Westminster UNISON is organising a mass lobby of the next Westminster Cabinet meeting.

Members and Community Groups are urged to meet up outside

Westminster City Hall, Monday 21st February 2011 at 6pm

 

As well as a further 201 redundancies, Westminster Council are proposing to:

Reduce Care services to 3,000 vulnerable adults; Cut £200,000 from the Portman Family Centre; Reduce Street Cleansing; Close Play Centres ; Dismiss Youth Workers employed to reduce gang crime ; Change to the Meals on Wheels service;  Close St James’s Library in September and reduce staff in other libraries with self service machines.

And this is just the beginning. The Tri Borough Report cites 50% reduction in management alone. Phases 5a and 5b redundancies will start next week . As Westminster demands reductions in the contract price from its outside contractors, further services will be reduced and more staff will be made redundant.

This week Housing21 issued 361 redundancy letters to the Home Care workers employed to look after Westminster’s most vulnerable residents.

However, Westminster has spent £3,973,952 on 12 temporary staff, all of whom cost  over £500 a day.

The Temporary Head of Regeneration and Partnerships, costs the Council £745 a day and has cost £453,446 for the 608 days worked for the Council.

A Senior Project Manager, costing £600 a day, has cost the Council £852,600 for 1,421 days’ work, while a Senior Business Analyst, costing £521 a day, has cost the Council £827,400 for 1,588 days’ work.

Information released by the Labour Group last week detailing some £74,259 spent on flowers as well as £91,390 spent on media training. Whilst these sums may not seem large, the spend on flowers alone is equal to two average staff posts (excluding on-costs).

Last night all members of the Cabinet Committee walked out of the above meeting, there was no announcement to the public gallery as to why or where they had gone.

At one stage a rumour circulated that the meeting had moved to the Council Chamber, so residents started to make their way to the Chamber only to find out they were being encouraged to leave the Building. Everyone turned round and returned to the committee rooms where residents began a chorus of “we shall not , we shall not be moved!”.  It felt like a game of hide seek

Perhaps we all missed the message to the Gallery, from the outset there were problems being able to hear what was being said and nigh on impossible for those sitting beyond rows five of the gallery. As I have been to a number of council meetings (sad anorak that I am!) this issue has been repeatedly raised by members of the public and still the issue remains unresolved. All night there were problems with the mike, although on a few occasions it appeared that the mike had been turned off so we couldn’t hear what was said; but that could be just my paranoia?

A concerned member of the public has subsequently contacted the branch and directed us to a DPR which was approved for a new system to be provided by “Sound Advice PA Installations Limited in accordance with their quote in the sum of £111,768.00” you can view DPR here

Public Question Time

This is the spot for residents to submit questions. Residents receive a response to their questions before the meeting and are given an opportunity to ask a supplementary question (members please note this level of scrutiny does not happen if you work for the Private sector).

For this Committee the Council had received an unprecedented amount of questions. Cabinet refused to agree to pleas from residents for Question time to be extended the 30 minute slot, this did not go down well with residents who quickly realised there wasn’t going to be enough time for their questions/issues.

UNISON Marathon Twitter – 14 February

There was so much to see and hear at the meeting, if you want to read the twitter news as it happened last night click here

What the papers say

Hendon Times- Councillors flee meeting due to public outrage

TOP councillors were forced to abandon a crucial meeting in mid-flow last night amid public anger at their plans for this year’s budget………………..During the meeting councillors moved to quieten the crowd with leader Councillor Lynne Hillan telling the group: “There are places where we can have proper discussions and cabinet is not one of them.” ……………….After continued public interruptions transport councillor Brian Coleman said: “I’ve rarely met such rude members of the public.”

To read full article click here

Unison letter to Barnet Council urges review of senior staff pay to save frontline jobs

UNION bosses have urged Barnet Council to look again at their budget proposals in a bid to protect frontline services before tonight’s crucial budget meeting. Read full article here

What the local Bloggers have to say

·         Barnet Eye: “Barnet Council Budget meeting : Bunfight at the KO Coral “

·         Vicki Morris “Civilisation”

·         Mr Reasonable “Lollipop staff and management waste”

The College announced the VS scheme on Tuesday 8th February 2011 and invited staff to apply for figures and information. Staff that are successful in their application will leave on the last working day of February 2011.

The Learning Difficulties department (LLDD) has had to cut 6 courses from its tariff and this means a loss of 70 places for the most vulnerable members of our community and society as a whole.

The Mental Health Department will also be making cuts, another blow to this already disadvantaged section of society and as soon as these are announced, we will bring them to you.

A grave example of too many cuts coming too fast and effecting the future of this and the forth-coming generations’ education and opportunities.

Recommendations

1. The Council undertakes as a matter of urgency a review of all payments to staff not employed directly by the Council.  Furthermore we recommend that the Council refer to the HMRC Guidelines in particular the advice to be found here that explains that “It’s your responsibility to correctly determine the employment status of your workers – that is, whether they’re employed by you or self-employed. This depends on the terms and conditions of your working relationship with each worker. It’s important to get your workers’ employment status right because it affects the way tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) are calculated for them. And it determines whether or not you have to operate PAYE (Pay As You Earn) on their earnings.”

Read full details here

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/start-leave/status.htm

2. Merge the Director’s posts for Adults & Children’s Service

3. Delete the Deputy Director of Children’s Service post.

4. Merge the above Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Executive Directorates Posts; and reconfigure Assistant Director posts to release savings.

5. Reconfigure PHR Directorate by reducing the number of AD posts.

6. Review the salaries for Directors and Assistant Directors with a view to restricting them to a ceiling of no more than £100,000 p.a. (the salary of a social worker is around £33,000 p.a.).

7. Delete Enforcement and Operations manager post.

8. Implement the savings suggested by UNISON and use the money to save frontline posts, such as (no particular order) social worker posts, Sheltered Wardens, Youth workers, the Barnet Garden Project or Children’s Centres workers or training and development posts.

9. Without any dialogue on any of our recommendations outlined above, UNISON is opposed to all job cuts and service reductions. 

To view report click here

Leave the libraries alone. You don’t understand their value.

Best-selling author Philip Pullman spoke to a packed meeting on 20 January 2011, called to defend Oxfordshire libraries. He gave this inspirational speech, which we are very pleased to co-publish with openDemocracy.

“Here in Oxfordshire we are threatened with the closure of 20 out of our 43 public libraries. Mr Keith Mitchell, the leader of the county council, said in the Oxford Times last week that the cuts are inevitable, and invites us to suggest what we would do instead. What would we cut? Would we sacrifice care for the elderly? Or would youth services feel the axe?

I don’t think we should accept his invitation. It’s not our job to cut services. It’s his job to protect them.

Nor do I think we should respond to the fatuous idea that libraries can stay open if they’re staffed by volunteers. What patronising nonsense. Does he think the job of a librarian is so simple, so empty of content, that anyone can step up and do it for a thank-you and a cup of tea? Does he think that all a librarian does is to tidy the shelves? And who are these volunteers? Who are these people whose lives are so empty, whose time spreads out in front of them like the limitless steppes of central Asia, who have no families to look after, no jobs to do, no responsibilities of any sort, and yet are so wealthy that they can commit hours of their time every week to working for nothing? Who are these volunteers? Do you know anyone who could volunteer their time in this way? If there’s anyone who has the time and the energy to work for nothing in a good cause, they are probably already working for one of the voluntary sector day centres or running a local football team or helping out with the league of friends in a hospital. What’s going to make them stop doing that and start working in a library instead?

You can read the full article here

Critics of the Future Shape/EasyCouncil/One Barnet programme have gone on the record that despite all the rhetoric about new and innovative approaches to service delivery the Council are simply embarking on mass privatisation. Unlike the failed privatisation projects (also known as Compulsory Competitive Tendering CCT) this time they are attempting to privatise the whole council.

“Is this an exaggeration?”

This week almost 800 staff working in a number of council services were told that their days working for the Council were numbered.

I attended 7 staff briefings earlier this week and listened to claims  that the Option Appraisal was an objective & evidence based process!

Furthermore staff were told that the decision was not predetermined, however I can report that staff do not believe that and I think I can say with confidence that they know this is a political decision.

It is becoming increasingly clear that we are facing the return of the mad dogma known as “Private Good Public Bad!”

In the briefings staff asked about business cases and evidence behind the decision, but we all know that there is no evidence behind these projects.

The Trade Union reports produced by Professor Dexter Whitfield have exposed the lack of evidence and inconsistency in the above programme. Last year Grant Thornton the external auditor detailed a number of serious risks about this Programme.

So why do I make this claim. I thought I would look at the list of services that have already gone through the first stage of Future Shape.

Take a look at the number of council services all of which have gone through an Options Appraisals and all have produced a decision to privatise with the exception of Legal service (apparently there isn’t market for Legal Services, amazing really considering how often the Council goes to the private sector law firms for legal advice!).

Mass privatisation……?

24 out of 25 Council services have now been told they are to be privatised!  

1. Building Control & Structures
2. Planning (Development Management)
3. Strategic Planning & Housing Strategy
4. Regeneration
5. Land charges
6. Highways Transport & Regeneration
7. Highways strategy
8. Highways Network Management
9. Highways Traffic & Development
10. Environmental Health (Residential & Commercial)
11. Hendon Cemetery & Crematorium
12. Trading Standards & Licensing
13. Registration & Nationality
14. Parking Service
15. Coach Escorts
16. Passenger Travel
17. Customer Services
18. Adult Social Care
19. Estates
20. Facilities
21. Procurement
22. Human Resources
23. Information Services
24. Revenues & Benefits
25. * Legal Services

* to be retained in-house

 

 

To view video click here

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Big Society Bites back!

Yesterday over a 1,000 people took to the streets of Barnet in protest against cuts to public services in Barnet.

The march through Thatcher’s former constituency to the Arts Depot (also under threat from cuts to funding) was organised by Barnet UNISON, Trades Council and Barnet Alliance for Public Services.

The turnout provided a clear message to local politicians that the community is at last waking up to the reality of what the ‘Cuts, Cuts Cuts’ agenda means to them and their families.

John Burgess, Branch Secretary said:

“The Coalition’s Big Society is being turned on its head. Their vision of dumping responsibility back onto the community is being rejected by local residents and staff. The Councils stealth taxes (i.e. increased charges for services) and the cuts to care services for vulnerable adults forcing carers to take on more are simply not acceptable. We are being told that frontline services would not be affected, yet the Budget seeks cuts to mental health services, youth services, school crossing patrols, children’s centres, learning difficulties provision, care packages and much more.”

The march finished at the Arts Depot and protestors entered a packed auditorium to hear speakers talk about the impact of the Cuts.

Tariq Ali castigated the adherence by all parties to the idea of the market as a solution to all problems.

Frances O’Grady, deputy general secretary of the Trades Union Council (TUC) gave a rousing speech “We can see Barnet is a window on Cameron’s Britain. This is the way he wants all of Britain to go. “Never mind easyJet this is Ryanair public services. Not necessarily cheap but definitely nasty.”

Other speakers included Linda Perks UNISON Regional Secretary, who condemned the “idiotic easycouncil model which this council are grimly determined to foist on us: three years old and still having millions of pounds of our money spent on it, with not a single penny made in any savings!”

Robert Johnson, of Barnet Voice gave a powerful speech about what he saw as a massive cut to mental health services he claimed a his group, a grass-roots mental health organisation, faced a 33 % drop in funding and an “uncertain future” helping people in the borough.

Resident Susan Dunning, who attended the march said: “We had people here angry about the cuts to so many different services across the borough including mental health care, youth services and park maintenance “So many children’s centres which have just been opened are now due to be closed. “People on crutches, in wheelchairs, with prams turned up to join the march.”

Rock Against the Cuts (RAC)

This was the launch of RAC  with The Foundations’ headlining also on the bill was Boz Boorer, the False Dots, The Hamptons and 13 Riots. The audience really appreciated the performances, plans are already underway for a bigger fund raising event a number of known artists have declared their willingness to support the event.

 What next

On 15th March 2011, for a discussion with Prof. Dexter Whitfield, Director of the European Services Strategy Unit, author of One Barnet Critique – the analysis of the One Barnet Framework. The meeting will seek to find out what the real cost of the cuts will be to the Barnet residents.

Meeting starts at 19:00 in the Greek Cypriot Community Centre, 2 Britannia Road, London N12 9RU.

End.

Contact: John Burgess Barnet UNISON on 07738389569 or email: john.burgess@barnetunison.org.uk

 Background: 

BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-england-london-12318150

 ITV http://www.itv.com/london/council-protests51114/

 Photographs

·         You can view pictures of the march here on Flickr and here 

·         To view Video clip click here