posts to be reduced to 8 support workers posts.

 

M Creation of 20.5 assistant support worker posts

 

M Enhancements for working evenings to be stopped

 

M Enhancements for working weekends to be stopped  (these are paid at time and a half)

 

M Staff working a 5 day week to be moved to a 7 working week with no extra pay.

 

M Up to a sixth of the workforce have requested and been granted voluntary redundancy.  This will have a massive impact on a client group who have built long term relationships with workers in which ‘trust’ is a critical feature of this relationship.

 

M Your Choice has commissioned a consultant to carry out a benchmarking exercise with the market competitors. UNISON is already aware that many of the competitors are paying 30% less and some of these well below the London Living Wage.

When Barnet Council decided to embark on its mass outsourcing policy back in 2008, Barnet UNISON made a decision to enlist the support of the Professor Dexter Whitfield to help provide an analysis in order to try and engage in the process. Whilst the One Barnet mass outsourcing is now in its fifth year and the Council continues to embrace the political dogma of outsourcing, we are starting to see some of the earlier One Barnet outsourcing projects enter into difficulty. In this case it is the One Barnet Your Choice which was the first One Barnet project to be outsourced in February 2012.

The success of the Your Choice One Barnet Project was predicated on growth even though throughout the process no evidence was produced to substantiate these claims.

Below are a collection of extracts from all three reports produced by Dexter Whitfield on behalf of Barnet UNISON.

Links to the three reports are at the end.

2010

“The Adult Services option appraisal is limited in scope and depth of analysis and does not provide an acceptable evidence base on which to make fundamental decisions about the future provision of the services. The Council has a fiduciary duty to safeguard the public interest in the management of public services and assets and an obligation to maintain the integrity of the options appraisal and procurement processes. The Adult Social Care In-House Provider Services options appraisal fails to meet these obligations and responsibilities.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield, Barnet UNISON  2010)

“If the Council intends to create the conditions for a repeat of post-transfer Fremantle style changes to terms and conditions then there will almost certainly be strident staff, trade union and community opposition.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2010)

2011

“The LATC is, in effect, a cost cutting mechanism. An arms length trading company, with a proscribed budget, will be the service provider and employer, so the Council can relinquish responsibility for decisions taken by the company.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2011)

“Detailed financial information has been excluded from the final version of the Business Case for no apparent reason.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2011)

“Whilst it is true that in-house services cannot be purchased with a Direct Payment, this is not the case for a Personal Budget. A service user can decide to have part of the Budget used for in-house services and the rest of it paid out as a Direct Payment. Indeed a service user may wish to have none of the Budget paid out as a Direct Payment. These arrangements are already in place in the Council and we have been provided with a breakdown from Adult Social Services demonstrating that all these variations exist.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2011)

“the Council intends to use personal budgets as a market mechanism to manipulate the market. They will be used to drive down costs, primarily, staffing costs, or to increase user charges so that users are forced to ‘pay more for less’.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2011)

“The lack of a market analysis increases the risks for the LATC, service users and staff because a decision is being taken to establish a trading company without a clear understanding of the sector or market within which this company will have to operate.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2011)

 

2012

 “A small reduction in income or an increase in costs will result in substantial losses for Adult Services – the business plan concedes Your Choice company is financially vulnerable. There is no assurance provided on the quality or reliability of data and assumptions used.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2012)

“The policy of self-sustaining services, cost reduction strategies and pressure to maximise income to achieve profits will lead to new and increased charges.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2012)

“Staff will face increased pressure on staffing levels, morale, working practices and terms and conditions, potentially leading to job losses and redundancies.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2012)

Barnet UNISON demand: “The block contract transitional phase for Adult Services should be extended to three years.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2012)

 

“The business case had a number of shortcomings:

• Corporate impact and strategic risks are inadequately addressed.

• Neither a value-for-money assessment nor a sensitivity analysis has been carried out. In addition, a cost benefit appraisal that includes wider impacts (economy, equalities, sustainability, environment) and distributional impacts.

• Fundamental questions and concerns regarding risk assessment, employment issues and equalities policies remain.”

 

“There has been a significant change in the financial forecasts of Adult Services between the business case (approved by Cabinet Resources Committee in May 011) and the publication of the Barnet Group Business Plan in early January 2012, seven months later …… Either gross mistakes were made in the preparation of the business case, or a new series of spending cuts and/or closures are planned to achieve this level of expenditure reduction.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2012)

“The response to the high risks in Your Choice consists of cost reduction programme, deliver quick wins and programme further efficiencies, and close down schemes/services that cannot support themselves financially longer term. All the action in risk management has an April 2013 deadline.” (ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2012)

 

Links

1. ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2010 http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/barnet-adults-options-appraisal%202010.pdf

2. ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2011 http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/analysis-of-business-case-for-local-authority-trading-company%202011.pdf

3. ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2012

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/latc-analysis-2012.pdf

Join us

at the Your Choice Care workers lobby

On Wednesday 29 May at 5.30 pm outside Barnet House, N20

At 6pm we will be attending the Your Choice Board Meeting

This campaign concerns the plight of low paid social care workers facing a massive cut to their pay and terms & conditions. The scale of the attack is unprecedented and will drive already low paid workers further into poverty.

But it is not just the attacks to staff which are our concern, it is the impact this will have on the service delivery to vulnerable adults with disabilities.

UNISON is concerned that by ‘dumbing down’ care work will impact on quality of care as we have seen in the past at the private Winterbourne hospital where profit was put before care of residents.

‘Your Choice’ care workers are carrying out critical and personal care for vulnerable service users; which makes it all the more abhorrent to hear the case for these cuts is driven by the need to make a profit.

During consultation it has been confirmed the finances are worse that we were first led to believe. Apart from the £1million loan from Barnet Homes, they now need to make another £1million from staff costs.

UNISON is campaigning to bring these critical services back into the Council. The more we learn about the finances the more concerned we are. Instead of Barnet Homes spending their reserves on propping up a failed One Barnet project, they should use this money to try and prevent Barnet residents and their families from being moved out of the borough.

Last year the Council made a commitment in their own business case which said if the project failed they would bring it back in house.

Barnet UNISON commissioned Professor Dexter Whitfield to produce an analysis Barnet Councils proposals to outsource adult social care services. Please find links to reports below.

Links

1. ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2010 http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/barnet-adults-options-appraisal%202010.pdf

2. ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2011 http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/analysis-of-business-case-for-local-authority-trading-company%202011.pdf

3. ESSU Dexter Whitfield Barnet UNISON 2012

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/sites/default/files/latc-analysis-2012.pdf