NSL - could be more helpful

There are 7 files on Mr Mustard's dining table, the ones on which some action is imminent. The above box contains his other live files. He has twice as many files as that for 2014 which are already in the closed box.

Thus you can see that he is fairly busy making challenges, representations and Appeals. Sometimes they work and NSL decide to throw in the towel. The pleasing part is that whatever Mr Mustard wrote has worked but the displeasing part is that sometimes Mr Mustard does not know that until he checks the balance on the council computer (which is off until 7 April whilst they change software supplier from Civica to ICES).

If Mr Mustard makes an informal challenge which NSL, on behalf of the council decide to accept, they should write and tell him every single time and not leave him wondering if his client has received a Notice to Owner that they haven't told him about (or worse that one has been sent which hasn't arrived). It would be polite and businesslike to write an email saying the PCN is at an end. This would do.

Dear Mr Mustard 

PCN AGxxxxxxxx has been cancelled.

best wishes

NSL on behalf of Barnet Council

and then some of his more elderly clients would be spared 6 months of worry. The thing is, Mr Mustard thinks, that as soon as there isn't any money in it for the council, NSL lose interest in the PCN and often can't be bothered after that to do a single thing.

Other situations in which PCN just disappear are when the formal representations have not been answered within 56 days. That is an automatic acceptance of them and cancellation of the PCN but how does Mr Mustard know that a Notice of Rejection has not gone astray? He doesn't, which is why NSL should write and say that the PCN is at an end.

If a Notice to Owner has not been issued within 6 months of the PCN that is an automatic cancellation (although PCN do sometimes still get chased - quite wrongly). (This sentence only relates to parking PCN served on the car windscreen or into the hands of the driver).

Sometimes, due to system error, nothing happens to a PCN. At the point of discovery of an oversight which cannot fairly or legally be recovered the motorist (or Mr Mustard) should be told that the PCN has been abandoned.

Mr Mustard thinks there is a severe shortage of polite good practice. It is also good practice to keep the PCN database tidy so that someone else does not come along and bring back to life a PCN which is actually finished but which hasn't been amended to a £nil value.

Please could we have some politeness so that there is certainty and transparency.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Look out ALMOs - Uncle Eric is thinking about ALMO transparency

The good thing about writing to the fan of Barnet's bloggers who is warmly referred to as Uncle Eric (really the Rt Hon Eric Pickles MP) is that you know that even if you don't ask for a reply, Uncle Eric will give your letter to one of his team to think about and you can be pretty sure of a no nonsense approach to the subject matter. Sometimes you just find that Eric acts to fix what you have written about as he already had the matter in hand.

Mr Mustard wrote to Uncle Eric in mid-May because although Barnet Council publishes spending information (quite badly but it's a start) as soon as spending is routed through a contractor, outsourcer or an ALMO (Arms length management organisation) such as Barnet Homes, then the spending information is simply not available. That is an unsatisfactory situation. Barnet Home manages about 15,000 properties and has an annual turnover of £27m. The public should be able to easily see the major items of expenditure.

Business Plan 2011-2013

Here is the email that Mr Mustard sent

Dear Mr Pickles

I am sure that you realise that an anomaly can be created by councils outsourcing and/or moving their assets into ALMOs (for good business reasons) who, as private companies, are not required to publish their over £500 spending data. Barnet Homes do respond to FOI requests but I don't know what to ask about if I don't see who they pay money to.

It was by accident that I came across the particular spend highlighted in my latest blog posting. broken-homes

Please could you have one of your team look at this area with a view to extending your guidance to all organisations to whom councils contract out service provision (Barnet Council have already contracted out the entire parking service and are planning on contracting out Customer Services and Development & Regulatory Services which will greatly reduce the amount of spending detail the council publishes; outline details attached).

The devil is always in the detail and there won't be much detail left in Barnet when one only sees a monthly payment to NSL, BT, Capita etc.

Best wishes

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

and here is the considered reply with some emboldening by Mr Mustard

Dear Mr Mustard,

Thank you for your e-mail of 15th May to the Right Hon Eric Pickles MP which has been passed to the Directorate for Local Government Policy in view of our local government transparency responsibilities and I have been asked to respond.

I would like to reassure you that this Government is committed to increasing transparency throughout central and local government. If we want local people to be able to hold politicians and local authorities to account, while fostering a new spirit of localism, we must provide them with the tools and information to do so. To support and drive this agenda forward, beyond the excellent start local authorities have already made on releasing expenditure over £500, this Department in September 2011 published the final Code of Recommended Practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency. The Code enshrines three principles of transparency, demand-led, open and timely. It also sets out the minimum datasets that should be published. Embedding a culture of transparency within authorities takes time. The department has committed to review the Code within 18 months of publication. Ministers do have the option to make the Code mandatory.

Thank you for drawing to our attention and sharing your concerns about the potential lack of transparency created when some councils outsource services or move assets to ALMOs who, in turn, might not be required to publish their spending data. We are aware of the issues and officials will be considering these in the round when reviewing the Code.

The Government's view is that it is important to make more data publicly and readily available to the citizen to enable them to challenge public authorities about how they are using taxpayers’ money, so citizens are better placed to raise issues and concerns.

We have noted your concerns and you will have the opportunity to feed in further views during the next phase of the Code review process.

Kind regards,

PJ (name redacted by Mr Mustard) 

| Department for Communities and Local Government | Local Government Policy & Productivity | Accountability & Transparency Division|3/J3 Eland House | Bressenden Place | London SW1E 5DU

 

Mr Mustard looks forward to the day when the spending of Barnet Homes is published although he doubts that they are.

 

Yours frugally

 

Mr Mustard

Staff really should be given the whole picture

http://www.alleewillis.com/blog/2009/04/30/allee-willis-kitsch-o-the-day-half-a-cup-of-coffee/

If council staff are only given half the picture you can't be surprised when they come a cropper on something. Here is a message from the council intranet sent by the Internal Communications Manager. Mr Mustard presumes that councillors also read the intranet but isn't sure of this. Maybe one of them will tell him. 

Additions in red are by Mr Mustard and Mr Reasonable weighs in at the end.

---

Transparency Project set to open up council data

Friday, 09 December 2011 12:00 Schroder, Johnathan

A Transparency Project has been initiated, led by Maryellen Salter, Assistant Director of Finance, Audit and Risk Management, to examine not only the data which the council releases, but also the quality of that data and how users can engage with it in a meaningful way. It isn't so much initiation as a response to a government requirement. Why spin this?

This work is being undertaken in line with the Government’s transparency agenda. The focus is to remove secrecy and extend transparency within the public sector, enabling citizens to hold government and public services to account. Whilst public sector transparency is obligatory, the government also hopes that openness of data will generate social and economic growth through the use of that data, as well as allowing the public to see how their money is being spent. As well as how it is mis-spent ( MetPro and RM Countryside Services Ltd )

With this in mind, the council’s Transparency Project is addressing the data needs of citizens by increasing the data available, as well as its accessibility and quality. This will include:

- reviewing all of the council's data with a presumption of publication unless there is a good reason not to exactly what Mr Mustard asked for - define "good reason"
- a new, more accessible internet site will be rolled out over the next few months, with a vastly improved search function good, as the existing search function is useless
- a decision that members of the public may film committee meetings they already can!
- the procurement of a new IT system for the handling of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. It is envisaged that the new system will auto-publish all FOI responses to the new website many are already on the whatdotheyknow website
- FOI requests are being analysed to highlight areas of public interest, so focus can be placed on releasing more information in areas of high demand this contradicts the presumption point above
- our quarter one performance data was recently published in machine-readable format for the first time.

In September 2011, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) released “The Code for Recommended Practice for Transparency in Local Government”. Maryellen Salter said: “Much of the work that we had been progressing within the Transparency Project aligned to the principles included within the document, especially in respect of the release of data being demand led. However, there were a number of new minimum requirements that we should be meeting and work is underway to publish this information." The start of the article infers that the Project has only recently started but Mary-Ellen talks about it like it has been going on for ages. Why not use dates? "We should be meeting" and aren't

The new Transparency Code requirements are:
- senior employee salaries (salaries over £58,200), names, job descriptions, responsibilities, budgets and numbers of staff
- an organisational chart of the staff structure of the local authority including salary bands and details of currently vacant posts this will be easier once 70% of staff are outsourced
- the ‘pay multiple’ – the ratio between the highest paid salary and the median average salary of the whole of the authority’s workforce the answer is the Chief Exec earns almost 7 times the person on the median ( middle ) salary
- grants to the voluntary community and social enterprise sector should be clearly itemised and listed
- the location of public land and building assets that is normally recorded on asset registers. The ones that have not been sold off anyway

The Information Governance Council (IGC) ( how many talking shops are there at Barnet Council? ) oversees this work, and will continue to find ways in which to facilitate open government. Suggestions from staff are always welcome, and can be made to redacted.

---

and now Mr Reasonable weighs in

Oh dear perhaps there has been a data entry error when copying what the Communities Department actually said onto this email. I have set out below what they missed:

· Expenditure over £500, (including costs, supplier and transaction information). Any sole trader or body acting in a business capacity in receipt of payments of at least £500 of public money should expect such payments to be transparent. (not currently compliant)

· Councillor allowances and expenses (not yet published for last year)

· Copies of contracts and tenders to businesses and to the voluntary community and social enterprise sector (not published)

· Policies, performance, external audits and key inspections and key indicators on the authorities’ fiscal and financial position (not published in full)

Mr Schroder seems a bit remiss.

Kind regards

Mr Reasonable

and 

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Democracy in-action

Hello fellow bloggers, universities, schools of law, national newspapers, solicitors, Barnet Council employees; you have all been looking around the blogs featuring Barnet Council and reading about the parlous state of, inter alia, democracy at Barnet Council.

Sometimes you need to see the truth for yourself. This next week is your chance. There are 3 Residents Forums taking place. They are public meetings and thus open to all ( the rules actually say so, they are on my blog somewhere ) and here is the poster which advertises them. Barnet Council are so keen that interested parties attend that with this month's email sending me the poster ( it costs nothing to send emails ) came the following message:

Dear Resident,

Please see the attached Resident Forum Poster.

Please note that you will no longer receive this poster via email. Please visit the following link which will direct you to the appropriate section of Barnet Councils website for all future meeting details: ( oops a missing apostrophe in Council's )

Link to forums

Resident Forum meetings will be advertised in the Barnet Press and Libraries

Kind Regards,



P***** *******
Business Governance Officer, Corporate Governance Directorate

and here is the poster itself

Nov 11 Residents Forums - Barnet Council

So now instead of being informed in an open and transparent manner ( Barnet Council often claim those two adjectives apply to them ) the notification of the meeting to the parties who were interested enough to give their email address to Barnet Council ( and they were still being collected at the last meeting so this is an sudden change of policy ) one has to go into the library in the correct period, receive the local paper whose delivery is variable or keep looking on the website. Oh dear, an impartial observer might think that there was something to hide.

So dear readers, do please come along and make these the best attended meetings ever. Do read the rules first to find out what subjects are off the agenda - it is a long list. 

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

As transparent as a brick wall

As you know Mr Mustard searches out information of interest to readers. It made work for governance which they didn't seem to like as they sent the following email.

Dear Mr Mustard

I am writing in relation to the series of requests for information you have made to the Council under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the FOIA).

The Council is committed to developing and improving transparency across the organisation and the volume of requests we receive under the FOIA from you suggests that there is information not currently made available that you would like to see.

We would be grateful for your suggestions of what information the Council could and should routinely make available via the website that may assist in minimising the need for information to be requested under the FOIA.

If you would like to assist, please contact the Council via foi@barnet.gov.uk. We will then consider your suggestions and keep you updated on their progress.

Kind Regards,

Standards and information Rights Team

Corporate Governance Directorate
London Borough of Barnet, North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, London N11 1NP

---

Mr Mustard didn't reply at first as he is a busy man, work to do, motorbikes to ride etc and then Cllr Thomas effectively outed him to the papers ( subject of next blog coming soon ) which made Mr Mustard decide to reply. Mr Mustard decided to research what a typical council should be publishing. You will find it on page 6 in the below window and you can download the document from the Communities website here.

Code of Practice on Data Transparency for Local Authorities

Here is the text of what Mr Mustard has today sent to the council:

Dear Sirt Team

Thank you for your email of 2 June 2011.
 

If you had studied my requests for a few minutes you could have identified that they were quite wide ranging and come to two conclusions :- 

1 - that the lists of spending over £500 are inadequate as they do not give more than an inkling of exactly what the money was spent on ( as an aside they are inaccurate - how can they contain negative numbers ? and incomplete - where have the £1,000 a day payments of Andrew Travers / Halliford Associates Ltd gone to ? and also contain duplications, Mr Reasonable identified one of over £250,000 ). They are not informative in that they do not say what the money was spent on e.g. fireworks at the Finchley Carnival.

2 - that I am interested in many different topics.

Rather than have me design a publication scheme for the council ( 90+ people in Governance, many of them handsomely paid, have more time for this than a blogger in his limited spare time ) I have an alternative suggestion would would allow Barnet for once to have some positive publicity rather than negative.

My suggestion is that you start by deciding to publish everything ( every tender, every order, every contract, every job description, the salary scale of every job, every report received, the minutes to every committee, the minutes to every meeting ) and then hold back those documents that contain obviously personal data ( these will mostly be in Adult Social Care & Children's directorates ).

My FOI requests would then drop to virtually zero. 
 

Of course, it isn't me who wants information about local councils to be out in the open, it comes from the very top of Government. 

I have spent a minute or two looking at what the Department for Communities & Local Government expects and that is set out in the Code of Recommended practice for Local Authorities on Data Transparency. I am sure you must have a copy but to be helpful I attach one for you. 

If you look at paragraph 12 on page 6 there is a list of the minimum data to be published. Barnet Council is a bit behind with this list and I think that you ought to try and make the The Right Honourable Eric Pickles MP happy before worrying about me. 

For example, the over £500 lists are incomplete and inaccurate. The S151 Finance Officer is a contractor on £1,000 a day and yet has not appeared on the lists since April 2011. I suspect that Barnet Council are fiddling with the lists. 

The senior employees data is incomplete. I was refused a list of the 137 staff earning over £70,000. A reworded request will now be submitted.

The organisational chart is only about 20 officers which does not give a clear picture of staffing and vacant posts.

You are still trying to secure missing contracts following the "procurement action plan" which had to be put in place after over £1m was paid to MetPro without a contract.

It would seem that there is plenty for the council to be getting on with rather than telling the press that one blogger has cost them £40,000 in 6 months, a statement which was not true.

The best possible reply that you could make to this email would be to start improving the quantity and quality of the published data.

Yours sincerely

Mr Mustard

---

We will have to wait and see what happens next. It may be a long wait?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Non-job #9 ? - Openness & Transparency Manager

Following so soon after the previous posting you may find it hard to believe that it takes two people to be open and transparent in Barnet.

Pay £47,907 - £50,789

Purpose of Job:

As a member of the Governance leadership team, to contribute to the overall leadership, direction and management of the Governance Service in the context of local and national priorities.
To provide a professional lead on openness, transparency, Member and democratic engagement.
To manage all aspects relating to Members’ Allowances.
Drive the improvement/transformation agenda within the service and develop capacity in key areas to support services in meeting local and corporate objectives. ( has this been cut and paste from the wrong page ? ) 
To be a key player within the service in a management capacity who is actively seeking and applying best practice and innovative methods of service delivery. ( ditto )

To promote and safeguard the welfare of vulnerable people, ensuring this principle, culture and practice is embedded throughout all council services, including stakeholders and partners in compliance with national and local procedures and protocols. ( ditto )
Lead development, delivery and implementation of strategies and plans alongside the full range of stakeholder groups. ( ditto )
Lead at an operational level at promoting culture changes and developing and implementing effective processes and systems across the Openness and Transparency Team, including new technological advances. The Team! What, are more people going to join ? Mr Mustard has just realised that the appropriate acronym is OTT ( over the top ).
To provide excellent services to ensure Member and all aspects of democratic engagement and transparency is in accordance with the Council’s Constitution and policies, budget allocation and statutory requirements.
To manage and provide a professional lead on the Council’s openness and transparency function in accordance with all legal and constitutional requirements.
To be responsible to the Assistant Director – Governance for effective management and efficient performance of the team within the service.
To ensure that all activities across the Council are managed within the broader context of One Barnet. ( I think you aren't paid enough to do this )
To act as a change agent to assist the council manage and implement change programmes. ( what is the Change and Innovation Manager doing then ? see non-job #3 ? )
To lead by example and effectively manage people, projects and budgets effectively. ( how about leading all the non-job employees to the Job Centre ? that would manage the budget more effectively )

What will Mr Mustard find next ?

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard 

Non-Job #8 ? Openness & Transparency Officer

yet another mantra "Working together"

 

The Council’s One Barnet programme is to redesign the council in order to meet increasing local and national challenges and opportunities, implementing any agreed changes.

Pay scale £39,790 to £42,499

 
Purpose of Job

• To lead on all aspects of work relating to Member and democratic engagement to promote openness and transparency, including research and data gathering; presentation of findings; implementation and co-ordination of actions and monitoring and reporting on progress. The postholder will be required to lead on particular aspects of Member development, Members’ allowances and democratic engagement.
• To manage and provide a professional lead on Member development, Members’ allowances and democratic engagement across the service and corporately as required.
• To lead on and advise Members and senior officers of the Council on strategies relating to transparency, Member development and democratic engagement.
• To contribute to the success of the Governance Service.

Mr Mustard has been distracted by so much other tut coming out of Barnet Council that he has neglected the non-jobs so that is being put right today.

Barnet Council do not appear to be committed to Openness and Transparency as otherwise they would not

• set rules and limit the questions one can ask at Residents' forums
• reduce the opportunity for debate at Council Meetings
• fail to produce minutes of meetings in a timely fashion
• allow Councillors to ask residents not to email them
• allow Councillors to delete emails unread
• have meetings at which no Cabinet member appears
• have refused filming against the wishes of Central Government
• have refused entry to a Council meeting

I expect that other bloggers will add a few more entries in the comments box
and this non-job would not be necessary. 

It looks like £40,000 in the bin to Mr Mustard.

This surely cannot be a full time job ? 

Can't Nick Walkley advise members on this as part of his leadership role as set out in his Role summary ?

Ensure the Council operates in an open, accountable and democratic manner to minimise any challenge to its operations based on such grounds.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard

Gravy train - column 4 of 8

So the column of the Corporate Structure Chart that we are going to look at today is column 4 - "Corporate Governance". This carriage of the train holds 95 people - yes Mr Mustard does agree that it is somewhat overcrowded in there and it puts out lots of smoke and has mirrored walls. The carriage is beautifully decorated on the outside and is named "transparency & democracy"  but somehow no information ever comes out of the carriage. There is no lighting; it travels completely in the dark. Transparency & Democracy has rarely been glimpsed on the railway tracks of Barnet although you hear it talked about all of the time.

The chief conductor in this carriage is Jeff Lustig. He is rather grandly titled the Director of Corporate Governance. He gets £132,480 p.a. for trying to keep the train on the rails. The present section of track is extremely bumpy but that won't bother Mr Lustig. He had trouble with a piece of land on the sloped section that is Underhill I'm told but others can comment on that.He is also a stickler for making the train run on time. The special Audit train was being driven by Lord Palmer last month, oh what fun he had, and Lord Palmer wanted to stop and pick up a few more poor parishioners but Mr Lustig wouldn't have it; we've been 30 minutes at that stop and not a minute more. Lord Palmer is a sport though and he drove off very slowly so a few more passengers got aboard although some were still left behind on the platform. Despite buying a ticket for the train they were not allowed on board; it's no way to run a railway.

There are 3 assistant conductors.

Margaret Martinus must be very busy waving flags at everyone as she is the "Assistant Director - Legal" and there is lots of squabbling between train officials and just about everyone else. She also signed the recycling contract which I will soon enlighten you about. You might want to recycle Corporate Governance afterwards. Ms Martinus is paid £99,555 p.a.

Ms Aysen Giritli is the "Acting Head of Democratic Services" according to the corporate structure chart or the "Democratic Services Manager" according to the unaudited Accounts; now you know how it feels to be caught with the wrong type of ticket on the train although you thought you had the right one. Don't go getting in the first class carriage now Ms Giritli when you only have a second class ticket and a third class employer. Mind you, on £72,048 p.a. you can afford to travel first class wherever you go.

The third assistant conductor, are we on Indian Railways all of a sudden ?, is Sian Hughes, the "Head of Governance and Service Development" ( Mr Mustard has an idea - in the future no-one can have a job title which has more letters in it than in their name - that would make things simpler ) . She has been on this train for a while working her way up through the ranks. She now earns £72,048 p.a.

So there we have it. To run this shining beacon of this miscarriage of democracy costs £376,131 p.a. and it won't be long before Mr Mustard has checked out the ticket classes of all the other travellers and can give you the total annual spend.

Yours frugally

Mr Mustard