500 signatures reached
To: Brighton and Hove City Council
Stop the wasteful use of FIRST CARE by Brighton and Hove City Council
We the undersigned, both council workers and concerned residents of Brighton and Hove, ask that the plans to use the private First Care "Absence Management" company to manage council staff sickness (at a cost of £240,000) are abandoned immediately.
Why is this important?
We are concerned that such a large amount of public money should be put into the coffers of a private for profit company whilst council jobs are being lost and services across the city being slashed due to central government cuts. We acknowledge that sickness absence due to stress and musculo-skeletal problems is an issue for the council but also note that sickness is down roughly 10% on last year.
We see no evidence at all that First Care will do anything to address the core issues behind these illnesses. The increasingly stressful working environment council staff find themselves in is the result of being expected to deliver a growing service with fewer staff and resources. Handing £240,000 of council funding over to a private company will not alleviate that.
We believe that employee absence should be managed in-house by the senior staff who are already employed to do exactly that. We further believe that the £240,000 should be either directly invested in internal initiatives to increase staff well-being or re-invested in local services.
We see no evidence at all that First Care will do anything to address the core issues behind these illnesses. The increasingly stressful working environment council staff find themselves in is the result of being expected to deliver a growing service with fewer staff and resources. Handing £240,000 of council funding over to a private company will not alleviate that.
We believe that employee absence should be managed in-house by the senior staff who are already employed to do exactly that. We further believe that the £240,000 should be either directly invested in internal initiatives to increase staff well-being or re-invested in local services.
