100 reasons why One Barnet is high risk and bad for residents and services

acknowledgements to Joseph aka The Splittist

Barnet UNISON Press Release: 29 August 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 100 reasons why One Barnet is high risk and bad for residents and services

In 100 days time on Thursday 6 December at 7 pm in Hendon Town Hall members of Barnet Council Cabinet Resources Committee will formally award aten year contract to either BT or Capita.

UNISON has published a link to a list of 100 reasons why One Barnet is high risk and bad for residents and services in order to demonstrate the serious risk and concerns which have been raised by local trade unions, staff, and residents over the last four years.

Over the last four years our union has submitted over 30 detailed reports to the Council in an attempt to discuss an alternative less risk approach to delivering services to the residents of Barnet.

But time is running out in just over a 100 days’ time (6 December) a handful of Conservative councillors will sit in a committee room in Hendon Town Hall and agree a contract worth up to £750 million to either Capita or BT.

UNISON is still seeking a meeting with the Leader and members of his Cabinet to discuss an alternative to the high risk £Billion pound One Barnet gamble.

Until we have this meeting yesterday marked the beginning of a hundred (there may be more) reasons why One Barnet Programme needs to be abandoned and an alternative plan be approved.

Branch Secretary John Burgess said “We are asking for a public sector comparator to be developed using in house local expertise. We are concerned big business views Barnet Council services as simply a line on a spreadsheet”

End.

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

Background

Barnet Council is implementing a policy known as the One Barnet Programmeand sometimes referred to as the ‘Commissioning Council’. This mass outsourcing policy is designed to the divest itself of responsibility to deliver services to its residents. The first One Barnet project known as New Support Customer Services Organisation (NSCSO) will be for back office services such a Finance, Revenues & Benefits, Estates, IT, HR & Payroll etc, it is estimated to be worth up to£750 million pounds with a opportunity to extend for a further five years. The second One Barnet project known as Development & Regulatory Services (DRS) is due to go to Barnet Council Cabinet Resources Committee on 8 January 2013 where a contract worth up to £275 million pounds will be awarded to CapitaSymonds or EC Harris.

Both contracts are for ten years with an option to extend for a further five years.

Links

100 reasons why One Barnet is high risk and bad for residents and services

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/?q=node/969

Keep up to date go to the New Barnet UNISON website at

http://www.barnetunison.me.uk

Might the existence of tenants' rights be "perverse left-wing dogma"

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/123161 Letters Shapps's vision already nearly reality Tuesday 28 August 2012  Printable  Email Right-wing think tank director Neil O'Brien said: "I don't believe anybody has the right to live in the most expensive parts of town," while Housing Minister Grant Shapps said that for local authorities to sell off vacant properties in more expensive areas was a "blindingly obvious" solution to fiscal shortfalls and stimulating home building (Tories plan ghettoes for council tenants, M Star August 20). Well, away from Ministry of Truth daily news output and BBC "home-owner TV" programme content that gets sold on to satellite channels, caps on central government funding for social housing are apparently leading some residential social landlords to attempt to do just what O'Brien and Shapps are advocating. This is despite the fact that tenanted homes containing secure tenancy agreement tenants prohibit sale of a property on the open market if the tenant does not want to be uprooted after as many as 28 years in the same location. Many are being bought by overseas investors fleeing their own dodgy economies and are then left empty. While deregulation of banking and the housing market have led to exponential growth of house prices since the 1980s,  http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/123161 Letters Shapps's vision already nearly reality Tuesday 28 August 2012  Printable  Email Right-wing think tank director Neil O'Brien said: "I don't believe anybody has the right to live in the most expensive parts of town," while Housing Minister Grant Shapps said that for local authorities to sell off vacant properties in more expensive areas was a "blindingly obvious" solution to fiscal shortfalls and stimulating home building (Tories plan ghettoes for council tenants, M Star August 20). Well, away from Ministry of Truth daily news output and BBC "home-owner TV" programme content that gets sold on to satellite channels, caps on central government funding for social housing are apparently leading some residential social landlords to attempt to do just what O'Brien and Shapps are advocating. This is despite the fact that tenanted homes containing secure tenancy agreement tenants prohibit sale of a property on the open market if the tenant does not want to be uprooted after as many as 28 years in the same location. Many are being bought by overseas investors fleeing their own dodgy economies and are then left empty. While deregulation of banking and the housing market have led to exponential growth of house prices since the 1980s, might the existence of such tenants' rights be what Mr Shapps considers "perverse left-wing dogma" standing in the way of a "free market" solution to problems caused by "free market" policies? Raymondo Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group Rev Paul Nicolson Taxpayers Against Poverty Dan Morton Social Work Action Network London If you have enjoyed this article then please consider donating to the Morning Star's Fighting Fund to ensure we can keep publishing your paper. Donate to the Fighting Fund here standing in the way of a "free market" solution to problems caused by "free market" policies? Raymondo Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group Rev Paul Nicolson Taxpayers Against Poverty Dan Morton Social Work Action Network London If you have enjoyed this article then please consider donating to the Morning Star's Fighting Fund to ensure we can keep publishing your paper. Donate to the Fighting Fund here

FUNDRAISER for the Green Party Trade Union Group 25th AUGUST 7.30PM

FUNDRAISER for the Green Party Trade Union Group with quiz social etc GP members and friends welcome

SATURDAY 25^th AUGUST 7.30PM

(preceded by formal gptu meeting at 6pm)

Basement, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street
London EC2A 4LT (OLD ST tube)

 Some food and drink provided but bring some too

CHEAPSKATE P.R.Murry will also celebrate another year on this planet with a Birthday party 

Tel: 07736525187  Email yrrumuk@yahoo.co.uk

WE THE undersigned believe that a proposal to close some group homes for adults with learning disabilities is wrong.

from Brighton & Hove council website

e Petition details

WE the undersigned believe that a proposal to close some group homes for adults with learning disabilities is wrong. These people are some of the most vulnerable living in our city and often have no voice of their own. They deserve the same rights as any other citizen, that they be allowed to remain in their own home as they choose. to remove them from their own home for financial reasons is morally wrong and any move would have a detrimental effect on their health and well-being. We call upon Brighton and Hove City Councillors to reject this proposal.

This campaign is supported by UNISON, staff who care for adults with learning disabilities, family members.

Started by: Sue Beatty (UNISON Brighton & Hove Branch)

This petition runs from 14/08/2012 to 13/09/2012.

54 people have signed this e Petition.

NB you may need to go to b& h council website to sign this

It is not just a matter for B&;H residents, the first Green local govt in the county ha a responsibility to people everywhere to set an example (p/Murry GL;GPTU Secretary (personal capacity))

North West London NHS - Under the Knife,

Dear All,

              The campaign against the plans to close the Accident and Emergency department at Central Middlesex Hospital with the result of running down the hospital, as well as similar plans for several other hospitals in North West London continues.

 

We will be leafletting and petitioning against the plans in Harlesden (Jubilee clock) and Willesden Green ( Sainsbury’s) tomorrow, Saturday 18th August from 3-5 p.m.

 

Please come along and show your support, and, if you can spare some time, help with the campaign.

 

If you have not already done so, please sign the petition on Brent Council’s website urging the Council to do all it can to prevent the closure of the A & E department at Central Middlesex. The petition is here:http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=35&RPID=2700845&HPID=2700845

 

The health authorities consultation document is here:http://www.healthiernorthwestlondon.nhs.uk/

Dr John Lister's response, North West London NHS - Under the Knife, is attached.

 

The next Brent meeting of the campaign to Defend the health Service is next Wednesday 22nd August, 7.30 p.m. at the Trades Hall, 375 High Road, NW10 2JR.

 

Please do all you can to encourage others to support this important campaign in any way they can.

 

Pete Firmin

No to ‘Prisonfare’ – Real jobs Now!

MONDAY 13 AUGUST 2012

illustration: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout

We are shocked and outraged by revelations that a green energy firm, Becoming Green, has been using prisoners to staff its call centres. The company, based in Cardiff, has been bussing in prisoners from nearby and paying them as little as 40p an hour (£3 a day).
After this was revealed, HMP announced it had plans to move entire call centres into prisons. This is a form of 21st century slavery, where rehabilitation is scrapped in favour of hyper-exploitation. It is, in the words of the Unite union, dickensian.
If Becoming Green is a test case for this, we should be very concerned. As well as using inmates as almost free labour it has sacked 17 fully paid workers since December, with prisoners now accounting for 15% of the workforce. At the moment in Britain 1 in 12 people are unemployed while more than 20% of young people aged 16-24 are without work.  The scheme proposed by HMP will only accelerate this trend as firms outsource operations into prisons in a bid to boost profits.
It will also, no doubt, create a competitive downward pressure on wages. In the midst of a recession, with GDP and living standards tumbling, these measures will not aid recovery but lead the economy further into the quagmire it’s in. As with the governments workfare scheme, ‘prisonfare’ is a policy aimed at massively increasing the profits of a handful of people while entrenching poverty for the majority.
It is vital that the trade union movement acts to stop this attack on jobs and incomes – and to defend those who are suffering at the sharp end of this exploitation. We offer our full support for action which calls for Becoming Green to withdraw and for the government scheme to be scrapped.
Bob Crow – RMT General Secretary
Andy Richards – Unite Wales General Secretary
Belinda Robinson – Unite Wales Regional Women’s and Equalities Officer
Ian Hodson - National President, Bakers Food & Allied Workers Union
Seb Cooke – Right To Work South Wales
Marianne Owens – Vice Chair PCS Wales
Steve West – PCS DWP Group Executive
Anne Greagsby – Green Party Wales Campaign Co-ordinator
Daniel De’Ath – Cardiff councillor
Celia Love – Cardiff councillor
Glenn Page – Plaid Cymru Ifanc (Plaid Cymru Youth)
Richard Morse, Secretary Torfaen Trades Council
Dr Liza van Zyl, UCU Wales vice chair
Andrew Wilkes Wales Rep, Unite National Construction Rank and File Committee
Cerith Griffiths Wales FBU Chair
Ramon Corria, Secretary Cardiff Trades Council
Clive Taylor, Branch Organiser, PCS South East Wales Branch
Andrew Jinks, Plaid Cymru and Unite community member
Jon Gamble – Secretary, Watford Trades Council
Sean Wallis – Branch secretary, UCL UCU
Adam Johannes, Cardiff Unemployed Daytime Disco
Mark Dunk – Right to Work and Unite community member
Andy Parsons PCS
Jaime Davies USDAW
Charlotte Bence Unison
Amelia Barker
Sophie Roberts

Following last weeks protest 
Right to Work South Wales
 has initiated an open 
letter challenging the use 
of prison labour to replace 
call centre workers
 in Cardiff.

Activists are also building 
for another demonstration 
outside the offices of 
Becoming Green
 this week.

To add your name to the letter contact 
rtwsouthwales@gmail.com

No to ‘Prisonfare’ 

– Real jobs Now!

JOIN THE DEMONSTRATION:

Assemble 4.30pm on Wednesday 15^th August.
Becoming Green
Eastgate House
Newport Road
Cardiff

Petition to ban teachers on the cheap

PLEASE SIGN PETITION AT http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/12405

That the government makes it a legal requirement that any person supervising, covering and teaching classes in England must hold QTS.

Responsible department: Department for Education

There is an urgent need for the Department of Education to introduce new legislation or an amendment, making it a illegal for schools and academies to use people without qualified teacher status to cover, supervise or teach classes in England. Unfortunately at present the government policy is to talk about improving the standards of teachers and the qualifcations for those wishing to become teachers, while allowing schools to use any unqualified person, without QTS to teach lessons on both a temporary and permanent basis.

We have at present around 50,000 unemployed teachers and if you include the supply teacher population, it means that around 1 in 5 of all qualified teachers are not in a permanent post. we ask the government to address this issue of teachers without a post by making it a legal requirement that any covering, supervising and teaching classes must hold qualified teacher status and in doing ensure that educational standards are maintained.

GPTU supports Remploy workers

According to the UNITE website workers at the following Remploy factories are taking industrial against the threats of closure and unemployment:


 Aberdare, Aberdeen, Abertillery, Acton, Ashington, Barking, Bolton, Bridgend, Bristol, Clydebank, Coventry, Cowdenbeath, Croespenmaen, Haringey, Leicester, Manchester, Merthyr Factory, Neath Port Talbot, Newcastle, Norwich, Poole, Porth, Portsmouth, Spennymoor, Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea and Wrexham.


The Green Party and the  Green Party Trade Union group have supported Remploy workers in similar disputes in the past. The  Green Party Trade Union group sends its support to all Remploy taking action to defend their jobs. GPTU urges all the  Green Party members and others who wish ti show their support to visit http://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/remploy_-_not_for_sale.aspx to sign the Remploy  petition and send tweets of support