Helping the mentally or physically ill, the elderly & the poor to fight Council PCNs.
Writing about blunders, democracy and profligacy at Barnet Council.
Mr Mustard has read the following page a few times but doesn't really understand it. Do you?
Does it mean that the payoff for an Assistant Director will be calculated on the same basis as for the lowest level of employee ? no, Mr Mustard didn't think it did.
No need for you to hunt out your doubtless well thumbed copy of the Corporate Plan 2010-13 as Mr Mustard has extracted the relevant page for you here. It really doesn't say very much, but then what does from this source?
Mr Mustard is in favour of an equal chance for the disabled. He is just a bit worried that Barnet Council are going beyond that, they talk above about different groups including all of those covered by the Equality Act. Mr Mustard does hope that they are not planning to goldplate the legislation.
And talking of equalities, or lack of them, you really should read what the eloquent Mrs Angry has to say about equalities when it comes to the end of pay and display.
So we have got council, cabinet, committees, several boards, an office and a panel. What do you think that little lot costs and how does anyone get anything done with all these interlocking pieces to satisfy ?
Only a council would set up their management in this bloated and inefficient manner.
Now we are getting to the meat of this framework ( although Mr Mustard is vegetarian he has been looking forward to the meat course - he is happy to cook it for others ) with the supposed financial benefits.
Look at the caption " It is essential ... " I am sure it is but unfortunately what we have is a busload of consultants billing a shedload of money every day and they will be off over the hills when the money runs out as soon as the project fails.
Now these figures are very interesting. In the first 3 years the programme costs £9,200,000 and is supposed to deliver savings of £17,860,200
Crunch year is 2012/13 as that is when breakeven arrives. Sadly Mr Mustard does not think that breakeven will ever arrive as the project will be ditched along with most of the senior management by then.
By some magic the savings will just keep rolling in during the next 2 years with no costs. The words "pie in the sky" occur to Mr Mustard. He is also worried when the benefit for 2014/15 is calculated to the nearest £70 in £14 million - give us a break. What will happen in 2014/15 can only be guessed at to the nearest million and even that will be a few million out.
Mr Mustard would rather like to see an exact breakdown of the benefit figures for each of the years but knows that a Freedom of Information request for that would cost more than the £450 limit ( 18 hours at £25 ) as Barnet council simply can't answer simple questions. Even Mr Mustard's one line questions take 20 days to answer so there is no hope for getting any detail.
If it was that easy to turn £9m into £45m it would have been done by now.
Here is a pretty chart without any figures. look the benefits of One Barnet just keep climbing every year. How realistic is that. No explanation as to what RIO is - the place where all consultants will go on holiday with their ill-gotten gains? If you know don't keep it to yourself. Actually Mr Mustard hazards the guess that it is the Rapid Improvement O..........
What was the point in this 9 year chart which is just the same as the 5 year chart for the first 5 years. Savings in years 6 to 9 are just pie in the sky.
A mixed portfolio of projects. Does that just mean that there are several projects rather madly all being changed at once ? Yes, it does.
Maximising the potential of your current systems. You haven't managed to do that yet with SAP have you Barnet Council? You have spent years and millions on the system and you still need external consultants to drive it for you.
Mr Mustard has not seen the defined benefits of Phase 1 projects because loads of consultants are still feeling their way through them. You are waiting for external providers to give you prices so that you can work out if external provision will be cheaper or not.
Mr Mustard doubts that given the trouble that phase 1 is causing that we will ever see phase 2.
Indicative = we haven't got a clue.
Now there isn't a key but it looks like the items with a Barnet blue ( seasick blue as Mr Mustard thinks of it ) are the first guinea pigs of One Barnet ( what happens to pioneers - they die ! ) and the projects with no background have just been pencilled in to fill out the chart. There really isn't much point in plotting 2012 to 2015 yet, now is there? Will any of the current councillors or management team still be in Barnet in 2015. Maybe, or maybe not?
Mr Mustard rather cynically wonders if the Customer Insight team drew up this chart as theirs is the only project that spans the first 3 years. It looks like they plan to keep themselves in a job.
Mr Mustard can see the value in involving citizens in service design but not in service delivery ( the reason why we pay council tax ). The difficulty comes in choosing the right sub-set from the 300,000 residents. When you do get a good resident, like Mrs Angry, she mysteriously falls off the panel. Back on page 8 of this report you ask residents to "Hold us accountable" - you can't take it Barnet.
Tools to enable residents to do more for themselves. The experiment to have local grit bin keepers does not appear to have been a runaway success. If this is to work there has to be a quid pro quo for residents such as a council tax discount or it is inequitable. Why would residents want to work for nothing when 63 part time councillors get £1.2m between them ?
Customer insight - who would design a service that wasn't based on residents' needs ? or whose decisions were not based on intelligence ( i.e. facts ).
Culture - The culture that Mr Mustard has experienced is of a siege mentality at North London Business Park. The customer is seen as a nuisance. A blog will arrive about this in about 2 weeks time. How a 30 second question became a dozen emails and still no answer.
Workforce strategy - is to transfer out 70% of jobs under TUPE and new employers will inevitably squeeze terms of employment. Barnet Council does not currently look like the sort of employer that a good employee will be rushing to join.
Information management - Mr Mustard heard at the audit committee in June that unencrypted laptops had been taken out of the building and also paperwork which should not have been.
Compatible systems - Mr Mustard does hope that these will not be based on SAP.
Data sharing - Once data goes out of the building you lose any control over it Barnet Council.
What is there to say about this chart?
Does it really say anything that a council tax payer can understand?
example : "Council focused on its core role." Now what is that, the document does not say? Is it to produce a 25 page Framework document of largely unintelligible management speak or is to to provide basic services at a reasonable price?
If anyone can explain this chart to Mr Mustard then please send him an email which he can add to the blog in explanation.
The areas have been identified; looks like pretty much all of them. No-one is safe - not even management, yes you AD's are on shaky ground as you will soon be like turkeys voting for Christmas. Gobble gobble.
Options appraisal. Does it really take 3 lines to say "choose the best option"?
Cost benefit analysis. The figures will need a bit of cooking to make sure that outsourcing is the winner.
The delivery model: otherwise known as outsourcing.
Be careful though, One Barnet, as we don't want to be in the 2a2 network infrastructure position where it looks like the contract will have to be brought back in-house.
Large scale change is not required. Efficiency savings would have been enough.
The scope for fat fees and profit is huge.
The programme will evolve = when we work out what needs doing we will change the plan.
Should the free skips service ever have been supplied ?
Fix my street - some of the money saved from stopping free skips has been wasted on a bespoke Barnet version of Fix my Street when a free version was available ( credit to Mr Reasonable for that tip )
Allotments don't the council to run them but are still faced with a very long lease with lots of terms and conditions and the council are struggling to let go. Mr Mustard has not forgotten that the rent for a standard 10 pole plot was going to be increased from £70 p.a. to £180 p.a.
We are up to page 20 out of 27 so not too much more bunkum to flow through.
Democratic accountability - it would seem that the person who wrote this report hasn't tried to ask a question at a Residents' forum or speak at the Cabinet Resources Committee ( difficult question on Hendon FC - the computer says no ).
Partners will work with the Council to create truly profitable services, with profit at their heart.
Residents do want good efficient services but not from faceless multinationals like BT, Capita, Serco, anyone with an overseas call-centre, etc
A sharp reader has already pointed out that the budget is about £900m not £847m
True. One Barnet is not fundamentally about budget cuts. It has led to fat fees for consultants.
Rubbish. Citizens wanted the same old boring services.
Now Mr Mustard has looked at the funding from government on the Communities website. It seems to reduce by only 3% p.a. and there is no firm guide to year 4. At least Mr Eric Pickles MP is also giving councils some handy hints as to how tell of surplus assets and reduce waste.
Better services for less money. Premier cru for the price of plonk - oh come on, be realistic.
Mr Mustard keeps seeing the word overarching and all he can think of is arch villains. All it means is overall; could we use that word please Barnet Council? It is simpler & clearer.
too many lampposts Mrs A ?
So now we will look at the three key principles :
A new relationship with citizens
A one public centre approach
A relentless drive for efficiency
Most residents probably don't want a relationship with the Council; they just want services that work
Mr Mustard doesn't think that people are going to rush to volunteer to do things for the council at the same time as their money is being wasted by the £million on excessive fees for huge numbers of consultants. Why would anyone volunteer when they see non-stick Nick Walkley trousering a pay and pension package of £250,000? ( At the minimum wage of £5.93 p.h. that would take 20 years to earn. )
Mr Mustard does believe in the idea now dressed up as Big Society which has always been alive in the street he lives in. We feed each other's pets, take in parcels, keep an eye on the old folks, keyhold ( no room for Evolution Emergency Response here in High Barnet ) lend and borrow vehicles, have dinners together, share an allotment, have residents' forums in the pub, have a film club etc etc. It does not need the council to put their gold plated oar in.
Whilst Barnet Council should provide new channels for services they have got the forced implementation wrong. Just look at parking; forcing people to pay by mobile phone when not everyone has one; bonkers. Just go with the flow Barnet; don't try and force the pace. Don't make it so that the choice for some services is only via the internet; old people are getting more internet savvy by the year as they grow up with it but other old-fashioned channels must remain. It would also be useful if Barnet Council did actually answer the telephone within 5 rings every time.
It is unlikely that the Council will give out the information needed to hold them to account. They had to buy in an extra stock of black felt tips for redacting documents and many Freedom of Information requests are not willingly answered. FOI will be a subject for a blog on another day.
Do remember that someone has to be employed to produce all this bunkum.
Choice? - Mr Mustard would like to pay with cash for parking. He can't because the machines are broken and he is being forced to pay by phone.
Provide clear information? - Has anyone at Barnet Council ever looked at other Councils' websites. Barnet Council's is not clear. They cannot even get their incomplete alphabetical index into alpha order.
Tailor services? Savile Row it isn't.
A relentless drive for efficiency.
Make sure every pound is spent as effectively as possible.
Mr Mustard is lost for words and so will let someone else talk for him.
Those heady days of 2008 before One Barnet & before Mr Mustard when Future Shape was the name of the game. What is so unsatisfactory about reports of this type is that they don't really say anything exact.
1. The Pinkham Way Incinerator blog has some useful figures here. You have failed to find challenging new ways to tackle this particular problem then Barnet in the last 2 years as recycling rates have barely moved. Have you spent much money on initiatives to improve recycling? One initiative you have taken is to stop producing the Recycle from Home Newsletter ( not that Mr Mustard remembers ever seeing one ) in order to save £31,000 p.a. Will stopping that lead to an increase in recycling ?
2. One of the biggest financial pressures for Barnet Council is that they deposited £miilions in an Icelandic bank and can't get it back (yet). Not much anticipation on show then was there? The money has been stuck in Iceland since October 2008. It is now nearly 3 years later. Recovery of the money is looking doubtful.
3. Resident Satisfaction. Look at the chart at the top right. What are those numbers ? Presumably some sort of satisfaction score but who knows. Also the chart refers to customers - not to residents and the covering report refers to public satisfaction. Mr Mustard would have liked to have seen a list of the services which have supposedly seen consistent improvement as otherwise the sentence is just empty words.
We were right in 2008. Were we? what about? So right that we still need to find new ways to tackle challenging problems 2 years on. One Barnet is certainly a challenging problem that needs tackling.
Is there certainty about the next 3 years? The Communities Department only published the provisional funding settlement the month after this Framework. Perhaps Eric Pickles MP rings Barnet and gives them a heads up.
Mr Mustard is amazed to read that Digital technology continues to grow. Does that mean that Barnet Council are going to embrace bloggers. Somehow Mr Mustard doubts it. Residents will continue to expect........
Now Mr Mustard thinks that the Big Society first came to light in the 2010 Conservative general election manifesto and so it would be better to say that this is echoed in Barnet's policy and not the other way around. ( Big Society : Not Big Government it said )
Mr Mustard thinks that some of the management might struggle to manage joined-up writing never mind joined-up services.
At a meeting of cabinet on 29 November 2010 the One Barnet Framework was presented and this was prepared because Grant Thornton had picked a lot of holes in One Barnet in their report of 21 September 2010.
So what is it ? Mr Mustard has added his comments in red as usual.
One Barnet Framework
The framework aims to:
Consider whether the drivers for change are still relevant, two years on; ( we have left our old dogma untouched for 2 years )
To clearly set out the overarching strategy ( what a good idea but why not just overall or comprehensive ? )
To identify the outcomes we aim to deliver to achieve the necessary change ( what are we trying to do ? )
To identify steps already being taken to achieve the stated outcomes ( what have we already tried to do ? )
To set out the estimated level of investment required to achieve the outcomes ( how much ? )
To outline the benefits financial and non financial, that the Council will achieve as a result of One Barnet ( not seen any sign of this so far )
The overarching aim of the programme is to create a citizen centred organisation. The aim will be achieved by ensuring that projects and programme activity are aligned to the three principles stated in 3.1 (and below):
A new relationship with citizens ( will I need a new hat ? )
A one public sector approach ( One Barnet, One Public Sector, One Kind of Meadow, One Day, One anything you like )
A relentless drive for efficiency ( don't make Mr Mustard laugh )
It is recognised that all activity required to deliver the benefits of the programme cannot be anticipated at this stage. ( We have no idea, not even One Idea )
For this reason, the framework describes:
Activities we know are required to deliver transformation across Barnet Council and public sector partner services. An example is work to improve the sharing of customer insight data ( No, Mr Mustard has no idea either about this )
Projects which have been set up to deliver benefits set out in the business case ( lets repeat what we have already decided upon )
An indication of areas of work which are already on the Council and partner agendas but which have not yet been developed into projects ( someone said these might be a good idea but who knows )
The benefits which we know can be delivered as a result of the first phase of One Barnet projects include:
Increased customer satisfaction ( doubtful )
Save residents time when interacting with the Council ( where is the apostrophe ? )
More enquiries resolved at first point of contact ( Mr Mustard is going to write a blog about this one )
Greater choice and control for residents and customers ( aren't all customers also residents ? )
Residents enabled to lead independent and successful lives ( Mr Mustard has been completely lost without the council ! - I don't think so )
Increased quality of services ( which ones ? )
Organisational efficiencies ( so you have been inefficient until now ? )
Increased value for money ( you wouldn't know VFM if it bit you on the bottom, golden obviously )
Financial savings ( much hyped but rarer than dodo )
This is an ongoing programme and the nature, content and structure of the Framework has been developed to reflect this. The number and the complexity of projects will evolve as benefits are realised and the scope of further work needed to deliver the programme objectives becomes clearer. ( Once we work out what we are doing we will do it )
The Framework will therefore be updated on an ongoing basis as projects progress to a point where costs and benefits are more clearly identified. ( We will tell you a 1000 times if we manage to save tuppence but when we lose £20m somewhere there will be radio silence )
So here we go with the first two pages of the Framework as there is only so much excitement that you can stand.
as always click once then twice & then back to return
Ooh, this is not a static document so has it changed since 19 November 2010?
Mr Mustard doesn't think so but with his usual dedication to duty he will find out for you.
Will the document do what was intended? We will see over the next few days.
The financial costs and benefits. Mainly costs so far as far as Mr Mustard can see.
