Tory Barnet and Labour Brent outsourcing: similarities and differences as Barnet Unison votes to strike

Barnet Tory  'Easy Council' is facing industrial action over its outsourcing of services to private companies. 87% of Unison council workers have voted for strike action over the five commissioning projects that were agreed at the March 5th Full Council meeting. 

The proposals would mean outsourcing the majority of the Council workforce into one of five 'alternative delivery models':

1. Education & Skills and School Meals services

2. Library Service

3. Early Years: Children’s Centres

4. Adult Social Care

5. Street Scene Services

In a press release Unison said the Education & Skills and School Meals services is already in Competitive Dialogue discussions with the following contractors:

· Capita Business Services Ltd

· EC Harris LLP

· Mott MacDonald Ltd, trading as Cambridge Education

Looking at Capita’s track record LINK   in bidding and winning contracts it is highly likely they will win this contract making it the third big contract they will have won with Barnet Council.

Unison Branch Secretary John Burgess said:

The vote was never in doubt. The workforce in Barnet is amazing and resilient. The vote confirms that our members have had enough of the ideological obsession with outsourcing. The Council does not value the workforce which can be seen when unpaid overtime and long hours are never recognised when putting together bids for outsourcing projects. The fact that the Council refuses to run in-house comparators has made it clear to our members that their future employment with the Council is threatened.

So where does this leave Brent Labour 'Increasingly uneasy' Council and their own 'alternative  models'? Using the Brent equivalents of the five Barnet services:

1. Brent Council's School Improvement Service has been run down and provides a core service only with many functions handed over to the Brent Schools Partnership. and schools buying in other services from a variety of providers,  School meals have been out-sourced for a long time. In addition the Brent Cabinet on April 14th will be deciding on future provision of Additional Resources Provision and English as an Additional Language  to pupils through a variety of contracts with Academies and Independent schools LINK
2. Brent Council proposed transferring the management  of the library services to an established trust or a new model with similar features.
3. Early Years: Children's Centres - Brent Council has agreed to a partnership arrangement with  the voluntary sector or charities.
4. Adult Social Care: There is a proposal going forward to the Brent Cabinet on April 14th for Extra Care to be provided via Direct Payments and a contract with Plexus/Mears LINK 
5. Street Scene Services (parks refuse etc) Brent has already outsourced street cleaning, recycling, waste collection, parks maintenance, and cemeteries to a sole contractor, Veolia. The Cabinet will also be discussing extending the contract with Gristwood and Toms for Arboricultural  services (dealing with trees beyond what Veolia do as part of the parks maintenance contract).

An additional item at the April 14th Brent Cabinet is a proposal to pay Penoyre and Prasad LLP £831,250  for work on a hybrid planning application for the Peel Site on the South Kilburn estate. LINK

I will leave readers to judge the similarities and differences between the approaches of the two council - one Conservative and the other Labour.  You may also want to consider why Unison's reaction appears to be different in the two councils and whether as a result of the Coalition's cuts to local government that outsourcing is inevitable...

Met and Jubilee lines closed again this weekend

If the phrase  'Rail Replacement Bus Service' strikes dread into your heart, then sorry! Both the Metropolitan and Jubilee lines are closed again on Saturday and Sunday.

Jubilee line There will be no service between Waterloo and Stanmore while we replace the tunnel lining at Bond Street, replace points at Neasden and track at Wembley Park.

Metropolitan line Trains will not run between Aldgate and Rickmansworth/Watford to allow for points work at Neasden and track replacement work at Wembley Park and Moor Park.

Green Party members prevented from standing for parliament for Basingstoke on a joint, job-share candidacy

A request by Green Party members Sarah Cope and Clare Phipps’ for joint parliamentary candidacy submitted to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council on Thursday 9th April was rejected today by the Electoral Returning Officer on the grounds of a ban on job-shares for MPs.

Neither Cope nor Phipps would be able to serve as a full-time MP. Cope is the main carer for two young children, and Phipps suffers from a disability which would prevent her from working full-time. 

Allowing job-share MPs has been Green Party policy since 2012. In 2010 Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, used her first speech as Green Party Leader to call for the post of Member of Parliament to be opened up to job-shares to encourage more women MPs and make Westminster politics more accessible to ordinary people.

Cope, 36, is a mother of two. She has been an active member of the Green Party for over a decade and is the chair of Green Party Women, the women's sub-group within the party.

Cope said:

Allowing job-share MPs would open up Parliament to a much more diverse group of people, including more women, those with childcare and other caring responsibilities and those with disabilities.

At a time when people are disenchanted with 'business as usual' politics, it is an idea which could re-engage people. If voters have the chance to vote for people who are more like them, and who can relate to issues within their lives such as living with disabilities, or coping with caring responsibilities, they may be more likely to engage with the democratic process.

Phipps, 26, is researching gender and health as part of a part-time PhD and job-shares a position on the Green Party Executive. Since 2009 she has suffered from a disability known as idiopathic hypersomnia, a chronic condition which means she sleeps for around 12 hours a day.

It is now almost 100 years since women were first able to vote - yet The Electoral Reform Society predicts that on May 8th only 30% of MPs will be women. At this rate of progress, a girl born today will be drawing her pension before she has an equal say in the government of her country.

It's time our government reflected the people it is representing. Allowing job share MPs is just one way we can change politics for the better.

Phipps and Cope argue that preventing their joint candidature contravenes their Convention rights, including the right to respect for their private and family lives and the requirement of respect for rights and freedoms without discrimination on the grounds of disability. Following the formal rejection of their application for candidacy, Phipps and Cope are seeking legal advice and will be continuing their campaign to become job-share MPs.

Greens call for free public transport today to combat expected extreme air pollution

Keith Taylor, Green MEP for South East England, is calling for public transport across South East England to be made free within cities and towns today to combat the very extreme levels of air pollution that is expected across the region. 

This follows Paris’s example where the authorities made public transport free during a smog episode last year.

In previous pollution alerts France also imposed a reduced speed limit for traffic.

Alongside this the Mayor reduced city centre access for vehicles alternating with odd and even registration numbers. Similarly the Mayor is also talking about removing diesel vehicles (which are responsible for particulate emissions and NO2) completely.

Experts have recently suggested that the death toll from air pollution, usually put at around 29,000 a year in the UK, could be substantially higher because of the effect of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), emitted during fossil fuel burning, which up until now has not been taken into account.

Next Thursday 16^th April the Government are being taken to court by Environmental group Client Earth over consistently high levels of air pollution that break EU rules.

 

Keith Taylor Green MEP for South East England said:

Measures such as making public transport free for the day should be considered during serious smog episodes in Britain such as the one we’re experiencing today. Previous actions taken in Paris shows they recognise the unrest caused by air pollution and that they are prepared to take action.

The Green Party has been warning everyone for years about the serious health problems that are associated with air pollution. 

 

How many deaths does it have to take before the Government will properly act?