100 signatures reached
To: Richard Cornelius Leader of Barnet Council.
Keep Barnet Council services public
I am asking you to stop your outsourcing plans for the following services:
• Education & Skills and School Meals services
• Library Service
• Early Years: Children’s Centres
• Adult Social Care
• Street Scene Services
• Education & Skills and School Meals services
• Library Service
• Early Years: Children’s Centres
• Adult Social Care
• Street Scene Services
Why is this important?
In the past three years the following 10 former council services have been outsourced to another provider:
1. Your Choice Barnet
2. Housing Options
3. NSL (parking)
4. Capita CSG: Finance, HR, Payroll, Estates, Property Services, Pensions, Revenue & Benefits,
5. Capita Re: Building Control, Environmental Health, Planning, Trading Standards & Licencing
6. Legal Services
7. Registrars & Nationality Services
8. CCTV
9. Music Trust
10. Mortuary Services
The Council is about to begin Competitive Dialogue procurement for Education & Skills and School Meals services with the following contractors
• Capita Business Services Ltd
• EC Harris LLP
• Mott MacDonald Ltd, trading as Cambridge Education
Looking at Capita’s track record to date http://www.capita.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history.aspx in bidding and winning contracts it is highly likely they will win this contract making it the third big contract they have won with Barnet Council.
Outsourcing is no quick fix or easy win. Here in Barnet we were only 16 months into the Capita contracts when it was announced on Barnet Council website that Capita had received £110 million http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s21029/Appendix I - Capita Payments.pdf
Outsourcing is being promoted not just in Barnet but across the whole of the public sector as the answer to shrinking budgets. This dogma is being promoted contrary to the rapidly growing evidence from We Own It web site that it leads to:
1. Your Services get worse
2. Your costs go up
3. You can’t hold private companies accountable.
4. Staff terms & conditions are undermined which impacts on quality of services.
5. It is risky and difficult to reverse.
Supporters of outsourcing often claim that the public isn’t bothered about who runs services.
Again contrary to the evidence which found:
• Only 21% of the public trust outsourcing companies - the lowest level of trust compared to other organisations like the NHS (79%), the police (65%) and the armed forces (79%)
• 64% distrust outsourcing companies
• 69% of the public think Atos, Capita, G4S, Serco are motivated by maximising profit - while 38% think this should be important
• 22% of the public think Atos, Capita, G4S and Serco are motivated by providing the best service to the public - while 80% think this should be important
• Only 28% of people think it is appropriate for private companies to run prisons, and only 25% think it is appropriate for them to provide court services
• 65% of the public would not feel comfortable using GP services provided by a private company like Atos, Capita, G4S or Serco
• Only 16% think there is adequate regulation of private companies running public services, compared to 59% who think more regulation is needed
http://weownit.org.uk/privatisation-doesn%E2%80%99t-work/whats-problem-outsourcing-companies
Barnet Council is now promoting itself as a Commissioning Council. The clue is in the title and for our members it simply means they will be working for someone else not the Council.
Commissioning is being driven by consultants and their friends in the public sector, who secure contracts for them to outsource services. They have no interest in service delivery which inevitably leads to greater inequality both in the workforce & the community we serve.
Please view short Animation explaining how Austerity is impacting on our community
The Disappearing Council https://youtu.be/YQ5t63fSu-s
1. Your Choice Barnet
2. Housing Options
3. NSL (parking)
4. Capita CSG: Finance, HR, Payroll, Estates, Property Services, Pensions, Revenue & Benefits,
5. Capita Re: Building Control, Environmental Health, Planning, Trading Standards & Licencing
6. Legal Services
7. Registrars & Nationality Services
8. CCTV
9. Music Trust
10. Mortuary Services
The Council is about to begin Competitive Dialogue procurement for Education & Skills and School Meals services with the following contractors
• Capita Business Services Ltd
• EC Harris LLP
• Mott MacDonald Ltd, trading as Cambridge Education
Looking at Capita’s track record to date http://www.capita.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history.aspx in bidding and winning contracts it is highly likely they will win this contract making it the third big contract they have won with Barnet Council.
Outsourcing is no quick fix or easy win. Here in Barnet we were only 16 months into the Capita contracts when it was announced on Barnet Council website that Capita had received £110 million http://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s21029/Appendix I - Capita Payments.pdf
Outsourcing is being promoted not just in Barnet but across the whole of the public sector as the answer to shrinking budgets. This dogma is being promoted contrary to the rapidly growing evidence from We Own It web site that it leads to:
1. Your Services get worse
2. Your costs go up
3. You can’t hold private companies accountable.
4. Staff terms & conditions are undermined which impacts on quality of services.
5. It is risky and difficult to reverse.
Supporters of outsourcing often claim that the public isn’t bothered about who runs services.
Again contrary to the evidence which found:
• Only 21% of the public trust outsourcing companies - the lowest level of trust compared to other organisations like the NHS (79%), the police (65%) and the armed forces (79%)
• 64% distrust outsourcing companies
• 69% of the public think Atos, Capita, G4S, Serco are motivated by maximising profit - while 38% think this should be important
• 22% of the public think Atos, Capita, G4S and Serco are motivated by providing the best service to the public - while 80% think this should be important
• Only 28% of people think it is appropriate for private companies to run prisons, and only 25% think it is appropriate for them to provide court services
• 65% of the public would not feel comfortable using GP services provided by a private company like Atos, Capita, G4S or Serco
• Only 16% think there is adequate regulation of private companies running public services, compared to 59% who think more regulation is needed
http://weownit.org.uk/privatisation-doesn%E2%80%99t-work/whats-problem-outsourcing-companies
Barnet Council is now promoting itself as a Commissioning Council. The clue is in the title and for our members it simply means they will be working for someone else not the Council.
Commissioning is being driven by consultants and their friends in the public sector, who secure contracts for them to outsource services. They have no interest in service delivery which inevitably leads to greater inequality both in the workforce & the community we serve.
Please view short Animation explaining how Austerity is impacting on our community
The Disappearing Council https://youtu.be/YQ5t63fSu-s
