News from
Labour
London Borough of Barnet Labour
Group
We’re on your
side
For immediate
release
31
August
2012
Barnet
Labour Opposition Debate: We need a Better Barnet, not ‘One
Barnet’
Barnet’s Labour
Group of Councillors has called a Full Council debate on developing a different
approach to the Council’s unpopular ‘One Barnet’ service transformation
programme.
Key themes of the Opposition Policy
Item include:
- Restoring public
faith in the democratic process
- There has been no consultation of
local people on ‘One Barnet’ despite the risks involved, and the fact that it is
a fundamental change in the way local services are delivered. Labour would have a proper community engagement plan
in place.
- There is confusion over whether it
is officers taking decisions or members – this needs to stop, and there needs to
be proper member oversight and monitoring of the programme through a dedicated
scrutiny committee. Labour would re-instate
the dedicated One Barnet Scrutiny Committee.
- Keeping jobs local
and supporting the local economy
-
‘One Barnet’ plans to
allow local jobs to be re-located out of the Borough, and so far the
Conservative administration has refused to require contractors to keep jobs and
services in Barnet. Labour believes this should be a
requirement.
-
Local Traders have
felt left out of discussions around skills, enterprise zones and
apprenticeships. Labour would work in
partnership with local traders and businesses when developing their
local economic development plan.
- Assessing and
minimising service transformation risk properly
-
Council procurement
practices are still poor resulting in contract overspends and financial risk –
e.g. the cost of the contract for the ‘One Barnet’ implementation partner,
Agilisys, has already exceeded by £1.24 million the specified upper limit of the
contract, and we are only in year two of the three year contract. Labour believes the external auditor should
investigate LB Barnet’s procurement practices before any further large contracts
are let – including the two ‘One Barnet’ contracts for Development
& Regulatory Services, and Support/Customer Services that are due to be
signed by the end of this year.
-
No Equality Impact
Assessments (EIAs) for residents have been done for either of the two ‘One
Barnet’ contracts – both include services that have a huge impact on local
residents, e.g. planning, licensing, environmental health, Revenues and Benefits
and Customer Services. Labour believes EIAs
must be completed before the contracts are signed.
-
Risk assessments for
the ‘One Barnet’ outsourcings have not been published – the public have the
right to know that proper risk assessments have been done where £1 billion of
services are being outsourced to a private contractor. Labour wants these published as a matter of
urgency.
- The ‘Commissioning
Model’ of One Barnet should be abandoned
-
The commissioning and
monitoring of council services should not be outsourced to a private company.
Labour would stop this
model.
-
The council should
stop wasting millions of pounds on expensive consultants, and use a little of it
to undertake proper in-house services reviews, comparing the potential for
in-house improvement against outsourced solutions to ensure value for money is
achieved. Labour would do
this.
-
The council should not
hand over its valuable income streams or savings to the private sector for their
profit. This has already been done with re-cycling and parking – 50% of the
income from the sale of re-cyclables goes to Barnet’s re-cycling contractor, and
50% of the savings made under the parking contract go to NSL – the new parking
contractor. Labour believes income from
council services should be re-invested in local services, and would
use the new General Power of Competence to increase trading opportunities to do
this.
-
‘One Barnet’ is
supposed to be a ‘one public sector approach’ – this has not emerged. Labour would investigate sharing more services with
other public sector partners and local authorities, and would look at providing
more services through mutuals, co-operatives and
co-production
Labour’s motion on
creating a Better Barnet will be debated at the 11 September Full Council
meeting.
Leader
of the Barnet Labour Group, Cllr Alison Moore said: "One Barnet has been a
damaging process and is fraught with risk. We need to restore public faith in
the way the council does business – ours would be a very different approach, one
that engages local people, traders and businesses. We are here to serve them,
not ourselves – I think the current Conservative administration has lost touch
with that."
Ends
Notes.
1. The full text of the Labour Group
Opposition Item follows:
Council,
Tuesday 11 September 2012
Opposition Business Item in the name of Cllr
Alison Moore
We need a Better Barnet, not ‘One
Barnet’
Council believes this
Conservative administration is failing their stated ‘One Barnet’ aim “to become
a citizen centred organisation”.
The
three guiding ‘One Barnet’ delivery principles are not being
met.
· The council
has not forged a positive ‘new relationship with citizens’ – residents have been
shut out of the democratic process having never been formally consulted on the
‘One Barnet’ programme proposals;
· There is no
‘one public sector approach’ – Barnet are going it alone;
· The
‘relentless drive for efficiency’ is nothing more than a £1 billion gamble of
critical council services with no proper risk assessments, no public sector
comparator undertaken to ensure genuine value for money, and millions of pounds
wasted on consultants and poor procurement practices.
Council believes that
in order to try and create a Better Barnet the following needs to be
done:
- Public faith must be restored in the
democratic process:
- LB Barnet should hold a public
referendum on the ‘One Barnet’£1 billion gamble
- Consultation practice with local
residents needs to be completely re-vamped to stop the ‘tick-box’ culture that
has emerged. A proper community engagement programme must be developed and
implemented for ‘One Barnet’
- The One Barnet Overview &
Scrutiny Committee should be re-instituted to scrutinise ‘One Barnet’ proposals
and monitor implementation
- LB Barnet should be proactive in
supporting the local economy, local jobs and valuing local expertise:
- LB Barnet should have in place an
active economic development plan that is mindful of the local economic footprint
- LB Barnet should introduce proper
consultation with traders on reviving our struggling town centres; we need to
listen to their views and implement a genuine recovery plan including looking at
enterprise zones, and working with secondary schools and colleges on
apprenticeships and local paid internships
- The NSCSO contract should include a
commitment to keep jobs in Barnet – in the event that this outsourcing goes
ahead
- LB Barnet should properly assess and
minimise the risk of service failure and financial loss of ‘One Barnet’:
- The external auditor should urgently
investigate ongoing poor contracting practice at LB Barnet before it enters into
any further contracts above the EU threshold
- Equality Impact Assessments for
local residents should be undertaken for the two ‘One Barnet’ contract
outsourcings prior to any contracts being signed
- For the services in scope in the DRS
bundle, a full list of operational risks on a service by service area basis
should be published indicating the likelihood and severity of each risk, and the
details of how the council intends to minimise the likelihood and mitigate the
impact of each
- The ‘thin client commissioning
model’ of delivering council services where all the commissioning and contract
monitoring is undertaken by a third party should be abandoned – even the
Conservative LGA Chair, Sir Merrick Cockell does not believe in it
- LB Barnet should invest a little of
the millions of pounds being wasted on consultants to undertake a proper public
sector comparator for council services currently in scope for outsourcing - a
genuine programme of service reviews comparing the potential for in-house
improvement against outsourced solutions, to ensure value for money is achieved.
- LB Barnet should resurrect a real
one public sector approach through meaningful liaison with public sector
partners, and more use of shared services with them and other local authorities
- LB Barnet should investigate how
much scope there is for using the new General Power of Competence to increase
the council’s trading opportunities – the council’s valuable income streams
should be used to re-invest in providing quality local services to local people,
they should not be handed over to private for-profit companies
- A Scrutiny panel should be set up to
investigate the possibility of delivering services through mutuals,
co-operatives and co-production
Council asks Cabinet
to halt the current ‘One Barnet’ process while all this is
undertaken.
