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For those staff not being outsourced Barnet Council has plans for you. Next Thursday the Remuneration Committee is meeting to discuss implementation of another One Barnet policy you can view the reports here

Not content with sending the majority of the workforce to the private sector and the redundancies which have inevitably followed they are now seeking to impose a grading scheme which we believe in a reduction in pay. Since 2009 pay has fallen by 13% and is now more than 10% below where it was in 1996

The headlines are the coming away from national pay bargaining, No automatic increments and changing the scheme which grades council posts.

Judging from previous failure of the Council to genuinely engage in meaningful consultation with the workforce & trade unions on One Barnet we are asking members to attend a branch meeting on Tuesday 25 September 12 pm in Conference Room 1 Food & Refreshments will be provided

 The council are seeking to reach a collective agreement with UNISON on theser proposals it is important that our members provide feedback on what your key demands are.

Dear Councillor

Please find enclosed the first in a series of briefings to all councillors in regard to the One Barnet programme. ( to view briefing click here )

·         Over the past four years UNISON has produced over 35 detailed reports

·         UNISON has consistently sought a meeting to discuss an alternative to the One Barnet programme

·         UNISON has attempted to provide a briefing on our concerns to all councillors in May and June this year

·         UNISON offered a meeting with the Chief Executive and the Leader back in March 2012

·         UNISON is still seeking a meeting with the Leader and members of the Cabinet Committee

·         UNISON does not seek any preconditions for this discussion other than the Council genuinely enters into this dialogue with an open mind.

In my experience most councillors with whom I have spoken many will say they know very little about the One Barnet projects and many admit not having read the reports we have published. This is worrying in light of the fact that the Council is radically changing to a Commissioning Council where it no longer provides services.

Already we have seen council staff working for the following services transfer out of the council

·         Legal Services,

·         Parking Services,

·         Adult Social Care,

·         Housing services

Later this year decisions will be approved at Cabinet Committee to outsource two big One Barnet projects (NSCSO & DRS) worth up to £1Billion pounds which will tie the Council into *10 year contracts.

In November this year a decision will be made on the service delivery model for the One Barnet Street Scene project. Judging by the direction of travel of all other One Barnet projects it is likely that the outsourced model will be the one selected.

Even though these decisions are going to be made by Cabinet Committee the financial and electoral impact will affect all councillors not just for the short term but beyond the Council elections in 2014 and 2018

I hope you will take time to read our briefings, furthermore if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.

*= ‘Health Warning: There is no such thing as a flexible contract.’

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

0208 359 2088

www.barnetunison.me.uk

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Defend Our Pensions

Open Letter to all 63 Councillors in the London Borough of Barnet

Dear Councillors,

It must be a challenging task to make decisions on behalf of all the residents in the London Borough of Barnet. These decisions involve so many areas of our lives – education, social care, health, housing, the environment. It must be even more difficult at a time of austerity when you are forced to make such difficult decisions about how to spend our money wisely and to the benefit of all of us.

On 29 November 2010 those of you who were members of the Cabinet approved the programme sponsored by the Chief Executive, the One Barnet programme of privatisation, which will award two contracts worth more than one billion pounds to private companies for a period of 10 years. In November 2012 all of you will be asked to approve this programme of privatisation. What a heavy burden of responsibility it must be to make such a huge financial commitment on our behalf. It is inevitable that residents will assume all of you are equally responsible for decisions made regarding the One Barnet programme of privatisation, and will hold you all accountable for its impact on their lives, its cost and its success or failure.

Experts in local government and on the impact of privatising services, as well as residents and council employees, have voiced concerns, but there seems to be a great reluctance on the part of representatives of Barnet Council to discuss or reveal details about the One Barnet programme of privatisation, despite residents, Unison and the Association of Public Services Excellence inviting them to attend discussions on the implementation of this programme. Have all of you been given the information needed to understand the impact of the privatization plan? Have all of you had enough time to debate the issues and difficulties in effective implementation of this plan?

When a new policy is implemented, there is always the risk of something going wrong and, with the amount of money being committed to the One Barnet programme of privatisation, any failure could have a huge impact both on Council finances and on services. Is there a Plan B if the One Barnet programme of privatisation is found to be unfit for purpose? If, as part of the privatisation programme, 70% of council employees become employees of a commercial company, how many staff will the Council retain to help put things right if or when something goes wrong?

When we elected you, we put our trust in you to make wise decisions on our behalf, using our money, but we did not give you the right to introduce new policies without consulting us. As you weigh up the pros and cons of committing us to the One Barnet programme of privatisation, with all its financial and legal implications we implore you to act in the best interests of all of us, residents and council employees alike.

We, as a group of residents, voters and taxpayers, are not satisfied with the proposed privatisation of services, as we believe the quality of our services will diminish.

Ask yourselves this question: you will no doubt put the interests of the residents you represent first, but will a private company be concerned about our best interests as much as the interests of their shareholders and making a healthy profit?

Yours sincerely,

Barnet Alliance for Public Services

7pm

Barnet Council Cabinet

8pm

Barnet Council CRC

Hendon Town Hall NW4

NEW START TIME 6PM

Barnet Council Cabinet

Hendon Town Hall The Burroughs NW4

10.30am-12 noon

New Barnet

Community

Centre, 48-50

Victoria Road,

EN4 9PF

Leafleting,

Petitions, meeting

with East Barnet

Cllr in surgery

7pm

Barnet Council Business Management Overview and Scrutiny

Hendon Town Hall,

The Burroughs,

London NW4

Full Barnet Council meeting – “One Barnet referendum” PETITION SUBMITTED

Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs,London NW4

Following the merger of the two former Colleges and the recent completion of the middle management restructuring, the next stage of the merge restructuring is to review all service area structures to bring together the two former structures and respond to the requirements of the new organisation.  The new management team are planning to issue proposals in relation to these structures for consultation during the Autumn Term, this will effect UNISON members.

At a recent support staff interest group, UNISON raised some queries regarding how the existing curriculum administrative support is undertaken and acknowledged that the structures in place at the two former Colleges operate differently for the provision of this  services and offered to assist with the audit of the curriculum administration arrangements currently in place to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current structures and practices, understand the roles currently in place and the requirements for this service going forward. 

As a result it has been agreed that UNISON and Organisational Development/HR (OD/HR)  will undertake a curriculum admin audit and feed the finding through to the Executive Leadership Group (ELG) for consideration when reviewing the proposed structures going forward.

To undertake this work UNISON and OD/HR will be holding focus group meetings at each site with the different staff groups either currently providing this service or using this service to obtain your input and hear your views.  Curriculum admin staff, compliance team staff, curriculum managers and teaching staff will be invited to attending these focus groups.  In addition 1-1 meetings will also be held with Academic Heads and Managers of Curriculum Admin and Compliance Team. These focus groups will be held on all sites to obtain your feedback to inform the audit and recommendations being put forward for consideration.  The dates the focus groups are on:

·         22 June at Grahame Park Campus (9-10.30 = Admin Staff; 10.30–11.45= Curriculum Managers; 12 noon–1pm teaching staff in room GP/ F224)

·         28 June at Wood Street Campus (1pm -2pm = Teaching staff; 2pm-3pm = Curriculum Managers in room WS/BG09)

·         29 June at Wood Street Campus (1-2pm = Admin Staff in room WS/BF03)

·         19 July at Southgate Campus (10.30-11.30 = Admin Staff; 12noon – 1pm= Teaching Staff; 1pm-2.30pm = Curriculum Managers in room SG/Staff Training Room)

Please note, whilst this information/report will be useful and will be considered by ELG when preparing the proposals for consultation there will still be a consultation process which will be held during the Autumn Term which will give all staff potentially affected by the service area restructuring and UNISON the opportunity to put forward your/their views, comments and alternative proposals for consideration before final decisions are reached regarding the structures and role responsibilities required for the new structure.

Please try to attend one of these sessions as this provides you with an opportunity to voice your views regarding the admin support you require.  If you are unable to attend please send your comment/views by email to curriculum admin review inbox.