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Capita: Counting the workers back into easyCouncil  

Austerity, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

On Wednesday 12 December, 2018 I sat in three Capita staff meetings here in Barnet.

It was a joint meeting with Barnet Council and Capita following the decision the previous night to start insourcing services at the Policy and Resources Committee (P & R).

The P&R Committee agreed to look at insourcing services back into Barnet Council in four phases.

Phase 1 – Finance and Strategic HR

These services are due to transfer back in-house on 1 April 2019

 

Phase 2 – Highways and Regeneration

These services will be considered for insourcing between January and September 2019.

 

Phase 3 – Barnet-based customised services – Estates, Social Care Direct, Safety, Health and Wellbeing (SHaW), Strategic Planning, Procurement, Insight, Cemetery and Crematorium

These services will be considered for insourcing between January and September 2019.

 

Phase 4 – Revenues and Benefits, Customer Services, Information Services, Planning (Development Management) and Regulatory Services, transactional HR services (including pensions administration).

These services will be considered for insourcing in 2020.

 

Public Consultation

The Council are consulting Barnet residents about both Capita contracts starting sometime next week and ending in February 2019. More details will be found on the Council web site.

Please note: Barnet UNISON branch meetings begin in January 2019

Wednesday               9th January   Barnet House           CR4

Thursday                   10th January NLBP 4                      Central

Tuesday                     15th January Barnet House           CR2

Wednesday               16th January NLBP 4                      Willow

Wednesday               23rd January NLBP 2                     G2

Tuesday                     29th January Barnet House           CR3

Wednesday               30th January NLBP 4                      Central

Thursday                   7th February Barnet House           1.1

 

Victims of the Outsourcing Nightmare

Uncategorised

“I don’t know if I have the strength to apply for jobs again. I love my job. I love working here. I’m good at doing what I do. I’d made plans around this being a secure job.” 

These are sorts of things colleagues facing redundancy in Children’s Centres are saying, usually through a veil of tears.

Remember this photo?

North London Business Park, New Southgate.
Unison members go on strike over pay and conditions at Barnet Council.
Jeremy Corbin MP also made a visit to show his support.
08/07/15
Anne-Marie Sanderson.

It shows Coppetts Wood Childrens Centre workers on the picket line 2015 joining all members in the fight against outsourcing.

The last 3-4 weeks Barnet UNISON has seen one Children’s Centre worker after another in tears. They are being made redundant as Barnet Council cut its budget to school’s based Children’s Centres by £½ million. This has meant that Fairway, Coppetts Wood, Bell Lane and Barnfield Children’s Centres have around 1/3 sliced from their budget. 

Many of these colleagues have been working for Barnet between 10-20 years offering valuable support to vulnerable families and their young children.

But they have done more than this. They have given solidarity to the branch and our members. Coppetts Wood most recently joined our protest about the fire alarms in Barnet House. 

Children’s Centre Staff urgently need your solidarity and support – something they have so readily shared with us.

Please send the branch your thoughts for us to pass on to these workers and come to the Capita Enquiry.

URGENT: Bin workers Pay advice

Austerity, Local, News

Dear Member

We understand a number of our members have had issues with their pay this month.

We have contacted HR and will be insisting that all staff are paid their correct pay immediately.

It is really important that you contact your local rep to make sure you are paid correctly or you can ring the Barnet UNISON office on 0208 359 2088 or email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

 

 

 

 

Blackburn with Darwen Council: Why they ended the contract Capita

Austerity, Local, News, Report, Solidarity, UNISON Campaign

The following email was sent to all 63 Barnet Councillors 30 November 2018

“Dear Councillor

Please find attached Barnet UNISON Briefing Number 3 which provides an insight into a number of decisions made by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council at the following Executive Board Committee meetings.

To aid transparency I am including the link to the relevant reports referred to in our Briefing.

The Blackburn with Darwen story covers a 17 year relationship with Capita when local government was in a very different environment unlike today. Take a look at the which services start to come back and the reasons given for the final group of services to be brought back in-house.

Best wishes

John Burgess”

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

0208 359 2088

www.barnetunison.me.uk

 

To view flyer click on link below

Briefing Number 3 – Blackburn and Darwen

 

Restructures, Consultations, Outsourcing and Insourcing and Redundancies

Austerity, Local, News, Report

Protecting Your Rights at Work.

2018 is shortly to end but not with a whimper.

Restructures and consultations are breaking out across Barnet Council and their Partners

Here are but a few which involve either redundancies, outsourcing, cuts to provision and increased workload:

  • Elections Team
  • Children Centres in Schools
  • Schools Budget cuts
  • #Capita Corporate Programmes Team
  • Early Years Standards Team
  • Council Management Team
  • Greenspaces Team

And there are more to come………….

Our advice to our members is very clear.

Do not face this alone.

Please make sure you contact the Barnet UNISON office on 0208 359 2088 or email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk

 

Sheffield Council: Why they decided to bring all services back in-house from Capita

Austerity, Local, News, Report, UNISON Campaign

 

To view Barnet UNISON Briefing Number 2 Part Two click on link below

Briefing Number 2 – Sheffield Part Two

“Some of the resource saving opportunities identified in the proposed options could be utilised to invest in service delivery and improve the service delivered to Sheffield citizens (and potentially increase council revenue collection).”

http://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/documents/s32596/Future%20of%20Revenues%20Benefits%20FBT%20Services%20-%20Cabinet%20Report.pdf

Sheffield Council: Why they decided to bring their IT back in-house from Capita

Austerity, Local, News, Report, UNISON Campaign

“The current partnership agreement has a break clause in 2020 which would enable the Council to end the contract then and avoid the full impact of the termination costs and some of the exist costs. We have considered this option and discounted it because it would prevent us from making progress with our Technology 2020 Strategy in the required timescales. It would also mean that we would be continuing to pay for the ICT Service at the contractual rate for at least another year and we would miss the opportunity to take the savings earlier. Making a decision now would also impact the assessment of the remaining services (see paragraph 1.10).”

(Source: http://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/documents/s31155/Technology%20Strategy%20and%20Sourcing%20Approach.pdf

The following Barnet UNISON Briefing was sent to all Barnet Council Councillors

Briefing Number 1 – Sheffield Part One

 

Breaking News: “Seriously are they really keeping Capita?”

Austerity, Local, News, Report, Solidarity, Trades Dispute, UNISON Campaign

 

Barnet UNISON was bitterly disappointed to read that Barnet Council is now back tracking on a decision agreed at a Special Policy and Resources Committee on 19 July 2018.

The decision was to review the council’s partnership with Capita, and authorise the Chief Executive to develop a Full Business Case for all of the following Options:

  1. Keep both Capita contracts as they are now.
  2. Bring some Capita services back in-house from both contracts.
  3. Bring all the services back in-house from both contracts.

“all three options should be fully tested, consulted on and considered in a Full Business Case before a final decision was made”

Barnet Council has now announced that only these services will be brought back in-house:

“It is intended that the report will recommend that Finance and Accounting (excluding transactional services provided from the Darlington shared service centre) and Strategic HR be transferred back to the council by the end of this financial year (March 2019).”

The announcement goes on to add:

“The arrangements for remaining services are still to be considered and timescales will be confirmed in due course. However, it is also likely that the report will recommend that Highways and Regeneration be reviewed as one of the earlier phases.”

The news may come as a surprise to our members, especially in light to recent fraud and the damning Grant Thornton report which is going to be discussed at the Audit Committee on 22 November.

However, Barnet UNISON is not surprised by the decision: this is Barnet.

Last week we sent a report to all Councillors on the Policy and Resources Committee entitled:

 “How bad does it have to get?”

You can read our report here:

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Capita-review-Barnet-UNISON-FINAL.pdf

The sheer number of  Councils ending their contracts with Capita in 2018 is very worrying.

These big contracts are just as complex as the one in Barnet and often involve the same services that Barnet outsourced to Capita.

If Southampton, Sheffield, Blackburn and Birmingham can end contracts with Capita and still make savings then why can’t Barnet?

Barnet UNISON is not giving up on our aim to see all services brought back in-house.

This is why we are directly asking all of our members working for Capita this question:

“If you have any information, questions or concerns that you think we should know about, strictly in confidence, please make urgent contact with the Barnet UNISON office on 0208 359 2088 or email contactus@barnetunison.org.uk”

In the meantime take a look at this infographic below for 2018 only.

 

Capita have now paid your Pension contributions

News, UNISON Campaign

To: Barnet UNISON Capita members 

On Monday 29 October 2018, Barnet UNISON received confirmation that Pension contributions have now been paid into Barnet’s Pensions Fund bank account.

We are now seeking responses to the following:

How did this happen?

Does it have am impact on any staff who have either left or retired in the last 18 months?

Why were staff not informed?

End. 

 

Background:

For details as to what happened follow this link https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/2018/10/26/barnet-unison-urgent-pension-information-update-26-october-2018/

 

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