Warm welcome planned for Capita staff returning to Council employment on April 1st

From Barnet Alliances for Public Services (BAPS) and Kick Out Capita who have campaigned vociferously for out-sources services in the Tory Flagship London Borough of Barnet  to be brought back in-house.  This is a landmark decision and perhaps a warning to other boroughs.

Monday 1 April is officially the first day back into Council employment for former Capita Finance and Human Resources staff. This will mean Phase One of the Capita review has been completed. After years of campaigning, BAPS and the #KickOutCapita campaign invite you: Join us to welcome back the workers who return in-house There will be cake and Welcome notices, feel free to bring your own placards. All welcome! However, we also want to send a very clear message to Barnet Council that we want to see the swift return of all the former Council services, currently provided by Capita, back in-house ASAP. At the moment councillors are considering bringing back the services in phases over 18 months: Phase Two: Highways & regeneration (scheduled to be discussed in Policy & Resource committee in June 2019) Phase Three : Estates, Social Care Direct, Safety, Health and Wellbeing, Strategic planning, Procurement, Insight, Cemetery and Crematorium, Revenues and benefits Phase Four: Customer services, Information Services (IT), Planning (development management and enforcement), Regulatory services, Transactional HR services (including Payroll and Pensions Administration), Any other remaining services.

But we think that the proposed time scale is dragging the process far too long. Other councils like Southampton, Blackburn and Darwen, Sheffield and Birmingham all in-sourced the services within a much shorter time.

Barnet Trades Council and Barnet Alliance for Public Services 'dismayed' over Brent Council's Capita contract

Barnet Trades Council amd Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS) have issued the following statement LINK regarding Brent Council's decision to renew its business rates collection contract with Capita which we reported earlier today LINK

Barnet Trades Council and Barnet Alliance for Public Services are concerned and dismayed that Brent Council wants to renew its contract with Capita. Our experience of Capita is that it has delivered appalling service and therefore we, together with our local Labour Party, are campaigning for all services run by Capita for Barnet to be brought in-house forthwith. #kickoutcapita is our grass-roots campaign.

Examples of Capita’s misdemeanours in Barnet include:

• A two million pound fraud carried out by a Capita employee, Capita’s lax and opaque processes completely failed to detect
• A call centre which has consistently failed to answer residents’ calls in the required time
• Incorrectly withdrawing travel passes from disabled and vulnerable people
• Actually cost taxpayers more money than in-house services would, through extra charges and “gainshare” payments designed to maximise their profits at public expense
• Performed extremely poorly in audits of the council and brought down the overall standards of council services

We urge Brent Council not to renew its contract with Capita. Capita, along with other failed and failing outsourcing giants like Carillion and Interserve have proved to be entirely failed models. We want to Kick Out Capita from Barnet and bring all services back in-house and under local democratic control. Brent Council should do likewise. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell has spoken brilliantly about how properly funded, democratically accountable in-sourced public services are the future for the country and we agree. Together we are stronger.

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Labour Brent Council awards contract to Capita as Tory Barnet consults on getting rid of them

Brent's Labour Council has awarded Capital a further 5 year contract, worth up to £3m, to collect its business rates at the sasme time as Tory Barnet Council is consulting LINK on ending its partnership with Capita (popularly known as Crapita in the borough) and bringing its services back in-house.

In November 2018 Capita agreed to pay Barnet Council £4.12m as compensation for poor performance LINK.

Capita's press release celebrating their new contract with Brent Council quoted Deputy council leader Cllr Margaret McLennan:

Thanks to the big improvements to business rate collection rates, we have been able to invest more in frontline services to make Brent a great place to live and work. The new contract we have signed with Capita will increase the level of business rate collections in Brent and enable us to deliver more efficient services to our residents.

In December Barnet's Kick Out Capita Committee had marked Capita's possible demise with a special Christmas song:

Capita Barnet Scandal: 'Never mind Brexit, it's time for Capzit!'

From Barnet Unison

Grant Thornton was commissioned by the London Borough of Barnet (the Council) to provide support in its response to the discovery of an alleged fraud.

On Friday 21st September 2018 Barnet Council published the Grant Thornton (GT) review LINK
The GT review looked the two Capita contracts below.

Contract 1: The London Borough of Barnet and Capita (BRDS) Limited relating to the provision of Development and Regulatory Services signed 5^th August 2013 “DRS”
Contract 2: New Support and Customer Services (NSCSO) Partnering Agreement between the London Borough of Barnet and Capita Business Services Limited. “CSG” contract commenced September 1^st 2013.

The combined worth of both contracts over a 10 year period £424 million.
GT review reported:

“The individual is believed to have committed a fraud to a detected value of £2,063,972 by directing CPO payments to personal bank accounts.”

“Our view of both contracts has identified a number of significant weaknesses which may have resulted in contractual breaches. We have identified and reported what we believe are fundamental weaknesses in budgetary control and financial accounting.” 

“We note both the DRS contract and the CSG contract detail consequences for the Service Provider of Persistent Breach”.

“Lack of effective review of controls over financial ledgers.”

“The monthly and annual budgetary control process provided by CSG Finance for capital projects in Re lack sufficient rigour to challenge unusual transactions and journal entries.”

“Significant financial control weaknesses”

“Poor accounting controls

“Weakened scrutiny over regeneration scheme KPIs” 

 SOURCE

The GT review goes on to develop five broad themes and referred as control ‘Pillars’. GT had this to say about their ‘Five Pillars’

“In our view, if any one of these controls Pillars was functioning effectively at any point during the period (July 2016 to December 2017) on question it should not have bene possible for the individual to perpetrate the fraud…”

John McDonnell Shadow Chancellor said:

The Grant Thornton (GT) review of the two Capita contracts in Barnet provides yet more evidence of the folly of privatisation of public services. When I read “significant financial control weaknesses…“poor accounting controls” in the GT review it summed up what I have been saying about the current Tory government. They have failed our economy by rewarding their friends in big business, leaving our communities and public services to suffer at the hands their brutal austerity policies. I want to send a personal message of solidarity from the Labour Party Conference to Barnet UNISON and the residents who have fought side by side against a right wing mass outsourcing ideology. I fully support your campaign to #KickOutCapita from Barnet and bring services back in-house.

Professor Dexter Whitfield who recently published a joint review entitled “’Future Shape’ ‘easyCouncil‘, ‘One Barnet’= Failure” with Barnet UNISON on both Capita contracts had this to said: 

The Grant Thornton audit reveals very serious flaws and inadequate operational practice in both the Capita regeneration and back office services contracts. The fact that it took a fraud case to reveal the full nature and scope of these flaws is a damming indictment of Capita and Barnet Councils contract management and monitoring.

Furthermore, implementation of the remedial action plan may address the current inadequacies but gives little reassurance that there are no other serious flaws that remain to be exposed. The audit provides further significant evidence for the Council’s review of both contracts and a decision to terminate the Capita contracts and return to in-house provision as a matter of urgency.

John Burgess, Barnet UNISON Branch Secretary said

I am shocked but not surprised at the content of the GT review of both Capita contracts. Barnet UNISON predicted that service quality would suffer once the services were privatised however there is little comfort in saying “we told you so” for the hundreds of local jobs in Barnet that were lost as a direct result of Capita winning the contracts. What is surprising, is that it took a fraud, to deliver the forensic scrutiny we have long demanded.

Over the past five years frontline in-house services have endured vicious cuts whilst the two Capita contracts have drained badly needed public money, in order to satisfy the needs of Capita shareholders who put profit before quality services to residents. When Capita issued a dramatic profit warning on 31 January 2018, why did the Council not begin discussions to bring services back in-house. It seems clear from the GT review that even at an early stage there were serious endemic financial and budgetary issues. The Council is currently preparing a review of both Capita contracts.

It is my view that in light of the GT review, it is untenable that the Council could even consider allowing Capita to run any of their services again. The relationship between the Council and Capita is in my opinion irreversibly broken, it’s over, and now is the time to end it, no expensive divorce bill, Barnet Councils services, and residents have tolerated enough of the mass privatisation ideology. Never mind #Brexit it’s time for #Capzit”.

UNISON - 'It is time to re-build Barnet Council & start process of bringing services back in-house'

Today Barnet Council have published a financial report detailing three options for the two Capita contracts in Barnet LINK

The options are as follows:

1. Maintain the status quo in relation to the CSG and DRS contracts;
2. Re-shape the contracts to better align service delivery to the council and Capita’s strengths and priorities, within the context of the existing contractual structure; and
3. Bring the partnership to an end, and either bring services back in house or re-procure them.

The senior officers preferred option is Option 2.

They have identified the following services to be brought back into Council control

CSG (Customer Support Group)

• Finance and Accounting (excluding transactional services provided from the Darlington shared service centre)
• Estates (Property Services, Building Services and Facilities Management)
• Strategic HR
• Safety, Health and Welfare
• Insight
• Social Care Direct

Re (Regional Enterprise Ltd)

• Regeneration Commissioning (including commissioning the Brent Cross programme)
• Highways
• Economic Skills and Development
• Cemetery and Crematorium
• Strategic Planning

John Burgess, Branch Secretary of Barnet UNISON, said:

I could say we, told you so, and we did. However the Council is in a financially critical situation and now is not the time to for rhetoric. It is time to start rebuilding our Council. I welcome the report going to Policy and Resources Committee on Thursday 19 July 2018.

However, Barnet UNISON will be supporting option 3 with qualifications. We support bringing the partnership to an end, and beginning the process of bringing services back in house. It is simply not feasible to contain to peddle the Commissioning Council model. Pragmatism driven by the financial crisis has to mean that the Council needs to include in their business case a major restructuring of senior management across the Council including the Barnet Group. The Commissioning restructure 2012 is not fit for purpose. The Council need to look at how services best fit including those within the Barnet Group. There must not be a silo approach to insourcing. 

NOTES FROM BARNET UNISON

Footnote: On 26 June 2017 Capita share price was 705.50 now six months later the share price closed today at 202.09 which represents a 72% drop in their share price over a six month period.
On Wednesday 31 January, 2018 the Capita share price opened up at 347 and closed at 182.50 which represents a 47.53% fall in share price.

Links.
Damning report into EasyCouncil, Outsourcing including forward by John McDonnell
http://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Barnet-UNISON-Capita-report-2018.pdf
Below are three short video messages from Dexter Whitfield on his report.
Dexter Whitfield on campaigning against outsourcing
https://youtu.be/zDt8VKKQ-Vs
Dexter Whitfield on outsourcing failures
https://youtu.be/IiD17Pt7OwY
Dexter Whitfield on true costs of Barnet easyCouncil
https://youtu.be/V0SytYCj1HA

'Blazing row' at Aggregates Consultation ahead of Planning Committee discussion next week

--> It was not a good day for Capita yesterday. Their share price dived and Barnet Unison sought assurances regarding their workers from Barnet Council. Then Capita employees had to meet the angry residents of Dollis Hill alone when planners and Barnet councillors did not turn up at the consultation on the proposed aggregate superhub. A full account of the meeting is available on the Times series site HERE
Residents were not impressed:

Capita, left alone to buffer Barnet Council from the angry public, told the crowd at The Crown that the waste transfer site is owned by the public sector so we can have confidence in it. Oh, the irony! EasyCouncil is now Mike Freer’s Frankenstein monster.

Anne Clarke

The Capita team at last night PR event to promote Barnet rubbish and aggregates facilities. I actually felt sorry for them. No Childs Hill councillors as ever.

Cllr Lia Colacicco   

As I left the so called consultation meeting tonight, someone asked me if I thought Barnet were incompetent or lying. 

I think if their lips move, they’re lying and they are at the competence level of a single celled organism. 

An utter shambolic mess. I got here at six, and the previous presentation, or should I say blazing row, was still going. It blended nicely into the following one. 

Apparently the way Barnet propose to ensure no lorries enter Dollis Hill is that we all need to report them. Oh, and if there’s some kind of disaster at the dump, there’ll be a phone number to report it, too. 

Toys went out the pram bigly.

Alison Hopkins

Meanwhile the agenda for the Barnet Planning Committee for February 8^th has been published LINK and the Superhub recommended for approval.  bAny resolution by the Planning Committee is subject to direction by the London Mayor.

I embed below the Officers’ responses to the consultation submissions:

Barnet Unison seek job security for council Capita staff and call for services to be brought in-house

From Barnet Unison LINK

 This morning Capita staff woke up to some scary headlines that the former FTSE 100 company was in serious trouble.

The next Carillion? Shares in outsourcing firm Capita plunged 40% after profit warning LINK.

Outsourcing giant Capita announced the suspension of its dividend as part of a transformation plan this morning – and shares duly plunged by more than 40 per cent LINK.

This news follows on from the recent collapse of Carillion only a couple of weeks ago. Already political commentators are making comparisons with Carillion and Capita.

In light of the much publicised stress and anxiety experienced by Carillion workers in the wake of the company’s downfall; Barnet UNISON has written to the Chief Executive seeking details of Barnet Council’s contingency plan in the event Capita may have to give up their contracts.

We know that whatever happens there is going to be a great deal of speculation and uncertainty for the staff and whilst UNISON has seen the email from Jon Lewis, Capita’s, new Chief Executive trying to stem anxieties of his 70,000 workforce, we know workers will be worried about their jobs.
Barnet UNISON is looking for a statement from the Council in the event that Capita are unable to continue to run the two Barnet contracts, that Council will initiate plans to transfer the staff back in-house.

Who can we trust?

Since the collapse of Carillion, more news has emerged as to how bad things really were for that company. Furthermore questions are being asked about the role of the external auditors KPMG more here LINK
 
It has happened before in Barnet…… 

In 2010 Barnet Homes had commissioned Connaught’s to provide Council Housing Repairs service. Connaught’s went into liquidation. Our members were told they had lost their jobs over a message on a speaker phone. Months earlier Barnet UNISON had held talks with Barnet Homes Chief Executive as it was becoming increasing clear Connaught’s were in serious trouble. There was further problems when it became clear that there was missing pension contributions which needed to be picked up by Barnet Council.

Read more HERE

Footnote: On 26 June 2017 Capita share price was 705.50 now six months later the share price closed today at 202.09 which represents a 72% drop in their share price over a six month period.

On Wednesday 31 January, 2018 the Capita share price opened up at 347 and closed at 182.50 which represents a 47.53% fall in share price.

John Burgess, Branch Secretary of Barnet  Unison said:

Once again the market shows that it is merciless when a company is in trouble. Carillion looks as if it is just the tip of the iceberg. The minute Carillion collapsed I immediately started to look more closely at Capita Share price. I noted that Capita share price had already dropped by around 66% in the last two years. Today seems to have shocked many experts. My concern is for the staff and the local services they provide for Barnet residents. I know from speaking to staff that they are worried and quite understandably cynical about any messages trying to play down what is happening to the company. After the debacle that our former Connaught members went through previously I want to ensure this time that Barnet UNISON does it utmost to try to allay members concerns about their future employment. My view is that this event is a watershed moment for Barnet Council. Please abandon your “love affair” with outsourcing and commence negotiations to return all services back to the Council.

Fairer treatment for those in Council Tax arrears after Brent sign Citizens Advice protocol

The Brent CAB Team

Brent Citizens Advice Bureau has announced that Brent Council and its Council Tax collection enforcement agencies, Equita and Capita, to the Citizens Advice Bureau Council Tax Protocol.

The protocol if followed will ensure fairer and timely treatment of those who fall into arrears:

Council tax payers receive a better level of service when local authorities, enforcement agencies and debt advice agencies work closely together.  Early intervention and proactive contact with people struggling with bill payments can help prevent them incurring further charges and help alleviate stress. It can also potentially help reduce both collection costs and calls on local public services, particularly mental health services.

The full protocol is here:

Activist slams Capita & Barnet Council over Brent Cross regen plans

Local activist Alison Hopkins has written to the current Public Inquiry into the the compulsory purchases of the Brent Cross Regeneration Scheme outlining its impact on local residents. It is long so please use the 'Read more'  button to get the whole picture

I am writing to you as a long-time resident – over forty years - of Humber Road NW2 in the London Borough of Brent, and as the former Brent councillor for this ward, Dollis Hill. I am also representing many local residents and associations in this letter.

I request that you pass the following to the Inspector leading the Public Inquiry into CPO3 for the Brent Cross Regeneration scheme as a matter of urgency.

This is on the grounds that not only are Barnet Council and Capita utterly failing to listen to local people, as has been their pattern for over a decade, but are also gravely misleading the Inspector. I have been personally attempting to have proper discussions and gain true answers to the points raised here for almost a decade. I have constantly been stalled by Barnet, Capita and their partners, especially G L Hearn.

Most recently, residents who attended the so-called public consultations in Dollis Hill were promised full responses, but these have never been forthcoming. G L Hearn promised to arrange a meeting with Barnet officers after the latest consultation meeting in April. Despite repeated emails from me, and others, this has never happened. We are being neglected and ignored by Barnet/Capita deliberately.

As we are in a neighbouring borough, they feel entirely free to do so, to our huge detriment, presumably because we do not constitute their electorate. Dollis Hill is DIRECTLY ADJACENT to the development and will be more affected by these proposed road changes than ANY residential part of Barnet. This is unfair under common law.

Brent House development in Wembley High Road given the go ahead

Existing Brent House

The proposal

Brent Planning Committee has approved proposals for the redevelopment of Brent House in the High Road, Wembley.

The proposed development would be between the new Elizabeth House and Ark Elvin Academy, which is due to be re-developed LINK, and will stretch back towards the playing fields and St Joseph's Primary school.

It will consist of tw building sof between 8 and 10 storeys with retail/commercial space on the groubnd floot. The 248 dwellings will consist of 84 one bedroomed flats (although that might be reconsidered), 108 2 bedroom, 49 3 bedroom and 7 4 bedroom.

30% will be affordable rather than the 50% figure in Brent's strategic Plan. Henley Homes argued that above 30% would not be viable in terms of the return to the builders and Capita confirmed this figures.

It is projected that there will be 104 children in the development and play space is planned for, although the total amount of utdoor space is less than would be expected for this scale of development. Planners were told that this was constrained by the nature of the site and its quality compensated for the lower figure.

TfL will need to review bus transport in the area due to the additional population.

The mature trees, a feature of the site, (see top picture) will be lost in the redevelopment.

Wembley Central councillors submitted no comments on the proposal.

The plan - High Road at the top

Barnet Unison vs Capita Tribunal starts today

Message from Barnet Unison
 
Employment Tribunal starts TODAY 27 July 2015 

Barnet UNISON members may remember the following awful headlines:

 

CAPITA WINS - MASSIVE JOB LOSSES FOR BARNET COUNCIL STAFF LINK

UNISON call on Capita to reverse mass redundancies in Barnet LINK

130 Capita CSG redundancies is far too many....... LINK

Barnet UNISON represented members throughout the redundancy process after which UNISON submitted a claim against Capita. The legal process does take a long time, but finally the date of the hearing has been set.

 

The Tribunal will start on Monday 27 July 2015 at 10:00am at the Watford Employment Tribunal at the following address: Radius House, 51 Clarendon Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD17 1HP.

 

The case is due to last until Friday 7 August 2015.

 

For staff/members/public interested in this case Tribunal Hearings are open to the public

The end of the public sector ethos and democratic accountability in Barnet as Capita take over

From Barnet Unison

Yesterday staff were told at a series of briefings that Capita Symonds is the preferred bidder to deliver a whole range of Council Regulatory services to Barnet residents and businesses.

 The services to be handed over to Capita include the following:

Trading Standards & Licensing, Land Charges, Planning & Development, Building Control & Structures, Environmental Health, Highways Strategy, Highways Network Management, Highways Traffic & Development, Highways Transport & Regeneration, Strategic Planning & Regeneration, Hendon Cemetery & Crematoria

Barnet Council has a number of statutory responsibilities to monitor the private sector in order to ensure the health and safety of their residents. The recent high- profile national public-health scandal about the use of Horsemeat in processed foods emphasises that private companies do not adequately monitor their own activities, leaving the public at risk. If Barnet Council is allowed to privatise these services, it will set a dangerous precedent for other councils.

Barnet Council has been promoting itself as an innovator for the future of public services by adopting the Commissioning Council model. In the last 12 months the Council has overseen a significant number of services outsourced to other providers. The full list of services are HERE.

John Burgess UNISON Branch Secretary said:

Barnet Council is making a huge mistake in handing over these critical services to the private sector. It is not just about the risks this brings but what it means in term of democratic accountability. Next year we have the local elections in May 2014. What options will there be for the electorate if all the council spend is tied up into complex contracts? As for all the remaining staff the message is stark: no matter how loyal you are, no matter how hard you work political dogma is dictating all services are to be outsourced. Today a number of our members have chosen to wear black armbands/ black clothing as a sign of the demise of the public sector ethos in Barnet Council.