Local Government Matters

End of this blog, but a new one starts

2010-06-28T08:31:00.002+01:00

Back in July 2009 we set up this blog the major area of the public services that was being hit by spending cuts was local government - hence this "Local Government Matters" blog.

Times have changed and it is clear the whole of the public sector is under attack and as a region our campaigning is wider than just local government. So we've set up a new blog to cover the work we are dong across the public sector, in health, the police service, transport, energy, HE and FE, as well as local government.

We've imported the posts from the old Local Government Matters blog so there is some continuity. The new blog can be found here.

The "Local Government Matters" blog will now be defunct.

The public cost of cuts

2010-06-11T11:11:00.001+01:00

A letter from John Sharman, branch sec at Lincs County branch to his local paper.

I read with dismay the article in today's Echo about announced reductions to Council budgets ("Authorities are 'ready to play part" in £4 cuts"). Lincolnshire County Council alone has been told it will receive £4,200,000 less from the government this financial year.

And of course this is only the start. Pronouncements from the coalition government indicate that there will be massive cuts in public spending over the next few years. Not just local councils, but other public services, many of whom are already being squeezed, will be squeezed further and further. This week one national personnel body – hardly a home of left-wing agitation – predicted that 750,000 public service jobs will be lost over the next five years.

These savage public sector cuts will have a devastating effect on local economies. For example, Lincolnshire County Council spends the majority of its budget on purchasing, so as that spend reduces so does the income of its contractors. Allied to that, it is the county's largest employer, so a shrinking workforce means less personal spending on local goods and services. And so the vicious circle goes on, taking us back into the recession from which we are said to be emerging.

The people who will pay the highest price for public spending cuts are the public themselves. It beggars belief that government ministers can talk of spending cuts of 20% and yet say that they will protect "front line" services. Firstly, with cuts of that magnitude, such a proposition is self-evidently impossible. Secondly, it is a false assumption that "front line" services are somehow separate from the rest of an organization.

I'm no expert in military matters, but even to me it is obvious that an army (and the term front line is a military metaphor) is dependent for its fighting capacity on its support systems. Soldiers in a war cannot survive without transport, ammunition supplies, catering, medical back-up, and so on. The situation is no different for those caring for the elderly, educating children, keeping the highways safe – and all the other services that local councils provide.

There is no way in which members of the public will not be hit hard by public spending cuts. Services that today we take for granted as part of the fabric of our society will disappear.

And let's remember where all this started: with the greed of the global finance industry. I cannot believe it is right that the price for bankers' mistakes should be paid by public servants. Pay in local government starts at £6.31 an hour (frozen this year, and it would seem for some time to come), hardly a comparison with city bonuses. Nor do I believe that price should be paid by the people of Lincolnshire being deprived of the services they deserve.

John Sharman

Lincolnshire County UNISON Branch Secretary

What the local government cuts mean for your council

2010-06-11T10:10:00.001+01:00

See the attached link for a list of what the totally unnecessary local government cuts to this year's budget will mean for your council.

Will the Lib Dems rue the day they formed a coalition with the Tories?

2010-05-28T23:04:00.003+01:00

Spending Cuts – what does it mean for local government?

2010-05-25T21:50:00.001+01:00

Yesterday the government announced £6.2bn of spending cuts to be made in this financial year with £1.165bn coming from local government.

Some of the cuts will be in the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) budget. The rest of the local government cuts are being made to specific and general grants that partly come from other government departments. Some of the funding streams that form Area Based Grant will be cut too. The breakdowon of the local government cuts is

Department for Communities & Local Government £362m – includes cut of £150m in PFI grant and cut in grant to Audit Commission
Treasury (via DCLG) £175m
Department for Transport £309m
Department for Education £311m (from Connexions; Positive Action for Young People; Education Transport Grants)
Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs £8m

DCLG still cannot confirm which grants yet and say they are going to consult the LGA. Grim reading.

Hard pressed council staff have now got more uncertainty to contend with.

A Dismal Queen’s Speech says Dave Prentis

2010-05-25T21:40:00.001+01:00

UNISON, the UK's leading public sector trade union, warned that Lib Dem/Tory plans outlined in the Queen's Speech today, will undermine vital public services, by opening them up to greater private sector involvement, while providing little help for the jobless and for economic recovery.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

"The plans set out in this dismal Queen's Speech spell danger for public services, and for economic growth and offer little hope to either the young or long-term jobless. Breaking up the NHS and schools, letting the Tories' friends in big business get a slice of the pie, will not deliver better services or save money. It is not what the public want either. Poll after poll shows people don't want greater private sector involvement in public services. With the recovery at an embryonic stage, it is vital that support for growth is maintained. Cutting public services and jobs now will hit local economies, stunting economic growth, and ultimately force long-term borrowing up."

On Schools:

"Rushing through plans for more academy schools, and allowing parents to set up free schools, top slicing existing education budgets to pay for them, will see mainstream school budgets dwindle, hitting children in failing schools hardest. These plans are totally out of step with public opinion. A recent survey by UNISON and NASUWT showed only 5% of the public support schools being run by parents; with only 4% in favour of schools being run by private companies. Most parents want a good local school, run by professionals, rather than one they have to get involved in running."

On the NHS:

"Opening up the NHS to greater private sector involvement is a red herring. It will not save money, but could have costly implications for patients. Selling off services to long-term, inflexible contracts, creates huge transaction costs, and the shareholder premium means money lines rich shareholder's pockets instead of being ploughed back into better services. It's a bad move to scrap Strategic Health Authorities, which play a vital role in making sure that there are no shortfalls or gaps in healthcare provision, and in overseeing standards. They make sure local health authorities can respond to national emergencies, such as the swine flu pandemic."

On Welfare reform:

"Handing welfare over to private contractors – at the same time as increasing sanctions for the jobless and cutting support available through the Future Jobs Fund – is a recipe for exploitation and abuse."

On Housing:

"It's right to involve local councils and communities in planning and housing decisions, but there also needs to be a strong voice for the 1.7 million of families stuck on housing waiting lists. There is nothing here that will ensure the delivery of the affordable housing we desperately need. A radical programme of council house building now would also provide much-needed jobs in the private sector."

On Financial reform:

"UNISON along with many others has been campaigning hard for effective regulation and fair taxation of the banks and financial institutions that caused the economic crisis. We hope the promises Financial Services Bill won't have been written by the Tories' friends and funders in the City – but we won't hold our breath."

On Constitutional reform:

"We will always welcome any restoration of our civil liberties – especially through the abolition of the costly ID cards scheme - and enhancing the power of devolved and local government. But much of this government's reform agenda seems more designed to secure its own position against democratic pressures, and turn parliamentary accountability on it head."

On Police:

"Of course police forces should be accountable, but directly elected police chiefs are not the way to achieve this. Locally, there is broad political consensus that joined up neighbourhood policing/neighbourhood management is the best approach. These plans could be the cause of friction. Instead, UNISON believes councillors should be given a bigger role in police forces."

Government Cuts – One thing they got right

2010-05-24T20:24:00.001+01:00

Regular readers of this blog will know we've been campaigning hard to cut wasteful expenditure on agency workers and consultants. There is one area where the Government has listened to UNISON – they have announced that they will be cutting back on the use of consultants in central government departments. If the government can see sense on this, why can't they see sense on the whole cuts agenda?

Let's hope local councils follow the lead of the government and cut back on the extravagant and wasteful £150m plus that was spent on agency workers and consultants in the East Midlands alone. In July (when the financial accounts for 2009/10 are closed off) we will be making another round of Freedom of Information requests to councils to see if the 2009/10 figures show an improvement. Watch this space for the results.

Cuts announcement signals worse to come - everyone will suffer

2010-05-24T20:15:00.001+01:00

Commenting on George Osborne's speech today, which set out plans for £6 billion worth of public sector cuts, Dave Prentis, UNISON's General Secretary, said:

"This is the first cut of the axe, but it signals that there will be more to come from the emergency budget and the comprehensive spending review. The new Government is completely ignoring the human impact of these cuts.

Despite high levels of unemployment, the Government is happy to add tens of thousands more workers to the dole queue, putting the recovery at risk. Public spending cuts will hit small businesses, devastate families, and the most vulnerable in our society will suffer.

There is no logic in cutting public sector jobs and money for development, only to pile on pressure to the private sector to create jobs."

Another picture caption that speaks more than a blog post can

2010-05-23T20:24:00.000+01:00

There is an alternative to spending cuts

2010-05-19T20:33:00.001+01:00

Ravi Subramanian, UNISON Regional Head of Local Government, had a column published in today's Nottingham Post outlining an alternative to the proposed £6bn of spending cuts. See below for the text of the article.

As Nick Clegg gets used to sharing power with David Cameron, the country waits to see what this marriage of convenience will bring. Speaking to Tory councillors, David Cameron said: "You demonstrate Conservative government – your values, your achievements, represent our party in action." Post readers already know what Tory councils are like.

Notts County Council recently implemented £28m of cuts. UNISON did a detailed analysis of the council's finances and showed the £28m could easily be found and the cuts were ideologically driven. Vital services like welfare rights were slashed and some old people had increases in user charges of over £20 a week.

Tory-run Barnet Council is adopting an "EasyJet" model with basic services provided free, with top-up charges for extra services. It's cuts by another means, as those who need higher levels of service are least able to pay the extra.

In tough times we need public services more than ever. They support communities, help people back into work, give our children the best start and care for our sick and elderly. Putting money into local services helps kick-start economic growth. When the Notts pits closed the local economy collapsed, as people had less money to spend in local businesses.

Big cuts are not inevitable; they are a political choice. It's not just UNISON saying this. Less than a month ago the Lib Dems pledged to oppose the savage £6bn of extra cuts proposed by the Tories. Now they are part of a government that has agreed to the £6bn of extra cuts. This coalition is nothing more than a shabby deal, for the benefit of politicians who are prepared to shed their principles in a grab for power.

It was not ordinary taxpayers or vulnerable people who caused this financial mess; it was greedy bankers. You'd expect UNISON to be against cuts and you might well ask: "Where's the money going to come from?" The people who got us into this mess can help get us out of it; around £30bn could be raised annually by introducing a major financial transactions tax on UK financial institutions.

Further annual savings could be made as follows: £10bn by reforming tax havens and residence rules to reduce tax avoidance by corporations and "non-domiciled'' residents such as Tory donor Lord Ashcroft; £14.9bn to stop tax relief being used to disproportionately subsidise incomes over £100,000; £1bn by halving local government agency workers costs (Notts County Council spend around £19m each year); £5bn could be raised with an empty property tax on vacant dwellings.

The Lib Dems had a chance to smooth off the worst excesses of a Tory government but they've agreed to the extra £6bn of unnecessary cuts. Labour said "vote Lib Dem, get Tories" and were scoffed at for scaremongering. Sadly, they were proved right.

In the 90s the unjust Poll Tax was defeated by a public campaign. These cuts can be defeated, too. UNISON's Million Voices for Public Services campaign aims to do this. All we want is a civilised, fair and compassionate, society with decent public services. Even in these difficult times, this is still possible by implementing a fairer tax system.

The war on Quangos starts by creating a new one!

2010-05-19T08:11:00.001+01:00

The government have said that they would have a cull of Quangos as part of their deficit reduction scheme. They have got off to a bad start as George Osbourne's first announcement is to create a new one – the Office for Budget Responsibility.

A picture speaks a thousand words

2010-05-12T23:36:00.001+01:00

New Government – Message from the General Secretary

2010-05-12T22:00:00.005+01:00

Today, Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary issued a statement in response to the formation of the new government. Dave said:

"We now face our biggest challenge ever. Without a strong union, no public service will be safe from privatisation and cuts. Without a strong union, no public service worker's pay and pension will be secure.

The LibDems have already ditched their promise to oppose the Tories' plans for £6bn cuts this year. This will put the recovery at risk, and cost thousands of jobs. Plans for more cuts will follow, hitting communities hard.

We will fight tooth and nail to protect our members and the vital jobs they do. We will seek to build strong alliances, particularly with local communities and service users, to campaign against cuts and privatisation.

I call on every member and activist – however you voted at the general election – to join us in the fight of our lives to defend our vital public services."

Heather Wakefield on the Tories “Invitation to Public Sector Workers”

2010-05-10T21:43:00.002+01:00

With it looking increasingly likely that David Cameron's Conservatives will be forming the next government it's worth reading Heather Wakefield's most recent Public Finance blog posting that takes a good look at Cameron's recent "Invitation to Public Sector Workers."

Heather looks at the seven pledges made by Cameron and exposes them for what they really are. Every public sector worker should read this so they know what to expect if Cameron manages to hoodwink the Lib Dems and becomes the next Prime Minister.

Public sector workers say job satisfaction is falling

2010-05-10T21:32:00.001+01:00

According to the right wing press and their storm trooper allies, the TaxPayers' Alliance, life in the public sector is easy. A recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), who could hardly be described as trade union allies, has shown job satisfaction in the public sector has hit a new low of +34% compared to +45% this time last year, with rising levels of job insecurity and an increase in work pressure likely to be the main culprits.

Nearly one in five (18%) of public sector workers now think it likely they could lose their job as result of the economic climate, compared with just 7% in April 2009. Almost four in ten (39%) public sector employees say their organisation is planning to make redundancies, up from 14% a year ago. And nearly two thirds (63%) of public sector workers think it would be difficult to get a new job in contrast to 56% a year ago.

Against this backdrop it is not surprising that public sector workers feel under increasing pressure, with one in four (23%) reporting they feel under excessive pressure at work every day compared to just 13% in spring 2009. The proportion of public sector workers reporting an increase in stress in their organisation has soared to 56% from 43% this time last year. And compared with a year ago, they are also less likely to say they are satisfied with their work-life balance (52% compared to 57% last year). The report can be downloaded from http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/general/_employee_outlook.htm

Those who criticise the public sector usually do with no experience whatsoever of what it is really like to work in the public sector. This survey illustrates the very real pressures public servants face.

UNISON reaction to the General Election

2010-05-09T21:45:00.001+01:00

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis warned politicians that the election results show there is no public support for savage cuts in public services, saying:

"As the politicians manoeuvre to grab power, they all need reminding that there is no popular support for the savage cuts in public spending, that would have followed an outright Conservative victory. The City and big business, who have poured millions into the Tory coffers, have been denied the decisive result they craved.

The priority now must be to secure the economic recovery and jobs, whilst protecting our vital public services. UNISON will fight tooth and nail to defend our public services, oppose more privatisation and will strongly resist any attempts by any new government to attack our members' pay and pensions.

We are ready to fight for what is right for Britain's public services. We will fight for the hundreds and thousands of jobs that are in imminent danger if the Tories' dangerous and irresponsible plans to cut fast and cut deep are realised. If that happens, the country will not just be plunged into a further recession, but into social dislocation and industrial strife.

Where our members are forced into taking action to protect services, the union will be right there with them. Where they are fighting for their jobs and pensions, we will give them the backing they need. And where other public sector unions are challenging cuts, we will work side by side to fight with them and save the vital services that the public rely on.

Public sector workers did not cause the economic crisis and they will not be made to pay the price for bailing out the bankers."

Ross Kemp signs up to Million Voices

2010-05-04T20:58:00.002+01:00

TV star, Ross Kemp was in Nottingham today to help with Labour's election campaign. He popped into the UNISON regional office to speak to local Labour Party activists. While he was there we managed to grab him for a few minutes and he agreed to sign up to our Million Voices campaign.

Ross said he was proud to support our campaign – and we are very pleased to have his support.

Notts County Council cuts – another view

2010-05-04T15:46:00.002+01:00

We've blogged before about the vicious £28m cuts made by the Tories at Notts County Council. But it's not just UNISON who believes these cuts are unnecessary and unjustified.

The mother of a service user of one of the care homes which the council intends to sell off has blogged about the cuts here:

http://tregenza.livejournal.com/112443.html

It's powerful stuff. With a general election in a few days time it is well worth reminding yourself exactly what it will mean if the Tories form the next government.

Use your vote carefully.

Notts County Council industrial action continues

2010-05-04T15:40:00.001+01:00

UNISON members at Notts County have been taking industrial action since the beginning of April to defend an attack on their terms and conditions.

The real impact is beginning to hit home with the Council. The cost of pool cars, taxis and additional time taken due to using public transport is mounting up. The goodwill of staff has been lost and service delivery is beginning to be seriously affected.

Relatively few staff have returned the tear off slip from Chief Executive, Mick Burrows, letter asking them to agree to the new terms and conditions. The local UNISON branch has sent members an alternative letter stating that they are opposed to the new terms and conditions and only working under protest. The letter is on the branch website below:

www.nottsunison.org.uk

We know that the action is having a real impact and we hope the council will see sense soon and come back to the negotiating table. Watch this space for more developments.

Party leaders must come clean on local government pay

2010-04-30T12:44:00.001+01:00

UNISON, Unite and GMB are demanding that party leaders and Local Government Association bosses 'RSVP' to an invitation before the election - to come clean on whether they will back local government workers in overturning the pay freeze, or leave them out in the cold.

The Trade Union Side Secretaries to the National Joint Council for Local Government Services - a body set up to negotiate on behalf of 1.5 million local government workers - are calling for the leaders to respond with their stance on supporting a pay award in light of rising inflation, which has seen staff taking a pay cut.

The unions are also demanding a response on whether the leaders would back negotiations though ACAS and their views on the fact that highly-paid public sector staff are still receiving generous pay awards, while low paid workers bear the brunt of the recession. The Local Government Employers wants a pay freeze for 2010/11 and has made no attempts to negotiate with the unions, or provide a formal response to unions' claim for 2.5%, or a £250 flat rate, whichever is higher.

In the Conservatives' 'Invitation to Public Sector Workers' manifesto, Cameron sets out a £18,000 pay freeze limit for workers, yet the Employers organisation - governed by the Conservative-led Local Government Association (LGA) - demands a widespread freeze.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government, said:

"We are demanding that all parties come clean to our members in local government and say what they really have planned for local government workers, before the election. The Tory-led Local Government Employers want a widespread pay freeze, while the Tory leader says this will only be for those earning more than £18,000 – which one is it Cameron?

More than 60 per cent of our members working for councils earn less than the £18,000 lower threshold for a pay freeze proposed by the party, so it is crucial to voters that the Conservative's respond to our invite to comment. Local government workers want to know which party will support negotiations for a fair pay award, to recognise the hike in inflation, which has left them with a pay cut. Or whether they believe that it is right that public sector bosses enjoy generous awards, while low paid workers bear the brunt.

Local government staff have a vital role to play in helping local communities ride out the recession and may be struggling to pay their bills and keep a roof over their heads. The party that comes into power should be backing these workers and the public who rely on these vital services, not imposing a freeze that leaves workers, such as school assistants, dinner ladies, care workers, out in the cold."

UNISON sends voters sharp reminder about "axe-wielding" Tories

2010-04-29T22:51:00.005+01:00

UNISON is warning that the Tories would wield an axe to public services, with the launch of a hard-hitting, two-week pre-election poster campaign. The advertising campaign, funded by the union's General Political Fund, urges the public to "Look What's in the Tories' First Budget". The posters will appear in key marginal constituencies and are designed to send a sharp reminder that cuts planned by the Conservatives would crush vital services, that local people rely on.

Dave Prentis, UNISON's General Secretary, said:

"The poster's graphic image will give voters a sharp reminder of Tory plans to take an axe to vital public services. Public spending and the threat of job cuts are high on the election agenda.

Tory councils have already wiped out thousands of jobs across the UK and local people are paying the price. We are seeing vital services such as meals on wheels, nurseries, day centres, home care and libraries disappear – and if the Tories get into power they have said that thousands more jobs will go.

Our message is a simple one – use your vote and stop the threat to your public services."

Lincs County UNISON quiz parliamentary candidates

2010-04-29T20:25:00.002+01:00

Candidates for Lincolnshire constituencies in next week's general election are being asked for their views on the County Council's plans to close the last eight homes for older people provided directly by the authority.

Staff at the homes and members of UNISON are writing to parliamentary candidates asking what they think of the plans, which have been out to consultation for the last six months. An analysis of consultation responses was commissioned by the authority, and showed minimal support for any of the closures. Because the Council didn't get the result it wanted, it is spending more public money on further consultation, and will make a decision on its plans after the general election.

"This is an important issue for everyone in Lincolnshire constituencies," said Branch Secretary John Sharman. "All of us have an interest in maintaining the specialist and highly regarded services provided by these homes – we never know when they could be needed for our families or indeed ourselves. So it's right that we should ask the people seeking to represent our county in the House of Commons what they think about the closure proposals.

"We all know that care is a huge challenge for the future, and we all support developing services. But shutting the excellent homes that the Council provides now, and replacing them with private sector provision that's run to make a profit, is not the answer. For decades the County Council has justified privatisation by referring to 'the mixed economy of care'. If these proposals go ahead there will be no mixed economy of care, just a private sector monopoly. The choice of public care will be a thing of the past."

There will be a demo against the sell off on Saturday 1 May. The demo has been organised by Lincoln and District Trades Council.

Assemble: 11am, Castle Square, Lincoln

Rally: 12noon, Cornhill, Lincoln

Over 400 angry UNISON members attend demo

2010-04-29T19:55:00.003+01:00

This lunchtime, well over 400 Nottingham City UNISON members attended a lunchtime protest against the council's unjustified attack on terms and conditions. This fantastic turnout is a reflection of the widespread anger that is felt.

Several UNISON members got up and spoke out against the cuts and said the council was dishonest in sneaking in the cuts under the guise of Single Status.

Members of the public came to ask what the demo was about and once it was explained to them most were in support. One person commented it was unfair of the council to attack staff when the council has spent well over £1m paying off three Chief Executives. We can't argue with that.

The demo showed the strength of feeling and the council will surely now have to listen and reverse their proposals. If they don't, they can expect the branch to step up the campaign, which will include industrial action if necessary.

UNSION General Secretary, Dave Prentis has today written to all members of the council's Cabinet to express his anger at the proposals. Dave has said "it is wholly unacceptable to bully staff" and that if the council do not reverse the proposals he will ensure UNISON will "fight these cuts by any means necessary."

It's great to know UNISON members have the support at the very highest level of the union.

To keep up to date on what is happening go to the branch's website here.

Quiz your parliamentary candidates

2010-04-27T16:35:00.002+01:00

As part of UNISON’s Million Voices for Public Services campaign there is now an interactive facility for the public to “quiz their candidates” before the general election.

All you need to do is enter your postcode and then you can send an email to all of the candidates standing in your constituency.

Click here to go to the website. Make sure you find out their views on public services before you cast your vote – it only takes a minute.

Chesterfield fight privatisation plans

2010-04-27T16:12:00.004+01:00

The Chesterfield UNISON branch are fighting plans to privatise “back office” functions at the council. Whilst it’s not unexpected that UNISON would be opposed to these proposals what is shocking is that the council are planning to proceed with the privatisation despite two out of the three bidders pulling out.

How can it be value for money for the tax payer if there is only one company bidding for the contract?

The picture shows a poster used by the branch in bus shelter ads in Chesterfield. The poster design was as a result of a competition in the branch. The costs of the ads came from the union's General Political Fund.

Demo against council cuts in Leicester

2010-04-27T16:03:00.004+01:00

There’s a backlog of stories to update the blog. The first story is about a demo in Leicester on Saturday 12 April.

Council workers took to the streets to protest on Sat 12 April against impending job losses and budget cuts. Leicester City and Leicestershire County UNISON branches are angry at plans cut hundreds of jobs as part of the city and county council spending cuts and they worked together to organise this joint demo.

The Labour-run city council will cut 7% off its £280m budget over three years – while cutting around 300 posts. In the county, the ruling Tory group will cut £66m or 20% from its budget and lose 650 posts over four years.

On Saturday, workers met in Humberstone Gate to vent their anger and raise public awareness of the proposals and their effects.

Keith Libetta, Regional Organiser said: “The rally was about highlighting the savage cuts and asking the public to support us and the services they rely on by calling on all election candidates for their support for proper public funding. The cuts that are being proposed will affect all sectors of public services including museums, libraries, care for the elderly, services for people with learning, mental or physical disabilities – a whole range of dedicated services. Nobody will remain unaffected."

The event in Leicester city centre was one of four events taking place nationally, the others were held in Sheffield, Glasgow and London.

In London, groups ranging from the TUC and National Pensioners' Convention to the Disability Alliance and British Medical Association gathered to voice their concerns.

Disgraceful attack on terms and conditions by Nottingham City Council

2010-04-27T08:18:00.006+01:00

Nottingham City Council have disgracefully used Single Status as a smokescreen to mount an attack on terms and conditions, including cutting nationally agreed sick pay and mileage rates.

The local UNISON branch has arranged a series of workplace meetings to discuss the matter with members.

There will be a lunchtime demo at 12:30 on Thursday 29 April outside the Council House. If you work for the council make sure that you attend to protest against these unjustified cuts.

There will be more posts about this issue in the next few days.

Who should run our schools?

2010-04-06T13:45:00.010+01:00

Education will be a key battleground area at the next general election. Each of the main political parties wants to show that they have the right balance of policies which will appeal to the electorate and contribute to improving the nation’s schools.

UNISON, along with teaching union NASUWT recently asked Ipsos-Mori to conduct a public opinion survey on the state of the nation’s schools. If you want to see the full results of the poll click here, the headline results are below.

Most of the public want state-funded schools to be kept public and run by government.
Parents and the public generally believe that today’s state-funded schools are of good quality.
The public want state-funded schools to be run by local councils/local authorities in preference to any other type of provider, including universities, groups of parents, charities or private companies.
Just 4% of the public prefer proposals that would allow state-funded schools to be run by private sector companies.
Only 5% of the public prefer the policy proposal advanced by some political parties to establish Free Schools (i.e. state-funded schools run by groups of parents).
There is significant opposition to alcohol companies, drugs companies, fast food outlets, tobacco companies and adult entertainment/pornography companies running schools.
By 3 to 1 the public oppose allowing state-funded schools to charge parents additional fees to supplement their funding.
Parents and the public reject by a ratio of 9 to 1 any increase in autonomy for head teachers. The public want the work of head teachers to be checked and regulated by inspectors, governing bodies, local councils and the Government.

Dave Prentis General Secretary of UNISON the largest public service union said

This survey blows a great big hole in the Tories education policy. Only 5% thought parents should run state funded schools.

Perhaps instead of looking to Sweden, or the USA, for inspiration, or listening to a mainly London-centric middle class complaining about their local schools, politicians should start listening to the vast majority of parents who want a good local school run by the public sector.

All the political parties need to rethink their policies and place a commitment to democratically run state education at the heart of it.

This survey shows the extent of public support for maintaining a school system that is democratically accountable and where local education authorities continue to play the lead role. Parents, young people and the general public are not persuaded by the concept of ‘independent state schools’, especially if this involves them being run directly by private companies.

Let’s hope the politician’s listen.

Spoofing Notts County Council

2010-04-05T21:05:00.006+01:00

We’ve blogged before about the £28m of cuts of cuts at Notts County Council. In our letter to the Chief Executive outlining where the council could find over £28m, one saving we identified was not to appoint to the Service Director Communications (aka “spin doctor”) post.

It seems the council are still “spinning away”. They have now set their e-mail system up so that every email has a picture with a council logo and the comments “proud of our past, ambitious for our future” at the end of it.

As the mydavidcameron site showed this sort of spin is ripe for spoofing. Some wag has “amended” the council’s graphic and sent it in to us. The amended version is at the start of this blog post.

We think the spoofed image tells the real truth about the council much better than the original.

The Budget - the devil is in the detail

2010-03-29T22:58:00.002+01:00

The Budget - the devil is in the detail

The devil is in the detail last week’s budget and UNISON nationally have called on the Chancellor to clarify where exactly the so-called efficiency savings would come from. Our worry is that local government, which is already seeing heavy job losses and service cuts, would bear the brunt of any cuts. Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

Local government is already facing heavy job losses and service cuts. Across the country, vital local services such as homecare, meals on wheels, day centres, parks and leisure and local authority nurseries are facing the axe. Communities will suffer if local government workers are added to the dole queues. Local economies will fall into a downward spiral.

Tory councils are already using this bankers recession as an excuse to make cuts. Local authorities got an above inflation 4% grant from central government last year, have billions stashed away in unallocated reserves. Councils have a further funding boost, after making above and beyond the efficiency savings demanded by central government and pocketing the cash.

Local Government services are already suffering and this budget will fuel further job losses which will see local services disappear.”

Who cares: Who Pays

2010-03-29T16:08:00.009+01:00

UNISON has launched a hard-hitting report on the future for care in the UK, in light of the roll out of personalised budgets in social care.

The report, written by senior academics at Bristol University, exposes the current underfunding of the system, which is leading to increased privatisation and plummeting standards, as care is sold off to the lowest bidder. UNISON is calling for more funding to tackle the demographic time-bomb, that will see care demand shoot through the roof over the next 30 years.

The report calls for a sea change in the way employment in social care is viewed, to increase recruitment and retention, and improve training and career opportunities. It recommends a boost in support for personal assistants, for them to be employed and regulated by local authorities, and help for people managing their own personal budget.

The “Who Care: Who Pays” report can be downloaded here. Or you can download a summary of the main findings here.

Privatisation: The Tories are at it again

2010-03-28T18:51:00.003+01:00

Guest post from John Sharman, branch secretary at Lincolnshire UNISON and member of UNISON’s Local Government Service Group Executive

Conservative-controlled Lincolnshire County Council is set to make a decision on the closure of eight Council homes for older people, in order to re-provide services through the private sector.

The authority got rid of most of its homes in 1992, leaving itself with just eight homes which have developed specialist services, such as reablement, support for older people with dementia, respite and intermediate care. All the homes are highly valued in their local communities, and the Council itself describes the quality of care provided by the staff as “second to none”.

In spite of this, Lincolnshire began consultation in November on plans to scrap all publicly-controlled residential care in the county. It clearly expected this to go through with the minimum of fuss, and on the original timetable all the decisions would be done and dusted by early March. But it hasn’t quite panned out that way.

UNISON has mounted a high profile campaign aimed at keeping the homes open and improving services within a public sector dimension. We’ve had good publicity in the local media, including coverage of a visit by Dave Prentis, who came up to Lincoln to meet activists and members from the homes. And there has been a public outcry, from service users, carers, and concerned members of the community.

The result is that the Council has been pushed onto the back foot. It’s had to send the mass of consultation responses for independent analysis, and the Executive decision was pushed back first to April then May, and now to 1 June. The branch is organising a billboard and leafleting campaign across the county, and Councillors can expect some company when they arrive at county offices on 1 June.

Our members in the homes are of course concerned about their jobs, but in every meeting their primary objective is to protect the standards and quality of care to older people in Lincolnshire. If the eight homes go, the Lincolnshire public will be at the complete mercy of those who seek a profit from the care of the elderly. The last public sector safety net will have gone.

For decades we’ve listened to Tory councillors justifying creeping privatisation by reference to the “mixed economy of care”. That phrase has now disappeared from their vocabulary. If their latest proposals are enacted there will be no mixed economy, just a private sector monopoly. The concept of consumer choice will be history.

That’s why UNISON will fight every inch of the way to keep these homes where they belong – under direct public control.

John Sharman

Lincolnshire UNISON

Notts County UNISON take industrial action to defend terms and conditions

2010-03-28T18:49:00.003+01:00

As well as implementing savage and unnecessary cuts totalling some £28m Tory controlled Notts County Council are attacking staff terms and conditions including car allowances and annual leave. The branch have tried to negotiate with the council and even presented alternative proposals, but these were rejected by the council.

An industrial action ballot was held and a thumping 77% voted for action short of strike action. From Monday 29 March UNISON members will be taking the following action:

1. Refusing to use their own vehicles for work purposes
2. Refusing to cover for absent colleagues
3. Refusing to work more than their contracted hours
4. Refusing to carry out any work not specifically mentioned in job descriptions

UNISON members are committed to providing services to the community but they will not be bullied by an employer who is attacking terms and conditions, even when UNISON have showed them where they could find over £28m.

Messages of support can be sent to branch.office at nottsunison.org.uk

We told you so

2010-03-25T14:50:00.002Z

Last week Nottingham City council discussed a report which revealed that there had been an increase in the number of children in care of nearly 20% and that the majority of these are being accommodated in private residential establishments.

This time last year, in the face of opposition from UNISON, staff and ex-clients, including Oscar winning actress Samantha Morton who addressed a rally in Nottingham in March last year, the Council decided to reduce the number of its own children homes.

UNISON Regional Organiser, Peter Savage said, “This is one of those occasions when we can say that we told them so. They now have three children homes empty, they’ve sacked the staff, paid redundancy costs, yet the demand for the service has increased. This is a classic example of short term savings having long term costs in both the Council’s finances and on the people who need the service.”

Taxpayers' Alliance attempt to smear Million Voices

2010-03-22T21:37:00.002Z

The UNISON Million Voices video that was released a few weeks ago has got the Taxpayers’ Alliance rattled. So much so, that they tried to parody the video with one of their own that was posted on the blog of Tory MEP Dan Hannan (a lovely man who said the NHS was a “sixty year mistake”).

The video purports to show there are lots of so called “non jobs” in the public sector. All it does is show the Taxpayers’ Alliance do not know anything about public services.

Our colleagues over at UNISON Scotland have blogged about this and shown this to be nonsense. If the Taxpayers’ Alliance spent more time paying their taxes rather than making unfair and illogical attacks on hard working public sector workers, the world would surely be a better place.

Taxpayers' Alliance gets its sums wrong (again)

2010-03-22T21:01:00.003Z

Earlier this month the so called Taxpayers’ Alliance (aka the Taxdodgers’ Alliance) put out some misleading figures about the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

It is clear they deliberately manipulated figures to suit their claims that local government pensions face a black hole. In comparing liabilities to assets, they are deliberately making a ridiculous assumption that everyone will retire at once, tomorrow.

The local government pension scheme is affordable and sustainable and its income exceeded expenditure by almost £6 billion in the last year. UNISON National Secretary, Heather Wakefield, said:

“The Taxpayers’ Alliance deliberately distorts the true picture to suit their claims and their low-tax aims. With pensions you have to take the long view. Their claims are based on the nonsensical supposition that everyone is going to retire at once and tomorrow.

Local government pensions are affordable and sustainable. We spent many months in lengthy negotiations to agree a scheme that did just that. These pensions do not cost £1 of every £5 of council tax, because council tax makes up only a small percentage of funding. They are funded by employers, employees and by investment income. The LGPS generates one-third of its own income.

Remember, too, that we are not talking about gold-plated pensions, here. The average pension for women (the majority of employees) is £2,600 a year. If local government workers didn’t save for their retirement by paying into their pension scheme, they would have to rely on state benefits, funded by the taxpayer. What we need is some perspective here and a move away from a race to the bottom on pensions.

The real pensions scandal in this country is that the boardroom fat cats vote each other ludicrously generous retirement packages, while plotting to cut the pensions of their workforce.

The real facts about the LGPS are below.

1. It is funded by employer contributions, employee contributions and investment income.

2. It is cash positive – member benefits paid out in 2008-2009 were £5.6 billion against gross income of £10.2 billion.

3. The total value of combined assets in England, Wales, Scotland and NI was £143 billion (in 2008).

4. That’s 5 times greater than the largest single pension fund in the UK.

5. Total assets of the 89 LGPS funds are equivalent to 10% of GDP.

6. 60% of the fund is invested in equities or shares – in UK and global stock markets.

7. By 2008, more than £1 billion was invested in each of the top four FTSE companies and it owned 1.3% of seven of the top nine companies in the UK.

8. £4.7 billion is invested in the big four banks – Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, RBS and £2.3 billion in the 49 largest companies delivering UK public services in local government, the NHS and the utilities.

Nottingham City Council cuts

2010-03-22T20:43:00.003Z

Nottingham City Council agreed their budget a few weeks ago. In it they made over £18m. The cuts were wide ranging but they included cuts to some of the most vulnerable in our communities, including cuts in adult services, reduced staffing in the deaf team, and reductions in the services for people with learning disabilities.

The council will also be closing the Riverside Residential Home in Bulwell, introducing a £2 charge for all day centre users and increasing charges for transport and meals.

The branch were determined not to let the council get away with these cuts without a fight and had a rally outside the Council House in the Market Square that was well attended by UNISON members and service users.

Council cuts are hitting the most vulnerable the hardest.

Public services – don’t wait until they’ve gone to defend them.

Speaking up for Social Workers

2010-03-16T20:41:00.002Z

UNISON is putting its money where its mouth is, and funding this major national advertising campaign to improve public understanding of social work. Over the last few years the profession has taken a battering. Whilst the tragic stories hit the headlines, the thousands of children, families and vulnerable adults that social workers help every year go unnoticed.

We know that in addition to the high pressures of the job, social workers are struggling to cope with heavy workloads, too much paperwork and staff shortages. Morale has reached a new low. That’s why UNISON is taking the unprecedented step of launching an ad campaign to stand up for one group of workers.

The series of ads, which will hit local and national papers over the next two weeks, will highlight the important role social workers play in keeping vulnerable children and adults safe. The adverts, which will be backed up by advertorial features, are intended to bring to life the reality of social work, through the eyes of a child protection worker.

“The best thing about my job is seeing the outcomes. It can take weeks, months or even years until a child is heading in the right direction. But when that happens, you know that now a child has a much better chance in life and that is really satisfying.”

Laura Aspinall, child social worker, featured in UNISON’s ad campaign.

West Midlands region says "Unlock the Door"

2010-03-15T22:22:00.002Z

Our colleagues in the West Midlands region have launched their “Unlock the Door” campaign, which is part of the national Million Voices campaign.

It is calling for a commitment to deliver a million affordable homes in the UK by 2015. Shockingly there are a million fewer homes available for rent from councils and housing associations than there were in 1979.

The region has worked with the National Housing Federation and they warn that their region is facing an unprecedented surge in waiting lists for affordable housing with households facing years of waiting before they have any hope of being allocated a home.

We in the East Midlands are happy to support their campaign, not least because this is an issue that affects the whole of the UK, not just the West Midlands.

If you want to support the campaign click here.

UNISON Mother's Day appeal to local government employers to end pay freeze

2010-03-15T22:03:00.003Z

Last Friday UNISON delivered a giant Mother’s Day card to the local government employers, calling on them to end the pay freeze for council staff. The Mother’s Day message is delivered on behalf of 1.6 million local government workers, 75% of whom are women. More than two-thirds earn less than £18,000, so a pay freeze will leave them struggling to make ends meet.

Recent research by the TUC and Fawcett Society showed that women are bearing the brunt of the recession, as the most likely people to work in, and make use of, public services. Many women with families to support are being hit by heavy job losses in the public sector, plus cuts to services they rely on, such as nurseries, play schemes and care services for elderly parents.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government, said:

“It’s nowhere near a bed of roses for mums working in local government this year. Council staff are already some of the lowest paid workers in the public sector. They are facing the grim prospect of a pay freeze from April, just as inflation is on the up. Many are worried about losing their jobs, whilst working harder than ever, covering vacant posts, to keep services running.

A pay freeze is a political choice, not a necessity. Councils have billions stashed away in reserves. Government grants are above inflation. Many Tory councils are choosing to keep council tax low – making little difference to weekly family budgets. There is money available to pay staff fairly. But some councils are using the recession as a smokescreen to cut jobs and services.

Women in local government work in caring, cleaning, educational roles, as social workers helping families through tough times. They have supported people through the recession. They deserve to be treated fairly, not hit with a pay freeze. The local government employers need to think again about their damaging plans.”

The East Midlands region's contribution to Million Voices #2

2010-03-15T21:45:00.003Z

Download now or listen on posterous

Unison revised.mp3 (938 KB)

Following on from our previous post about the region’s contribution to the union’s Million Voices campaign here’s information about a radio ad we commissioned and ran a month ago. The ad was funded from a General Political Fund bid agreed at the end of 2009.

The 30 second radio ad ran on a number of commercial radio stations. The audience reach figures along with the advertising schedule meant the ad was heard over six million times in three weeks. The schedule was follows as:

- Run for three weeks w/c 8 Feb on Trent FM, Ram FM and Leicester Sound

- ads to run for two weeks w/c 8 Feb on Heart (Northants) and Lincs FM

If you want to hear the ad, click on the link above

New rules pile pressure on social workers

2010-03-10T18:05:00.004Z

UNISON has backed calls from the Local Government Association (LGA) to cut added targets and rules placed on social workers. The latest LGA report highlights the potentially damaging impact of Lord Laming’s recommendation, requiring every referral from another professional to be followed up by a formal process known as an initial assessment.

Commenting on the LGA report, Helga Pile, UNISON National Officer for Social Services, said:

“This new requirement could cause referral and assessment teams to implode. UNISON estimates that local government is short of at least 6,000 social workers. Where are we going to find the extra 2,000 social workers needed to implement this measure? Staff shortages are already piling pressure on social work teams, who are struggling with an increase in demand since the baby Peter case. “

She went on to say:

“In addition social workers tell us they already spend too much time dealing with paperwork, leaving them little time left to spend face to face with clients. Cutting the burden of bureaucracy would be a real step in the right direction.”

Posted via email from UNISON (East Midlands)

The East Midlands region's contribution to Million Voices #1

2010-03-09T20:36:00.008Z

At the end of 2009 the East Midlands region had a General Political Fund bid agreed to run some Million Voices themed campaigning messages. The messages were based upon the “disappearing jobs” theme that has been used previously. One of the mediums used for the message is the back of a bus. Actually it is the back of three buses! One each in Nottingham, Derby and Leicester.

Pictured in this blog post is a picture of the back of one of the buses which will have the message displayed on it until the end of June this year.

We think it gets the message across very well, and it fits in nicely with the recent national stepping up of the campaign. Keep an eye out on this blog for details of the radio ad we had commissioned and the billboard posters we had put up.

Who will be hurt by public service cuts

2010-03-09T20:26:00.004Z

As part of the Million Voices for Public Services campaign this hard-hitting film about who could be hurt by public service cuts has been released.

We need as many people as possible to see this film and speak out for public services before it's too late. Please share and forward the link to members, colleagues, contacts, friends, and family.

Public services

Don’t wait until they’ve gone to defend them.

Posted via email from UNISON (East Midlands)

Million Voices campaign steps up a gear

2010-03-08T21:31:00.005Z

UNISON’s Million Voices for Public Services campaign has stepped up a gear. There is a revamped website here, which shows you how and where service cuts could affect your locality. If you’ve not signed up please do.

Over the next few weeks the union will be raising the profile of public services and the people who work in them with the following:

- an online 60 sec short film

- TV ads

- Newspapers ads

- A campaign using social networking tools

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

"Public sector cuts are looming large, and UNISON's new ads shine a light on the story behind the facts and figures. The human cost of cuts is people left without vital services. Emergency call centre operators, forensic experts, hospital porters, nurses and social workers all provide the services people need and rely on. Why should hard-working people pay for the recession when the bankers who caused this crisis are still getting billion pound bonuses? It is not right that services are being axed when the super-rich can bend the rules and avoid paying their fair share of tax.”

He went on to say:

"Projecting an alternative future without essential public service workers, brings to life the reality of cutting public services. In the latest stage of the Million Voices campaign, UNISON is calling on the public to join us in standing up for local services, to make the politicians think again about the consequences of making cuts."

To find out more about the film, TV ads etc click here. To sign up to the Million Voices campaign click here.

Public services

Don’t wait until they’ve gone to defend them.

Little known fact #9

2010-02-25T19:15:00.002Z

The Audit Commission estimates we will need 350,000 more care workers over the next 10 years to meet the needs of a growing elderly population

Posted via email from UNISON (East Midlands)

No arms company holdings in our pensions

2010-02-23T20:15:00.003Z

John Sharman, Lincolnshire County UNISON branch secretary and a pension fund employee rep has been leading a campaign for the Lincolnshire County Council pension fund to divest itself of the £11m held in arms company shares.

The investments form part of the shares portfolio within Lincolnshire CC’s local government pension scheme, which also invests cash on behalf of local districts and parishes. John Sharman has urged the county to ditch all arms firms from their portfolio saying:

“I think we should be guided by ethical principals. We should have no investment in the arm’s trade.”

In recent times the pension fund has reduced the holdings in arms companies by £2m. Congratulations to John for this partial victory. We know we can rely on him to be persistently raise this issue until all of the arms company holdings have been divested.

Pay Matters

2010-02-21T19:07:00.005Z

Last week the latest inflation figures showing retail price inflation rising to 3.7%, spelling misery for local government workers hit with a pay freeze.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

"News that inflation is again on the up spells misery for local government workers. A pay freeze is a real pay cut for teaching assistants, care workers, refuse collectors and school caterers working for local councils. They are already among the lowest paid staff in the public sector, and they cannot take another pay hit.

It is time for the local government employers to get real and get into talks on pay. We know that in England alone, councils have £12.7 billion stashed away in reserves. The majority of councils are Tory run, and the decision to give staff a pay freeze is a political choice, not a financial necessity. They can afford to give workers a decent rise."

Robin Hood Tax Video

2010-02-21T18:14:00.015Z

We've blogged before about the growing campaign for a Robin Hood Tax that would be levied on all speculative banking transactions.

Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy have produced an excellent campaign video that explains the concept very simply. Once you've seen the video you will wonder why it has not been introduced yet. This is a simple and effective way of raising money to protect vital public services and tackle climate change. And it gives the banking industry a chance to repay the debt it owes to the world for the recklessness that caused the global recession.

To support the campaign click here and sign up.

Little known fact #8

2010-02-17T22:55:00.002Z

The right wing press and the Taxpayers' Alliance (aka the paramilitary wing of the Tory Party) would have you believe that taxation is a bad thing and that the average person gets little in return. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The average UK household gets benefits and public services worth more than £10,000 a year - which is more than they contribute in direct and indirect taxation.

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire - A Tale of (two very different) County Councils

2010-02-17T22:31:00.008Z

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire County Councils have many things in common that are not just about geographical proximity.

Up until June 2009 both councils had been Labour run for a very long time and both then became Conservative controlled following the June elections. In Nottinghamshire they are proposing cuts of £28m to balance their budget, however, in Derbyshire they have identified they only need to make efficiency savings of £6.12m.

Obviously if job losses or service cuts happen this is not good. But in the scheme of things this is a modest amount given the size of the overall budget, and it is small compared to cuts being made by Notts County Council.

What a contrast!

We've said before the Notts do not need to make these cuts as we've identified for them over £28m of "easy money."

Unlike Notts, Derbyshire have not taken the irresponsible decision to freeze Council Tax, they are raising it by a modest 1.5%.

The council has estimated the General Fund Reserve (they can spend this on anything they want) to be £30m to £35m which is quite a high amount relative to the overall spend of the council. So they have "money in the bank" to protect services in future years.

Derbyshire have shown that there is at least one Conservative council in the region that is not reckless with its approach to protecting vital services. The worry is that Derbyshire are the exception rather than the rule, as we've reported previously about savage cuts being made by Tory run Leicestershire and Northamptonshire County Councils.

Will the approach at Derybshire change after the general election? Given what is going on in Tory councils around the country, sadly it probably will.

All together now

2010-02-15T22:12:00.005Z

An interesting article on the UNISON Active website about how UNISON can, and should stand up for public services, both before and after the general election.

The article makes the case for UNISON campaigning both in the workplace and in the community, working alongside community groups in order to defend public services.

Well worth a read.

Bassetlaw branch victory on agency workers

2010-02-14T17:27:00.011Z

Regular readers of this blog will know we've been campaigning to get councils to control what they are spending on agency workers and consultants as it is clear there is signifcant waste. If you've missed our campaign you can find out about it here, here and here.

Bassetlaw branch (who incidentally won the region's Branch of the Year award a few weeks ago) have been doggedly pursing this issue for 2 years.

There have been agency workers working at the council in both refuse and street cleaning. In some cases this was in excess of 5 years. For the past 2 years or so they have raised this subject at the council's negotiating forum and they have also written to councillors about it.

Following lengthy negotiations the branch are now able to report that 22 of the agency workers have been made permanent employees of the council from this month.

This is a win-win. The council will be saving money by not paying the agency and the workers will be getting proper rates of pay with access to holidays and sick pay.

Congratulations to the branch for being so persistent and not giving up.

Little known fact #7

2010-02-14T17:17:00.005Z

There is a myth circualting in the mainstream media that public spending has to be cut because it is too large and is contributing to the economic problems of the country. Public spending did not cause this recession - greedy bankers did.

Investment in our public services is exactly the sort of thing we need to help us get out of the recession. And for those who believe we spend too much on public services, here's a little known fact

The UK spends less (21% of GDP) on public services and social security than France (29%), Germany (25%), Italy (27%) or Sweden (29%)

The solution to the recession without cutting public services

2010-02-11T22:32:00.006Z

The TUC along with Tax Research UK, Tax Justice Network, Christian Aid and the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development recently submitted a report to the IMF in response to its consultation on the future taxation of the finance sector.

The submission is available here. The document is 60 odd pages and rather technical, but it can be boiled down into quite a simple set of ideas.

The submission reminds the IMF that the bank and the financial services sector caused the current recession - and they can actually be the source of the additional revenue needed to tackle current problems in the economy.

The submission demands the creation of financial transaction taxes. Basically this means a small tax of say 0.05% is levied on all speculative banking transactions. This would raises hundreds of billions of pounds. You can read more about it on the Robin Hood Tax campaign website.

It's an ideal solution as the banks got us into this mess - and they can help get us out of it. And best of all it will ensure that much needed public services are properly funded.

Heather Wakefield on Council Tax

2010-02-11T22:16:00.003Z

Readers of this blog will have noted that there is a growing tendency of Tory controlled councils to irresponsibly freeze Council Tax, thus creating unnecessary budget pressures which in turn results in cuts to much needed services.

Council Tax freezes are not just an East Midlands issue; they are happening all over the country. Indeed in some council they are cutting council tax, whilst at the same time cutting services to the vulnerable.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON's Nataionl Secerary for Local Government, has wrtten about this here in her blog on the Public Finance website. Heather has shown how the simplistic and healdine grabbing approach to Council Tax will resut in misery for thousands of vulnerable people. It is the economics of the mad house.

Little known fact #6

2010-02-07T20:39:00.005Z

The right wing press would have you believe local government is overstaffed. The truth - as is often the case - is somewhat different. Here's another little known fact.

The (Tory controlled) Local Government Association says we need about 10,000 more social workers to deal with vacancies and deal with rising child protection caseloads.

Notts County Council - the campaign steps up a gear

2010-02-07T20:11:00.013Z

The consultation process about the £33m of savage cuts (well actually it is now £28.7m) being proposed by Tory-run Notts County Council may now be over, but the campaign has not stopped.

With help from the regional office, the branch have now taken out adverts using a photo of Bert (a real service user affected by the cuts). Pictured in this blog post is the ad that will be appearing on over 20 bus shelters in prominent positions in Gedling, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe and West Bridgford. You can click on the picture to see a bigger version.

On top of this half page newspaper ads have been taken out in the Nottingham Evening Post, the Newark Advertiser, Eastwood Advertiser and Retford Times.

UNISON have also produced leaflets (which you can download here) for the people of Nottinghamshire explaining how these cuts mean massive increases in service user charges for Bert, and countless others like him.

The leaflets (and ads) explain how UNISON have identified over £20m of "easy money" that could easily be used to offset these unjust and savage cuts. Over 5,000 leaflets have been printed and distributed in the past few days. And we will be getting more of them out into the community over the next two weeks.

Council spends £350k on consultants to help them save money!

2010-02-06T23:07:00.004Z

Supposedly hard up Notts County Council who are cutting £33m of services are spending £350,000 on consultants to tell them how to save money. This is a pretty unbelievable story and lead Regional Head of Local Government, Ravi Subramanian, to write to The Nottingham Evening Post to say:

"When I read the Post article saying Notts County Council was planning to spend £350,000 on consultants to tell them how to save money I had to check my diary as I thought April Fools' Day had come early. UNISON has already told the council, for free, many ways they can find up to £28m to prevent the proposed savage cuts.

If Cabinet member for finance Reg Adair has lost the copy of the letter I sent to chief executive Mick Burrows last week, I am more than happy to send him another copy. The council could save over £40,000 by scrapping the extra cabinet posts the Tory administration created when they came into power.

They could also save a further £90,000 by not appointing the spin doctor, sorry communications director post they recently advertised."

Cut waste not services

2010-02-04T20:40:00.007Z

We've reported in the past about the region's campaign to "cut waste not services" especially when it comes to the £150m that is spent on agency workers and consultants in the East Midlands.

When we did our Freedom of Information requests back in 2009 one of two councils that was unable to tell us how much they spent on agency workers and consultants was Northamptonshire County Council. They were able to tell us how much they spent in 2007/08 but they told us since they put in place a new financial system they aren't able to extract this information easily. What's the betting they employed consultants to put in this new "improved" system?

The council's budget proposals includes £21m of cuts to services. We've shown that councils can easily save 10 per cent of their spend on agency workers and consultants if they put proper management measures in place. In 2007/08 they told us they spent £4.7m on agency workers and £7.5m on consultants.

We know they don't have any management measures in place to control costs as they don't even know how much they spent in 2008/09. It would be reasonable to assume that the combined cost would be at least £13m. This means with a few simple control measures they could save easily £1.3m that would be better spent on protecting jobs and services..

It is nothing short of a scandal that the council are doing nothing about it. The local UNISON branch, with assistance from the regional office and the union's General Political Fund (GPF) are taking this issues to the street via some bus stops.

GPF money has been used to fund a series of adverts on bus shelter panels across Northampton, Wellingborough and Kettering during the week commencing 15 February. The picture in this blog post is the ad they will be using. The people of Northamptonshire need to know how the council are mismanaging their money.

Little known fact #5

2010-01-31T20:24:00.005Z

One of the directors of the so called TaxPayers' Alliance does not even pay tax in the UK. The Guardian has reported that Alexander Heath, a director of the rightwing lobby group, lives in a farmhouse in the Loire and has not paid British tax for years!

On top of this the TaxPayers' Alliance are under investigation by the Charity Commission for improperly claiming tax relief.

They have unbelievable cheek to claim they are speaking on behalf of tax-payers.

Column in the Leicester Mercury about budget cuts

2010-01-29T00:04:00.010Z

Yesterday the Leicester Mercury published a column from UNISON Regional Head of Local Government, Ravi Subramanian, about the budget cuts at Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council. The article is reproduced below.

As UNISON members prepare to fight both Leicestershire County Council and the city council over savage cuts to services it is important to set the scene in a wider context.

The public sector has not been immune from the impact of the recession and councils have been hit particularly hard. Over the past year over 1,000 jobs have been lost at councils in the East Midlands, with thousands more being lost nationally. It now looks like 500 more council jobs could be lost this year in Leicestershire alone.

This isn’t union scaremongering. The Chartered Institute for Personnel Development have estimated nationally there will be 30,000 job cuts in councils in the this year. The cuts will go further than efficiency measures and natural wastage and they will have an impact on levels of service.

Those with a political axe to grind claim money could be saved by deleting "non jobs", But when asked to identify such jobs they can’t. The reality is the workforce is engaged in delivering vital services to our communities, caring for the most vulnerable; keeping our public buildings clean and safe; and providing services that befit a civilised society.

Public sector workers are members of the local community too. If they are made jobless, aside from then needing to claim state benefits, they have less money to spend in the local economy which has a knock on effect in the community.

As councils prepare to wield the knife on the very services that are keeping our communities together in these difficult times, people need to understand what council workers really do. Some little known facts about the local government workforce are:
** over 70% are women
** about half of these women are in low paid, part time jobs, such as catering, care work and cleaning
** the hourly pay rate for those in caring roles is similar to a supermarket worker

Admin posts are an easy target to take pot shots at, but these jobs are necessary. For example, having admin workers means skilled social workers can best use their time and skills to work with families and children. The same applies across a range of professions such as planning, environmental health, engineering and law.

The recession has meant a fall in demand for some council services, such as planning and building control. But in other, more labour intensive areas, demand has increased. In a recession there are more people claiming housing benefit, more needing welfare rights advice, more free school meals are needed and there is an increased demand on social services.

Over the past four years councils have been required to make four per cent year-on-year efficiency savings, whilst having to provide increasing levels of service. Rather than make savage service cuts, UNISON wants councils to reduce their unnecessary expenditure on agency workers and consultants - between them the city and county councils spend £39m.

The city council have listened to UNISON and have plans to implement proper control measures. We are hoping the county council will follow suit. UNISON believes both could easily save 10 per cent of what they currently spend if they implemented proper control measures and that would save nearly £4m that could be better used to protect frontline services.

Times are tough for everyone including council workers. In tough times the public sector is even more important as the most vulnerable in our communities need extra support. Hard pressed council workers are now expected to deal with greater demand with fewer resources. That’s why UNISON has launched its "Million Voices for Change" campaign for a fairer society and decent public services for all. To join our campaign go to our website.

The Perfect Pay Storm

2010-01-25T19:43:00.004Z

Heather Wakefield, UNISON's National Secretary for Local Government has written on her Public Finance blog about the pay freeze being "offered" to council workers this year.

Heather is the union's lead negotiator on local government pay and it is well worth seeing what she has to say. You can read her article here.

The article makes the case that Council workers are hardly well paid now, and that councils have the money to pay a decent pay award, as oppose to the effective pay cut that is now on offer. The whole article is worth reading but a few key points that are worth repeating are:

** Over a quarter of a million employees are on the bottom three pay points, earning less that £12,500 a year for a full-time worker. A staggering 61% earn below £18,000.

** In 2008/09, the average lowest pay point across all the largest public sector bargaining groups was £13,481. For the largest local government group covering 1.4 million workers within the NJC for Local Government Services, it was £11,995.

** Non-school reserves in local authorities in England rose from £5.5bn in 2002 to £12.75bn in 2009, despite councils submitting budgets saying that they would need to draw on reserves, rather than increase them.

Councils should not use the financial mess caused by greedy bankers to punish hard working council workers, especially when it is clear councils have the money for a decent pay offer.

Little known fact #4

2010-01-25T19:37:00.001Z

The employer contribution rate for the Local Government Pension Scheme is 13.6%. In the private sector the comparable employer contribution average is 15.6%. Many employers are paying a high overall contribution to the scheme because of past underfunding and contribution holidays

UNISON find £28m for Notts County Council

2010-01-24T21:03:00.013Z

Notts County Council claim they have to make £33.3m of budget cuts because they have money problems.

Last week UNISON submitted our formal response to the council identifying £28.09m of "easy money" for the council, meaning less than £5.3m of cuts that will be needed to balance the 2010/11 budget. This is a level of cuts that could easily be achieved without any job losses or impact upon services.

The £28.08m we have identified is a responsible and accurately costed set of proposals - if you want to see our proposals click here.

Little known fact #3

2010-01-24T20:49:00.003Z

Another in our series of little known facts about about council workers, the services they provide and the public services in general. This time a fact about the public sector in general, which should give pause for thought to all those in the private sector who are calling for cuts in the public sector.

Research by The Association of Public Service Excellence found that for every pound spent by public sector employers 64 pence is recycled to local businesses.

Council Workers' Pay Freeze

2010-01-24T20:43:00.004Z

Last week the Local Government Employers announced that they would not be offering any pay rise for council workers; effectively a pay cut.

The UNISON Active blog has detailed analysis of the offer. Readers of this blog would do well to read this post on the UNISON Active blog to get a rounded view of the the offer and how it might be responded to.

Notts County Council reverse £4.6m of cuts

2010-01-20T20:29:00.017Z

Today the Nottingham Evening Post reported that Notts County Council have decided to reverse £4.6m of their proposed £33.3m of cuts. Some of the reversals in the proposals are:

** Residential care - original savings of £1.6 million will only be £800,000
** Meals - currently cost £2.35 a meal and it was proposed to increase them to £3.95 - this has been revised to £3.00.
** Welfare Rights - originally proposed to cut by £250,000 now proposing to cut by £150,000.
** Sale of residential care homes - Cllr Mel Shepherd, cabinet member for adults, social care and health, also said planned sale of the council's 13 residential care homes was unlikely to be carried out in the next financial year.

We are delighted that the council have started to listen to what we are saying. The reversal of £4.6m of the cuts is to be welcomed. But as we have demonstrated the council have the scope to reverse a further £19m of cuts to protect vital services for the most vulnerable. The people of Nottinghamshire are counting on them to do the right thing.

This has only been possible by vigorous campaigning making use of excellent local government finance advice from head office, coordination the media and external campaign by the regional office and relentless workplace activity by the branch.

A formal response from UNISON to the consultation will be submitted by Friday 22 January and we hope that the council will listen to what we have to say as we believe they can prevent nearly all of the propose service cuts.

We will post the formal response on this blog in due course.

Notts County Council accept UNISON's claim they will have up to £2m extra income

2010-01-19T21:45:00.004Z

As part of a vigorous campaign to challenge the savage £33m of cuts at Notts County Council, UNISON wrote to the Chief Executive raising a number of issues in the council's budget proposals.

One of the issues was the council's failure to take any account for the increase in council tax revenue from the simple fact that more houses would be built in Notts over the next year.

Today the Nottingham Evening Post reported that the council would receive up to £2m more income that they had expected and this was only revealed after UNISON had written to the Chief Executive. Although the council accepted they would receive more income, ominously the report in the paper said:

"Council bosses say no decision has yet been made on what the council might do with the cash."

Now we've shown them that they will have up to £2m extra income it remains to be seen if they will use the money to protect vital services for the vulnerable. You can be sure we will be pressing them to do the right thing.

Watch this space for more news.

UNISON leaders speak up on the Local Government Pension Scheme

2010-01-19T19:45:00.002Z

Readers of this blog may have spotted this story on the BBC website that says that pension funds improved sharply in December.

The story followed the attack on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) by the Liberal Democrats attacking our pension scheme in the run up to the election. The press release from the Department of Communities and Local Government CLG about that attack said this:

" This story does not stand up to scrutiny. Claims about the size of a deficit for the local government pension scheme are pure speculation. This year's valuation of the fund has not been carried out yet and is legally required to be based on market levels at the end of March - no one has any accurate way of knowing what that will be. There are regulations in place to ensure the scheme remains fair, solvent, protected against risk, and affordable to the taxpayer - these rules also ensure that any deficits identified in the valuation cannot be passed on directly to council tax payers”

It’s becoming clear that we public sector workers face a real threat to our pension schemes if the Tories get elected at the general election or if they form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Both these parties have called for cuts to our pensions and some have called for the schemes to be closed to new entrants and for final salary schemes to be replaced with defined contribution schemes. So far Labour have resisted any such attacks. Minister John Healey said in May 2009 that a defined contribution scheme would result in the average pension for a local Government worker reducing from it’s current £4,000 to about £1,000.

UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, said:

“There is a lot of rubbish spoken about public sector pensions and the Liberal Democrats are recycling some of that in an attempt to scaremonger. It is wrong to say that all councils have mismanaged their pension funds. Only a few years years ago, the local government pension scheme was reviewed and UNISON and the local government employers agreed a scheme that is fair, affordable and sustainable.

Local government workers pay more than 6 per cent of their wages into their pension scheme, to save for their retirement. The majority of scheme members are low paid women workers, and the average pension for them is under £40 a week – hardly a gold-plated pension. If these workers didn’t save for their pensions, they’d be forced on to means tested state benefits.

The real pensions scandal in this country is that the boardroom fat cats vote each other ludicrously generous retirement packages, while plotting to cut the pensions of their workforce.”

Chris Tansley
Chair UNISON Local Government Service Group Executive

Little known fact #2

2010-01-18T21:23:00.003Z

Next in our series of little known facts about about council workers, the services they provide and the public services in general.

Around 1.5 million people work in adult social care in the UK - more than the NHS

Conservatives think UNISON are running a good campaign against cuts in Nottinghamshire

2010-01-17T21:47:00.005Z

Ravi Subramanian, Regional Head of Local Government, wrote an article in the Nottingham Evening Post a few weeks ago showing Notts County Council that they did not really have to make £33m of services cuts as UNISON had found over £24m for them.

Grassroots Conservative website Conservative Home, seems to have got a little upset at his suggestion of a responsible approach to Council Tax, calling for a modest 3% rise to help protect vital services for the most vulnerable in our communities in these very difficult times.

All predictable stuff, but the best part was where one of the Tory supporters on the site commented:

"I live within Nottinghamshire................ UNISON is running a fairly high profile campaign in the county"

It's always great when an opponent thinks a campaign is being well run. If he thinks the campaign is "fairly high profile" at the moment, wait until he sees what we have in store in the next few weeks - watch this space.

A Victory on Chief Executive's Pay

2010-01-17T21:23:00.020Z

Back in November we launched our campaign to end the veil of secrecy of Chief Executive's pay. We made a series of Freedom of Information requests to councils asking exactly how much their Chief Executive was paid - and what their expenses were.

If you click on the link here you will see the summary of what we found.

Some councils gave us the full details and other gave us only salary ranges. Northamptonshire County Council was one of the councils that only gave us a salary range.

However, we are pleased to report that they have listened to our pleas for transparency and have published full details on their website here.

We congratulate them on listening to us - it is now the turn of the other councils to follow their lead. If they don't then you can rest assured we will be making some noise about it.

Little known fact #1

2010-01-14T18:25:00.010Z

Local Government workers are regularly portrayed in a negative and unfair light by the media. We are starting a series of posts of "Little Known Facts" to counter the myths about council workers, the services they provide and the public services in general. Here's the first one:

Every week more people visit a library than attend football matches or go to the cinema

Leicester City Council to cut £19m

2010-01-13T20:31:00.008Z

Leicester City Council have reported that they will be making £17m of cuts and cutting up to 270 jobs. We can't give a detailed analysis of the budget proposals at the moment as we've only recently received the budget papers. But we will be asking the council some searching questions.

What we can say from a quick glance at the report is that the council, unlike neighboring Leicestershire County Council, have not opted for a council tax freeze, which will at lead help mitigate against some of the cuts.

Regular readers of this blog will know that the East Midlands region of UNISON has been campaigning strongly for councils to better control their expenditure on agency workers and consultants. Whilst the budget proposals are obviously alarming - and need further analysis - it is pleasing to see the following sentence in the budget report:

"The Council will significantly curtail its spending on agency staff and external consultants."

A few councils, including Nottingham City Council, have started to take action on this matter now we've raised it - we need more to follow their lead.

More on the Bad Numbers in The Sunday Times

2010-01-09T19:24:00.021Z

We reported here on this blog about the recent Sunday Times report that misrepresented statistics to allegedly show that “public sector workers earn 7% more on average than their peers in the private sector — a pay gulf that has more than doubled since the recession began.”

The TUC Touchstone had a blog post demolishing the flawed basis on which the Sunday Times had used its statistics to make its argument.

Now Ben Goldacre has weighed in with a damming criticism of the Sunday Time story in his Bad Science column in the Guardian.

Ben is a medical doctor and all round good egg, who campaigns relentlessly to debunk quackery, bad science and misused statistics. His excellent book Bad Science exposes the quackery that passes itself off as science. An extract from the description on Amazon is:

Guardian columnist Dr Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and informative journey through the bad science we're fed by the worst of the hacks and the quacks! When Dr Ben Goldacre saw someone on daytime TV dipping her feet in an 'Aqua Detox' footbath, releasing her toxins into the water and turning it brown, he thought he'd try the same at home. 'Like some kind of Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General', using his girlfriend's Barbie doll, he gently passed an electrical current through the warm salt water. It turned brown. In his words: 'before my very eyes, the world's first Detox Barbie was sat, with her feet in a pool of brown sludge, purged of a weekend's immorality.'

In his book, Ben exposes the way that the mainstream media misreport science either through ignorance, or deliberately just to get sensational headlines. Amongst other things, he exposes quacks who use pseudo science, debunks claims that omega-3 capsules will make your children smarter and explains how drug companies fiddle drug trials so they can sell more of their drugs.

If you've not read it, you really should. It will make you howl with laughter and gasp in horror in equal measure. His Bad Science blog is a great read too.

Exposing drug companies who fiddle drug trials for their own gain may seem a long way off from a newspaper article about the public sector pay. But both relate to powerful vested interests who are working for the benefit of the privileged few at the cost of the majority.

It's heartening to see Ben's scientifically trained, incisive mind cut through the nonsense of the Sunday Times article with surgical precision.

What a no frills council really looks like

2010-01-09T18:22:00.008Z

We've reported in the past about Tory run Barnet council who want to implement a "no frills" EasyJet system for council services, where residents get a very basic service and then pay for any extra services on top.

It does not take a genius to work out that this will mean the most vulnerable will not be able to afford to pay the top up charges - and they will be left to suffer.

A UNISON activist has taken a photo using the current snowy weather to illustrate the point very well.

David Cameron's Tories

2010-01-09T14:47:00.004Z

Some cheeky scamps have set up a website called MyDavidCameron.Com where they have modified the recent Conservative Party billboard posters featuring David Cameron attempting to reassure voters about his intentions.

They've done several parodies around the NHS and the Conservative plans to cut inheritance tax for the rich. If you click here you can see them. The site also gives links to other websites that give a detailed analysis of the Conservative's position on public services.

The site also allows people to download the poster and do their own versions of the poster. Here in the Local Government Matters bunker we just could not resist the opportunity to do our own version of the poster. Readers of the blog will know about the £33m of cuts proposed at Notts County Council, despite UNISON proving conclusively there is at least £24m of "easy money" to be found, possibly more.

Whilst it is certainly amusing to parody the Cameron posters, no-one should lose sight of the very serious message about the intentions of Conservative councils and a future Conservative government.

Social Workers' stress epidemic feared

2010-01-07T22:13:00.004Z

Chris Tansley is one of our region's reps on UNISON social care forum . Chris has been campaigning hard for a better and fairer deal for social workers. Here he writes about his concerns for the profession and the need for the recommendations of the recent Social Work Taskforce to be implemented.

I don’t know if this article in the Guardian on New Years day was spotted by members but it threw up some disturbing but well known issues to for our social worker members.

It came from Birmingham one of the UK’s biggest social work departments and said that social work staff are signed off sick for an average of 24.9 days a year – nearly three times the average for other staff. The head of the Department Colin Tucker said he was raising the issue to raise awareness in the public of the extreme pressures that social workers were under following the Baby Peter case.

Just one team in Aston was now dealing with a staggering 700 new referrals a month as outside agencies react to the aftermath of the Baby Peter case by referring any and every concern they have about vulnerable children in the community.

All this comes on top of social workers saying they face increased levels of hostility in the community because of the bad press stirred up by irresponsible parts of the gutter press like the Sun who launched a vicious campaign against social workers with no thought about how this would react in communities and the effects it would have on the already immensely difficult task social workers have in protecting vulnerable children.

UNISON has been in the forefront of saying to Government and Employers that the high caseloads, high vacancy levels and increased demands of an inflexible computer programme system of recording were having on the stress levels of our social worker members. It is precisely these high stress levels that have led to the sickness rates that Birmingham and other Authorities are experiencing.

Towards the end of 2009 the Government seemed to be listening. It fully accepted the task force (which UNISON was a part of) recommendations which largely mirrored UNISON's own set of proposals in our 10 point plan. But it needs to start doing a great deal more and urgently if we are going to restore social work as a profession that gets the respect it deserves and social workers get the support they desperately need to undertake what must be one of the most difficult and challenging jobs around.

If they don’t and the situation continues to be held at the low levels of esteem it reached in 2009 we will be looking at a profession in terminal decline and what that means for the most vulnerable in our society who so desperately need the skills of social workers doesn’t bear thinking about

Chris Tansley
Chair Unison National Social Care Forum

Nottingham City Council anounce £17m cuts

2010-01-07T21:36:00.005Z

Just before Christmas Nottingham City Council added to the list of councils making big cuts, with the announcement that it plans to cut £17m. The full report to the cabinet outlining the proposals can be found here and here.

The council say they need to make £17.2m of cuts. There are some interesting differences between the situations at Nottingham City Council and neighbouring Notts County Council (who are proposing £33m in cuts).

Firstly, unlike the county council, the city are proposing to put up council tax, by a modest 2.9%. Contrast that with the council tax freeze at the county council.

Secondly, the city council are predicting a £3m overspend in the current financial year, wheres as the county council are predicting a £10.4m underspend, but are stuffing £5m of this into reserves.

Thirdly, the county council have big reserves - over £24m in unallocated reserves and they have plenty of scope to use some of the reserves to support the budget. Whereas the city council have £7.9m in unallocated reserves, which gives them less scope to use them to support the budget.

That said, the scale of the cuts is alarming and there is no doubt, if implemented, they will result in cuts to frontline services. Despite the differences in the positions at the city and county councils UNISON will still be subjecting the city council's budget proposals and accounts to the same forensic scrutiny.

Last year the branch had a high profile campaign against similar cuts that were proposed last year. Whilst they were not able to prevent all of the job losses, their vigorous campaigning meant that very few people were made compulsorily redundant. The branch also pioneered the use of billboards to get their message across - a successful technique that has been copied this year by the Notts County branch.

And you can be sure that the branch will mount another high profile campaign this year.

Notts County Council cuts have nothing to do with money

2010-01-06T20:54:00.003Z

We've reported previously about the savage £33m cuts proposed by Notts County Council and we've always maintained that the Tory run council's assertion that they do not have the money and need to make £33m of cuts was a false assertion.

We've been working closely with colleagues at the national office to unpick the council's budget proposals and analyse the council's accounts. We've also asked some searching questions of the council. Today, Ravi Subramanian, UNISON's Regional Head of Local Government, had an article published in the Nottingham Evening Post which demolished the council's position that they don't have the money. His article identified over £24m of "easy money" for the council - and it hinted that there could be more money that could be identified. The text of the article is reproduced below.

On 25 February, Tory run Notts County Council will take the final decision on the 2010/11 budget. We’ve done a lot of work looking at the council’s accounts and we’ve asked questions in three separate letters to the Chief Executive. He’s only replied to one letter but even still, we can make some sensible suggestions on how the council can save money and protect services.

The consultation closes on 22 January and UNISON will provide a formal response. In the meantime we’d like to share some of our suggestions with Post readers.

Here is a quick reminder of some of the council’s proposals. Over 400 jobs will go; day care transport costs will go up £1.85 a day, meal costs will go up £1.60 a day and a day care which is currently free, will go up to £4 a day.

Services like welfare rights are being slashed and the county contact centres are being closed. Also a “home place parking levy” of £50 for residential parking is being brought in.

All of this because the Tory council claim there is a £33m gap in their budget. It’s not really the job of a trade union to find budget savings for them, but if they can’t do it, we will. Below are our suggestions.

Firstly raising council tax by a modest 3 per cent will raise £9m. The weekly cost would be 46p for a band A house rising to £1.37 for a Band H house. Many vulnerable people will be forced to pay over £10 a week with the current proposals. Surely less than the price of a cup of coffee is not a lot to ask to protect them?

Secondly, there is a predicted under spend this year of £10.4m. Astonishingly, whilst claiming a lack of money, the council have decided to put £5.4m of this under spend into reserves. They should use all of the £10.4m under spend to protect vital services.

Thirdly, the council has reserves of over £150m of which £24m are unallocated. Reserves are there to help in hard times. In a recession public services are needed more, not less. The council should use £2m of reserves to help in these difficult times.

Fourthly, the council spent over £19m on agency workers last year; the highest spend of all East Midlands councils. If they implement proper management measures they could easily save 10 per cent, which comes to £1.9m.

Fifthly, the council’s predictions assume there will be no increase council tax base, i.e. the increase in revenue because of newly built homes. Growth of new homes has slowed dramatically, but it has not stopped. Using nationally available figures we predict a modest growth in the tax base of 0.5 per cent. This gives an additional £1.5m.

Sixthly, the council created extra cabinet posts after the June elections. The council should scrap these unnecessary extra posts. Also the council recently advertised for a “spin doctor”, sorry, that should be “Service Director of Communications”. They should not appoint to this post while they are making budget cuts. These two items would save over £130,000.

The above items come to over £24m. We are still working on our proposals and we believe we can identify at least another £3m, especially if the Chief Executive actually replies to our two outstanding letters.

The council say they don’t have enough money and the cuts are necessary. We’ve done the work for them and shown how to save at least £24m, perhaps more. This may not be the full £33m, but it will go a long way to protecting services.

The council has the chance to reverse the majority of the proposed cuts. On 25 February they will either seize this opportunity, or they will show their cuts are not about money, but about a Tory political agenda to slash services in pursuit of David Cameron’s desire for a “small state.”

Lies, damn lies and (Sunday Times) statistics

2010-01-05T21:01:00.003Z

This weekend the Sunday Times published some very misleading statistics about public sector pay. The excellent TUC Touchstone blog did an excellent analysis demolishing this biased and unfair article. Read the analysis here.

With an election looming, Tory supporting Rupert Murdoch, is making sure he gets his papers to churn out rubbish to whet the public's appetite for an onslaught on the public sector and the people who work to deliver the services.

Its important that readers of this blog forward the TUC article to friends and family so these ridiculous stories can be exposed for the lies and distortions that they are. So, if you use Facebook, Twitter or any other social media forward on the TUC link.

Normal Service has Resumed

2010-01-05T20:26:00.003Z

Now the Christmas break is over, UNISON members in local government are hard at work, delivering vital public services. And sadly UNISON activists are having to spend their time defending these vital services from savage cuts in many councils.

Since we last posted here are some of the issues that have affected council staff in the East Midlands - and beyond.

Essex County Council have announced a £5bn deal with IBM to outsource services. This could spell the beginning of the end of good quality and equitable public services with the introduction of the private sectrr whose only desire is to make a quick buck.

Tory controlled Leicestershire County Council have announced 600 jobs will be cuts as they slash at services. Like Notts County Council they have take the irresponsible decision to freeze council tax. This is a decsion that means the burden of the cuts will fall on the most vulnerable as home care charges rise by 50% and some people who currently get care may be assessed as not being needy enough for care. Leader of the Council, Coun David Parsons said, "if you're not terribly vulnerable, we can't afford it."

So now only those people in Leicestershire who are very vulnerable have got any chance of getting any care. Well, Coun Parsons, you could afford it if you put up council tax by a modest 3% - it would cost just £1.24 a week extra for a Band H house or 41p a week for a Band A house and it would raise about £7.5m.

Less than the price of a cup of coffee a week is not a lot to ask to protect the most vulnerable in our society, is it?

The importance of public services in the economic recovery - an MP speaks

2009-12-17T22:14:00.004Z

Colin Burgon, MP for the Leeds constituency of Elmet, made the following timely speech in Parliament yesterday about the economy and public services.

Over the past 18 months we have lived through a financial and economic crisis of international capitalism that is unprecedented since the great depression of the ’30s. Historically unmatched levels of state intervention have been required to stabilise the western economy, which at many times has stood on the verge of collapse.

How ironic it is that the agency of government has done the rescuing—an idea that is anathema to all those neo-liberal free-marketeers who took as their guiding mantra Ronald Reagan’s comment that government is not the solution, but the problem.

The Government’s intervention has crossed the political divide. George Bush’s right-wing Government nationalised the two giant US mortgage market companies and in Britain the Labour Government have made bank interventions that have so far cost us about £140 billion, which is equivalent to more than 10 per cent. of our GDP and more than will be spent on the national health service this year.

The state interventions have ended any supremacy claimed by those ideological fanatics who previously argued that unrestrained free markets were the answer to all economic problems. They have spent the past 30 years seeking to extend the market into more and more areas of our life and have also promoted the domination of finance over all other sectors of our economy.

Yet just one year later, the same free market zealots in the world of politics and their friends in their media now want to take the axe to the public sector, allegedly to address the problems faced by the economy.

At this point we should ask ourselves three questions. First, how did a financial collapse that brought such damage to the wider economy suddenly become the fault of such people as nurses, teachers, carers and other working people? Secondly, why should the majority of the population suffer, as they will if public services are severely cut? Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, will severe cuts help solve the economic problems that we face?

I want to state that the debate on economic recovery has wrongly and harmfully become dominated by those who argue that only by cutting public services can the issue of growth and the national debt be addressed. That has now become accepted wisdom; it is the received orthodoxy. However, it was once the received medical orthodoxy that the bleeding of patients was a necessary step to recovery. Thankfully, that orthodoxy was overthrown due to the experience of its deadly effects. It therefore needs to be said somewhere, loud and clear, that national debt is the symptom, not the cause, of the recession. To seek to address the debt by attacking Government expenditure fails to tackle the real causes of the economic crisis that have created a deficit.

By engaging in the cuts agenda, either now or in the next few years, we will cause long-term damage or risk a Japanese-style lost decade—or, as some economists are calling it, a zombie economy. Such an economic situation would hit the public finances even more dramatically, leaving us with even larger debts. Instead of the obsession with cuts we need a growth agenda that will allow Government revenues to rise and unemployment to fall and that will, in turn, reduce the debt.

As such an approach breaks with the consensus that has emerged on cutting public services, it may be helpful to put the current levels of national debt into an historical and international context. Government debt, which is at 55 per cent. of GDP in this financial year, is estimated to peak at 78 per cent. in 2014. Although that figure is high, it is far from unprecedented historically. According to the recent House of Commons paper “Background to the 2009 Pre-Budget Report”, Government debt was more than 100 per cent. of GDP every year from 1945 until 1963. The same paper adds: “UK debt would still be below that of Italy, Japan and the US, and broadly similar to that of France and Germany” at the end of 2010.

Of course, the national debt should be reduced in the future, not least as interest repayments soak up vital resources that could be better spent on schools, hospitals and elsewhere, but contrary to the claim of those on the right, increasing the deficit has been necessary during the worldwide recession—especially as it was so deep. I noticed that William Keegan explained it in The Observer in the following way:

“the large deficit…is not the problem: it is an integral part of the solution. It is the reason why we have not experienced the kind of full-scale 1930s-style depression which would have been on the cards without drastic fiscal action.”

Furthermore, anyone seriously wishing to address the debt rather than to pursue outdated and ineffective ideological goals might first want to look at how the debt has come about. Were they to do that, they would find that it is the consequence of three things: declining Government revenues; the large bank bail-outs, which amount to more than 10 per cent. of GDP; and, to a much lesser degree, an increase in Government expenditure. Treasury figures estimate an increase in public sector net debt of 18.9 per cent. of GDP between April 2008 and April 2010, excluding the bank bail-outs.

The majority of the increase in the debt has been caused by a fall in Government receipts. As the House of Commons paper “The outlook for the public finances” explains, it is normal during a recession for revenues to fall. Similarly, Government expenditure has also risen, as expected in a recession. That inevitable rise in Government expenditures is due to the so-called “automatic” processes that take place in a recession, such as, for example, the fact that we see more benefits paid out.

However, only a minority of the deficit has been caused by the increase in Government expenditure, so I would argue that the calls to cut the public sector display economic incoherence. As Professor David Blanchflower, former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, told the Opposition: “Cutting public spending in a recession is a really bad idea.” I urge even those people on the Government Benches who are tempted by it to reject it.

So, what is the way forward? What practical polices do we need to address the vital issues of investment and growth?

First, we need the Government to use their majority holdings in a number of banks to force the banks to increase investment and lending levels to businesses and to families to revive the economy and housing market. I am one of those who think that there is an element of gutlessness in the way that our Government have dealt with the banks, but we may come on to that later.

Secondly, in those areas where market failure is greatest and private investment has collapsed the most, the Government need to step in and invest directly themselves. Large-scale state investment in transport and housing in such areas would be economically as well as socially useful.

Thirdly, in the really long term, we desperately need to rebalance the economy away from its reliance on finance and develop the industries of the future. The UK has the potential to generate something like 400,000 jobs in green industries, but to fulfil that potential we need state-led investment on a green new deal that would be of tremendous immediate economic benefit and of long-term environmental benefit.

Fourthly, we can help reflate the economy through increasing levels of consumption by putting money into the pockets of those most likely to spend it. The last 30 years of neo-liberalism have witnessed a smaller and smaller proportion of the economy going to wages. If the Government were to reverse that by raising taxation on the super-rich and then handing over exactly the same amount of money to ordinary families, overall consumer spending would rise, helping the economy to move out of recession.

Finally, for those who advocate cuts, there are areas of public spending that can be cut. We do not need to renew Trident and, although I used to support them, I no longer think that we need ID cards. By cutting those projects, tens of billions of pounds could be saved at a stroke.

The package that I have outlined is only a small example of what could be done. It would be a popular message and it would deal with the debt and the much larger issue of restoring economic growth.

The alternative to going for growth is a cuts agenda, but cuts are not savings. They would remove demand from the economy and the recession would worsen as the negative multiplier effect kicked in. On this, we need to learn the lessons of history. Roosevelt announced his new deal in 1933, and things went well for three years after the banks were regulated and there was a big increase in public spending. Then, afraid of public debt and under pressure from the right, he began to cut, sending the economy back into a recession from which it did not recover until just before the second world war.

We can also learn from countries that are a bit closer to Britain than America. If we look just across the Irish sea, we can see the slash-and-burn tactics being employed by the Irish Government. The Fianna Fáil Government have overseen savage cuts to the public sector and a real fiscal tightening—something so beloved of the right wing in this country. That has been to the detriment to the wider economy in Ireland, which has continued to worsen. So the debt continues to rise while the Governments have become more unpopular as the majority have suffered. Colleague and comrades on the Labour Benches should learn the economic and political lessons from Ireland.

I mentioned Roosevelt in a slightly pejorative way earlier so, in an attempt to balance that, I want to say that I believe that we are in a period of great ideological debate—and that is as it should be in a period of great economic crisis. Basically, the debate boils down to these questions: has the neo-liberal consensus of the past 30 years been correct, and what is the role of Government?

By way of an answer, I shall draw on the words of Roosevelt himself. He said:

“What is the State? It is the duly constituted representative of an organized society of human beings, created by them for their mutual protection and well-being. ‘The state’ or ‘The Government’ is but the machinery through which such mutual aid and protection are achieved.”

As we have this huge intellectual debate, I hope that those ideas are remembered. I also hope that we are moving into a period that sees the demise of neo-liberalism.

Colin makes the case for public services being part of the solution to get the country out of the mess caused by greedy bankers. His speech is very much in tunes with UNISON's Million Voices for Public Services camapign.

Daily Express Readers Support Public Sector Pensions!

2009-12-14T16:10:00.006Z

You've not misread the title of this blog post. Last week the Daily Express ran a phone poll asking "Should public sector pensions be cut back?"

Today (in small print) the Daily Express published the results of the poll. Apparently 69% of Express readers think public sector pensions should not be cut. Well done to Express readers for seeing sense.

Strangely the results of the poll are not yet on their website - but there are numerous poll results about Muslims and, asylum seekers.

Spin over services

2009-12-14T15:55:00.010Z

Notts County Council are planning to make £33m of service cuts - and at the same time they have decided to advertise for a a new Service Director of Communications (aka "Spin Doctor") with the very handsome salary of more than £71,000

This is a slap in the face of the thousands of frontline staff such as care workers, social workers and contact centre staff who will be spending the Christmas break worrying about whether they will be made redundant in the new year

The advert, which you can find here, says "Nottinghamshire has undergone a change in direction." The council has certainly undergone a change in direction as it now values spin over services

Shameful behavoiour.

Show us the money

2009-12-03T08:09:00.006Z

Many councils are saying they have financial problems and are having to cut budgets. Undoubtedly many are facing a drop income from reductions in planning fees and parking charges. And undoubtedly some are facing increasing pressures on budgets as demand for vital services goes up.

But, for years many of them have been putting money into reserves for a "rainy day." We believe that rainy day has come and some councils have the opportunity to use their reserves to protect services.

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by UNISON have uncovered that many councils in the East Midlands have relatively large reserves that could be used to help support budget problems in the short term. Councils carry many types of reserve, many of which are earmarked for specific projects. However, the reserves we have focused on are the unallocated reserves, or “General Fund Balance” that is free to be spent on anything.

We believe any second tier council (district or borough council) with more than 10 per cent of its total expenditure in unallocated reserves has enough flexibility to use some of these reserves to support any budget shortfalls for the next few years. See here for the list of reserves of all of the 36 second tier councils in the East Midlands. The report also shows the total expenditure for the council in 2008/09 and shows reserves as a proportion of expenditure. Some have big reserves compared to their total expenditure.

The councils with the green bars are ones where reserves are in excess of 10 per cent of their expenditure. Some councils such as (but not limited to) Ashfield, Derbyshire Dales and South Holland have well over 15 per cent in reserves, while some like Daventry and Melton have over 20 per cent in reserves.

Likewise we believe any first tier council (county or unitary council) with more than 2.5 per cent of its total non schools expenditure in unallocated reserves has enough flexibility to use some reserves to support any budget shortfalls for the next few years. See here for the list of reserves of all of the nine first tier councils in the East Midlands. Unallocated reserves range from £1m to a whopping £39m.

So, as the 45 councils in the region construct their budgets for 2010/11, our research has uncovered around half of them have money in reserves they can use to help support their budget. There is no excuse for these councils to cut services.

Social Work Task Force

2009-12-01T21:14:00.003Z

Chris Tansley is one of the region's reps on UNISON's Social Care forum and he has written about the Social Care Task Force report that was released today. The report sets the scene for the future of social work and it is vital central and local government make the funding available to enable the report's recommendations to become reality. Chris Tansley's report is below.

There’s a lot to be welcomed in the task force recommendations released today (1st December) and a lot that mirrors what we’ve been saying in UNISON since the Laming report.
http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1663

We said to the task force and to the minister, Ed Balls, that the high vacancy levels of social workers meant that those that were employed were carrying dangerously high caseloads.

We also said that the IT system brought in at Laming's recommendation was cumbersome and taking up to 70% of social workers time – time which would be better spent working with the children and families they were responsible for.

UNISON has been saying for years that we need a new grade of senior practitioner to prevent our experienced social workers having only the option of going into management if they wanted to improve their pay.

All of these issues are outlined in the report and Ed Balls has given his commitment to implementing them in full.

The task for us all in social work is to ensure that they are implemented jointly with UNISON representatives at a local level.

These recommendations cannot be done on the cheap. They will require real resources if they are to succeed. This comes at a time when finance in the public sector is in crisis. We need the Government to match their words of support with increased funding specifically aimed at implementing the proposals.

The setting up of a National College of Social Work did not form one of UNISON's proposals. We have been saying for several years now that the image and status of social work needs to be radically improved but we remain sceptical that a National College will just become a distraction from the real issues facing social workers. What matters to social workers is that they get the improvements to their working conditions and career progression in their workplaces.

We also need the Government to build on the start they’ve made in putting the message across that our social workers need to be valued for the great work they do in our communities with vulnerable children and families every day of the year. Perhaps then it will be a career of choice again and social workers can say that they are proud of the work they do.

For the Task Force Report see here.

Chris Tansley
Chair - UNISON National Social Care Forum

Heather Wakefield's blog

2009-12-01T08:42:00.006Z

Heather Wakefield, UNISON's National Secretary for Local Government has written a very timely piece about the government's recent proposals for a "National Care Service" (NCS). She welcomes the introduction of the NCS but highlights some serious issues about the current situation in care work, in particular, problems with outsourcing; scandalously low rates of pay; workers having to pay for their own uniforms; and patchy service standards.

You can find Heather's article here.

GPF funded billboards

2009-11-30T19:01:00.008Z

The Notts County UNISON branch are taking their fight against the savage £33m cuts being made by their council right into the community.

GPF funded billboard posters of the image above will be appearing around Nottinghamshire. The current billboard campaign runs at selected locations during the run-up to Christmas. The branch is planning further public campaigning next year. The Council consultation period for the announced cuts is due to end on 22 January 2010.

30 Nov to 13 December:
Carlton: Burton Road (A612), rail bridge, NG4 2QG
Newark: Northern Road near Sleaford Road NG24 2EU
Nottingham: Meadow Lane opp Notts County FC, NG2 3HR

14 Dec to 27 December:
Carlton: Burton Road (A612), rail bridge, NG4 2QG
Nottingham: Meadow Lane opp Notts County FC, NG2 3HR
Mansfield: 37 St Johns St/Quaker way, NG18 1QJ
Mansfield: Kirklington Road opp South Ave, Rainworth, NG21 0JR

28 Dec thru to mid January 2010
Gamston: Morrisons Store, Gamston

Letter to the Notts County Council Chief Exec about the budget cuts

2009-11-26T19:33:00.005Z

Last week the UNISON regional office wrote to the Chief Executive at Notts Council to ask some searching questions about the budget cuts. The text of the letter is reproduced in italics below.

UNISON have reviewed the budget proposals contained in the Cabinet report of 18 November 09 we have some questions.

Budget pressures
The 2009/10 budget report to full Council on 25 February 2009 initially identified budget pressures of £11.9m in 2010/11.

However, the 2010/11 budget report to the Cabinet on 18 November 2009 now identifies budget of pressures of £31.1m; an increase of £19.2m.

We have been able to identify that of the additional £19.2m budget pressures, £9m is from the decision to freeze Council Tax. We are puzzled as to where the additional £10.2m in budget pressures has come from in fewer than nine months.

These additional budget pressures over and above the original £11.9m identified in February budget report are not individually identified in November budget report. We believe that identifying the specific additional pressures will assist the council in producing a transparent and balanced budget.

Our question is:
1. Can the council please identify the specific individual additional budget pressures totalling £10.2m over and above the pressures in identified in the February budget report?

Use of reserves
The Statement of Accounts for 2008/09 show that the reserve called “Earmarked for Services” was at £18.4m as of 31 March 09. We believe this is what has also been referred to in other documents as “Departmental Reserves.” Our question is:

2. We understand some of these reserves are for capital projects but we would be grateful if you could confirm what level of these reserves could be used to support revenue expenditure?

On page A29 para 11.3 of the document the February budget report the table shows a projected transfer into the County Fund Balances of £3.7m.

3. Can you confirm if this £3.7m transfer is still intended as part of the 2010/11 budget? If the answer is yes, can you please explain why, given these difficult financial times, that the council has not chosen use this money to support the 2010/11 revenue budget?

We have identified from the Statement of Accounts for 2008/09 the total reserves of the council stand at £150.8m as of 31 March 09 and that the unallocated reserves, aka “County Fund Balances” stand at £24.8m. Our question is:

4. Given the above levels of reserves would you agree that it would not be unreasonable for the council to use, say, £2m a year for the next three years, from the County Fund Balances to help support the revenue budget.

Projected Outturn for 2009/10
We have reviewed the first quarter’s budget monitoring report and we believe the council is projected to under spend by £2.4m in 2009/10. Our questions are:

5. Are we correct that the first quarter’s monitoring report does indeed predict an under spend of £2.4m?

6. Do you have more up to date figures for the projected outturn for 2009/10, if so what is it?

7. Do you accept that any surplus on the 2009/10 budget that is transferred to the County Fund Balances could be used to support future revenue budgets?

We note that the projected outturn referred to above was made before the outcome of the 2009/10 NJC pay award which according to the Council will result in a further saving of £1.7m. Our question is:

8. Do you agree that the council has saved £1.7m as outlined above?

We note that the 2009/10 budget includes a £3m provision for ‘contingencies.’ Our question is:

9. What is the projected spend on this contingencies sum?

10. If it is not all spent, does the council accept some of it could be used to support the revenue budget in 2010/11?

Application of the Formula Grant
We understand there is a damping mechanism that applies to central government formula grant that means that the council currently is subject to a “ceiling” which limits the size of the grant payable to the council. We also note that damping mechanism is to be gradually phased out meaning the council should expect growth in formula grant of in excess of £15m in the coming years. However, we note the council has predicted a reduction in the formula grant. Our question is:

11. Do you agree that if the damping mechanism is gradually reduced then the council could expect a growth in formula grant of in excess of £15m in the coming years?

Impact of a Future Conservative Government
We would refer you to the policy statement below contained on page 16 in the Conservative Party document Control Shift – Returning Power to Local Communities; Conservative Party (17 February 2009) (attached):
“………That is why we have announced that, in the first two years of a Conservative government, councils will also have the ability to contract with central government to freeze council tax. Those councils that take up the contract will have to undertake to hold the rate of rise in council tax to 2.5 per cent or less; and central government will correspondingly undertake to make a payment equal to 2.5 per cent of that council’s council tax – so that bills can be frozen in each such council for the two year period.”

Our questions are:

12. Does the council agree that this additional central government grant would amount to an additional £7.5m in the budget for both 2011/12 and 2012/13?

13. Why has the council not taken into account this potential additional grant income in its financial plan for the years 2011/12 and 2012/13?

We will be advising our members that we have raised these questions with the council and we undertake to share any response from the council with them.

More cuts announced - this time in Newark

2009-11-26T19:23:00.004Z

Newark and Sherwood District Council have just announced they will be cutting £4m over the next few years. An extract of from their website says:

"As part of the budget preparations for 2010/11, the council is looking at making savings of around six per cent. On a net budget of £18million, this is a saving, in one year, of more than £1million. In the next three to four years we will have to shave another £4million off our budget."

Shaving £4m from a budget of £18m means cuts of nearly 25% - there is no doubt everyone will feel the impact of these cuts. On top of these cuts, residents of Newark and Sherwood will also have to deal with the impact of the proposed £33m cuts announced by Nottinghamshire County Council.

More short sighted cuts from a council who took the irresponsible decision to freeze council tax for this financial year.

Northamptonshire County Council announce £100m cuts over 4 years

2009-11-25T20:49:00.004Z

Another Conservative council in the East Midlands has announced savage cuts. Northamptonshire County Council have said they will be cutting £100m over the next 4 years. This is the largest budget cut announced in the past few months. This looks like another Conservative attempt to bring in David Cameron's "small state."

The "small state" may be a nice soundbite, but the reality is it means cuts in public services that impact on the most vulnerable in our society.

The local UNISON branch will be mounting a vigorous campaign against these unjust cuts.

Letter to David Cameron about Conservative Councils' Inconsistency on Budgets

2009-11-20T08:40:00.009Z

Pete Challis, a National Officer in the Local Government Service Group has identified that many Conservative Councils have been planning their budgets in a manner inconsistent with national Conservative party policy. In the East Midlands, Notts County Council (who are making £33m of savage cuts) is one of these councils.

So this week, the East Midlands region wrote to David Cameron seeking clarification on Conservative party policy. An extract of the letter is below.

Letter to David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party:

The majority of councils we deal with are Conservative controlled and it has become apparent there are differing approaches to medium term financial planning, especially with respect to projected future formula grant funding in the financial years 2011/12 and 2012/13.

We note that the Conservative Party made the policy statement below, which is on page 16 in the Conservative Party document Control Shift – Returning Power to Local Communities; Conservative Party (17 February 2009)):

“………That is why we have announced that, in the first two years of a Conservative government, councils will also have the ability to contract with central government to freeze council tax. Those councils that take up the contract will have to undertake to hold the rate of rise in council tax to 2.5 per cent or less; and central government will correspondingly undertake to make a payment equal to 2.5 per cent of that council’s council tax – so that bills can be frozen in each such council for the two year period.”

Many Conservative councils are freezing Council Tax over the next three years and some are including in their medium term financial plans the additional payment outlined above. However, there are some Conservative councils, such as Nottinghamshire County Council who are not making any provision for this additional income in 2011/12 and 2012/13.

Given this we have two specific questions:

1. Is it your intention that a future Conservative government will implement the policy outlined above?

2. If the answer to 1 above, is yes, then do you believe that councils such as Nottinghamshire County should include this additional income in their financial plans for 2011/12 and 2012/13?

There is clearly an inconsistent approach on this matter by Conservative councils in this region and it would be helpful to have clarification from your office.

Although the letter refers to Notts County Council, there are many other Conservative councils in the reigon (the rest of the country) that are freezing council tax but have not taken into account this extra government grant (or "cash back" as the Lincolnshire County UNISON branch call it).

When we get a reply from Mr Cameron we will post it up on the blog.

Lincolnshire County UNISON ask some tough questions about the budget

2009-11-18T20:03:00.009Z

The Linclonshire County UNISON branch recently had a branch committee where two senior finance managers attended to explain the financial situation at the council. Knowing they were coming the branch prepared a number of very interesting questions. The branch had many questions and 16 of key ones are outlined below. Page numbers refer to the 2008/09 Statement of Accounts 2008/09, available on the County Council website here.

Congratulations to the Lincolnshire County branch who have shown they are not prepared to accept cuts without asking some very searching questions of their council. They have performed a public service on behalf the people of Lincolnshire ensuring the report is put under proper scrutiny.

Reserves

1. General reserves increased by £2m in 08/09 (p20). Was this planned, or a budget underspend, and what are the future expectations for reserves.

2. Earmarked reserves stand at £60m (p55). What is represented by the major additions during 08/09, Other Services (up from £3.5m to £11.2m) and Waste Disposal (up from £6.2m to £14.1)?

3. When is the protocol for each earmarked reserve reviewed, and can we be supplied with copies?

4. Are there any earmarked capital reserves that can now be “unearmarked” due to changed plans and priorities? If so, are there any other earmarked capital reserves that are using revenue funds that could be released by transferring the now freed up capital reserves?

Pay

5. The Council is revising its provision for pay inflation in 09/10 down from 2.5% to 0.0%. What will be the budgetary implications of any nationally agreed pay awards next year?

6. Figures for salaries over £50,000 (p30) show an increase from 112 to 162 (excluding schools), or 43%. Is it realistic to accept that level of increase in one year and propose a pay freeze in another?

Consultants and Agency Staff

7. Figures given in response to Unison’s FOI request show a spend in 08/09 of £788,000 on consultants and £3.8m on agency staff. These figures are low in comparison to other authorities – what definition has the county council used, in particular for “consultants”?

8. Are elements of commissioned services that are actually consultancy captured under the correct heading – eg Mouchel consultancy time paid above the core contract?

9. Can the council break down the agency worker and consultant costs in to those incurred on the capital and revue accounts?

10. Can LCC differentiate between its permanent and non-permanent staffing costs, breaking the latter down into agency, fixed-term and consultant?

11. What are the instances of consultants replacing established posts over a period of continuous time, eg Diversity Manager?

12. What approval is required by the Resourcing Board for the engagement of consultants.

Issues for the 2010/2011 budget

13. Implications of 0.0% inflation assumption: are there contracts which have different inflationary increases built in?

14. Capital programme: is any direct contribution from revenue expected, other than debt charges? In respect of these, will refinancing be examined to release revenue benefits?

15. What impact will proposals for residential care of older people have on the budget?

16. Council tax: will the Council provide models showing the implications of different Council Tax increases on services? Suggest at 1%, 2% and 3% council tax increase. Increases in council tax to be shown as an increase per week to each band of household.

Ashfield Council making cuts.... and the local branch ask some searching questions

2009-11-18T19:53:00.003Z

On 19 November Ashfield District Council Cabinet will be considering a report (and appendix) that proposes budget cuts of over £1m in 2010/11 and nearly another £1m in 2011/12.

The local UNISON branch have been scrutinising the report and will be raising the following questions:

1. We note that "Contributions to Specific Reserves" are £0.548 million each year from 2010/11 (except for 2011/12) to 2014/15. We would ask request members ask what these amounts are earmarked for and whether there is scope to reduce these contributions to make available further sums to retain existing services.

2. Similarly the "General Reserve" from 2012/13 is set at staying at £3.207 million from then & for future years. We believe it is right that the authority should have such a reserve set at a minimum level of about 10% of expenditure. We believe therefore that there is scope to reduce the reserve to £2 million which would allow another £1.2 million to be used to maintain existing services. Indeed the report at section 9 reports the decision of Cabinet in August to set a minimum level for the General Reserve at £2.5 million, so even on this basis another £0.7 million could be used to maintain existing services.

3. Much is rightly made of the impact of the current recession, but we believe account should be taken in the MTFS of the recession ending and an economic improvement showing at least for the last two years 2013/14 and 2014/15 in the MTFS. We believe factoring in of increased income (e.g. from planning applications) & revenue contributions from capital sales that are likely to have developed by then could also give the council more scope to have further funds available for maintaining services by these years.

Excellent work from the branch demonstrating that the situation is not as dire as the report suggests.

Derbyshire County Council cutting £6m

2009-11-17T21:49:00.006Z

A Cabinet report at Derbyshire County Council in September identified that the council planned to make savings of £6.1m in 2010/11. Contrast this with Notts County Council who are cutting £33m from the budget in 2010/11.

Both councils were Labour controlled for over 15 years until the elections in June 2009, when the Conservatives took control in both councils. Both councils are very similar sizes. One is cutting £6.1m and the other is cutting five times more.

Why the difference?

Heather Wakefield's blog - Unkind Cuts

2009-11-17T21:07:00.003Z

Heather Wakefield, UNISON's National Secretary for Local Government has written about the "unkind cuts" many councils are inflicting across the country. You can find it here

Heather argues that it is the most vulnerable in our communities that are being made to pay for the ludicrous decision many councils have taken to freeze council tax. She also gives her own take on what is happening in Nottinghamshire.

One paragraph of her piece gives some really interesting information about council reserves. It is reproduced below.

"Even more interesting is the fact that in every year from 2003/04 to 2007/08, English councils have budgeted on the basis that they will need to draw on their reserves in order to balance their books. However, when the outturn figures have been published, they have actually added to them – as we’ve seen above. In 2007/08, councils in England forecast a reduction of £890m in reserves, but in fact, they increased them by £1.5bn."

Some councils may have real fiancial problems, but many of them have been building up reserves for years and they have no need to cut vital services, other than for idealogical reasons. The East Midlands region of UNISON has been collating information on council reserves and we will be publishing our findings soon - and in many cases we've identified that councils have high levels of reserves.

Watch this space.

Mansfield District Council budget deficit

2009-11-12T17:46:00.003Z

Mansfield District Council have just announced a budget deficit of £700,000. Whilst not of the same scale as Notts County Council, for a small council this is a worrying amount. One small positive thing, is unlike Notts County Council, Mansfield are not being financially irresponsible and not raising Council Tax; a 3% rise is proposed.

For more info on the story click here.

A warning of what to expect if Cameron is elected

2009-11-10T21:31:00.005Z

Nottinghamshire County Council recently announced savage budget cuts of £33m for 2010/11. Below is a column by Ravi Subramanian, UNISON (East Midlands) Regional Head of Local Government published in The Nottingham Evening Post on 10 November.

The mark of a civilised society is how it treats the vulnerable. Recent budget proposals from Notts County Council seem to show they have turned their back on this idea. UNISON will be working with community groups to fight these cuts and we are currently analysing the proposals in detail. One key fact is that many of the cuts stem from the political decision to freeze council tax. In the Post on Saturday the council's leader Coun Kay Cutts said the reason to freeze council tax was because "many older people are on fixed incomes"; it implied she is tying to protect them from increased costs.

But if these older people use council services they could be paying more in council charges. Daycare transport costs are going up £1.85 a day, meal costs are up £1.60 a day and there will be a £4 daily charge for daycare which was previously free. This means some older people could easily be paying £5 per day more in charges. Freezing council tax puts the burden of the cuts on them.

The original financial plan assumed a 3% increase in council tax, raising an additional £9m. Surely those in a Band H house in, say, affluent Normanton-on-the-Wolds, could afford an extra £1.37 a week to help out the most vulnerable? The cost to a Band A household would be just 46p a week.

In a recession, public services are needed more, not less.Yes this needs to be paid for, but less than the price of a cup of coffee a week is not a lot to ask.

The cabinet report outlining the cuts is over 50 pages and space means I can't go into detail about all the proposals, which include closing recycling centres in Stapleford, Sutton and Gedling; shutting four day centres; increasing community care charges by over 30%; and introducing charges for residential parking. However, it is worth looking in detail at two areas just to illustrate how ridiculous the proposals are.

Firstly, welfare rights provision will be slashed by a third. It doesn't take a genius to work out in a recession there will be increased demand for this service, so why is it being cut?

Secondly, the recent damning Ofsted report into children's services exposed the high caseloads of social workers. The council say they are investing extra money in this area, which we welcome, but how will the recently announced cuts to terms and conditions help to retain existing staff, let alone attract new staff? Surely it is better that the council attracts and directly employs suitably qualified staff, rather than use expensive consultant social workers, as they are currently proposing. It makes no sense.

If the council wants to make savings it could do something about the £19m a year it spends on agency workers – the highest figure for any East Midlands council. They could easily save 10%, which would release nearly £2m.

While the leadership of the council spend their time changing the carpets, uprooting war memorials, removing stained glass windows and creating extra costly cabinet posts, UNISON members are working hard providing home care, helping teach our children and providing meals for older people. Our members are rightly angry that as they toil away to provide valuable services to our communities.

This Conservative council has created a budget problem so that it can move towards the "small state" David Cameron desires. A small state may be a good soundbite, but the reality is the most vulnerable are left to suffer. What is happening at County Hall should serve as a warning of what to expect if David Cameron is elected Prime Minister.