Jackie on the move Blogging

What N30 and the one day of Strike Action achieved.

2012-01-11T12:27:00.001-08:00

No apologies for nicking this from the North Somerset UNISON Blog, they did an excellent job in wrapping up some points which all UNISON members may find useful.

What we have gained from taking Industrial Action:

A clear commitment to avoid contribution increases. There will be no contribution increases from April 2012. These have now been postponed until 2014, and may not be necessary at all if alternate ways of making savings can be found.
Retaining Admitted Body Status, which means if you transfer to the private sector you keep your pension, or at least a broadly comparable one
Suspension of the formal consultation with government for short-term savings - from now on we'll be negotiating with Local government employers for a new scheme starting in 2014
Flexible retirement age of 55-75, with actuarial adjustments made by the link to the state retirement age
Protection for those within 10 years of retirement
Equality impact assessment at each stage
What hasn't changed:

There has been no movement from the government on bringing public sector retirement ages into line with the state pension age, which is increasing from 65 to 66, 67, and 68 depending on how old you are currently.
There has also been no movement from the government on the linking of pension increases to the CPI rather than the RPI – UNISON and other trade unions have taken this to the court of appeal.
The new LGPS scheme will be a career average rather than a final salary scheme, although this is not necessarily a bad thing for low paid female workers, but is dependent on decent accrual and revaluation rates.
In summary then local government workers won't have to pay more (at least until 2014), but they will have to work longer and they will get less when they retire (unless the courts overrule the switch from RPI to CPI).

Danny Alexander has promised that what is agreed as part of the current negotiations will last for 25 years. Can we believe him?

If UNISON members agree to these principles for negotiation, then between January and April this year UNISON will undertake further negotiations with the employers on the value, distribution and phasing of any employee contributions (I think the fact that this is even mentioned indicates that we're not sure that there will be no increases in 2014), accrual rate, revaluation rate, transitional protections, and employer cap and collar.

UNISON members in Local Government now have to decide what the next steps should be. We have 2 choices:

Either we:

Reject the principles and timetable for further negotiation and commit to further industrial action.

Or we:

Agree to the principles and timetable for further negotiation. If these negotiations fail then we still have the option of further industrial action as we are still in dispute and our ballot is still live.

UNISON members in Local Government may want to consider whether what we have gained is enough - have we won enough ground to suspend industrial action? In addition, can we be sure that there will not be an increase in employee contributions in 2014? The government still want £900 million in savings from the LGPS - how are they going to get this £900 million if not from increased contributions? If we are not sure, then agreeing to this framework simply means postponing the inevitable. But if we agree now, when other trade unions do not, then we may find ourselves without the backing of our sister trade unions if we face the threat of increased contributions for 2014.

NHS Pension Scheme

This is not an agreement or a deal but is the government's final offer for the NHS scheme.

What we have gained from taking Industrial Action:

A significant improvement in accrual rates to 1/54th
Those within 10 years of retirement will continue in their current existing pension scheme and will continue to be able to retire at 55, 60 or 65, depending on what scheme they're in. There will be additional tapered protection for those within 13.5 years of retirement
Retaining Fair Deal, which means if you transfer to the private sector you keep your pension, or at least a broadly comparable one
No contribution increases in 2012 for those earning less than £26,557 full-time pay (about 48% of workforce, and 70% of UNISON membership), although there will be further discussions on increases for future years.
What hasn't changed:

Contribution increases from April 2012 of between 0 and 2.4% for those on a pensionable salary of £26,557 or more.
Further discussion on contribution increases for all NHS staff for 2013 and 2014.
There has been no movement from the government on bringing public sector retirement ages into line with the state pension age, which is increasing from 65 to 66, 67, and 68 depending on how old you are currently. Although there will be a review of pension ages for those staff who undertake physical work, such as emergency services.
There has also been no movement from the government on the linking of pension increases to the CPI rather than the RPI – UNISON and other trade unions have taken this to the court of appeal.
The new NHS scheme will start in 2015. It will be a career average scheme, although this is not necessarily a bad thing for low paid female workers, but is dependent on decent accrual and revaluation rates.
In summary then, those earning under £26,557 full-time salary won't pay any extra contributions (at least until 2013), while those earning above that salary will pay more from April 2012. All NHS workers will work longer, and will get less in retirement (unless the courts overrule the switch from RPI to CPI).

Danny Alexander has promised that what is agreed as part of the current negotiations will last for 25 years. Can we believe him?

UNISON members in the NHS scheme now have to decide what the next steps should be. We have 2 choices:

Either we:

Reject the final offer and commit to further industrial action.

Or we:

Agree to continue negotiations on the final offer and then consult members on the final package. If these negotiations fail then we still have the option of further industrial action as we are still in dispute and our ballot is still live.

UNISON members in the NHS scheme may want to consider whether what we have gained is enough - have we won enough ground to suspend industrial action? Again the question I think we need to ask is what's going to happen to contribution increases in 2013, particularly as the government is still committed to securing Spending Review savings of £2.3 billion in 2013/14 and £2.8 billion in 2014/15. How else can they get these savings if not from increased contributions? Given that at least half of NHS workers will pay more, work longer, and get less, is this really a good enough deal to suspend further industrial action? But if we agree now, when other trade unions do not, then we may find ourselves without the backing of our sister trade unions if we face the threat of increased contributions in 2013.

UNISON members need to decide what to do next

UNISON members have now got to decide what they want to do. Are members prepared for more industrial action to protect their pensions? If they are then I think we should hold out for more, because neither offer is really good enough, particularly if assessed against what we campaigned against – "pay more, work longer to get less". On 30th November we showed what could be achieved when trade unions stand together. Public sector unions need to stick together, not just to oppose the changes to our pensions, but to oppose the pay freeze, pay cap, and cuts to terms and conditions, jobs and services.

But if UNISON members do not want to take further industrial action, then they will need to accept what's on offer, which has been outlined above.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Fighting for Public Services

2011-06-23T06:34:00.001-07:00

I am in Manchester at the UNISON conference fighting for Public Services for those providing and those receiving. Late this morning a care worker in an Elderly Peoples Home posted on Facebook Bristol City Plans to close the Elderly Peoples Homes and Day Care centre provision. Last week the in-house Homecare workers were told they could be redeployed into the empty posts in these care homes which the Council have announced today could be closed.

What the press release hasn't said is the way the Council has sat on the Commissioning Teams and the Social Work Teams over the last few weeks to ensure that all packages of care have been allocated to the private providers. This is not about service users choice but back door privatisation of the public services those service users rely upon. To drive down costs and to reduce the wages of these complex services to minimum wage.

This has nothing to do with quality but everything to do with cost. The Council has done this at a time when Bristol has been put on the map with the dreadful practices the private sector has allowed in the Care hospital in Winterboune near Bristol that made the entire country sick when it was exposed on Panorama.

At a time when Southern Cross is failing the 30,000 older people in their care and the latest reports that the predominately private sector now delivering Homecare is found to be failing older people in their own homes.

This is the right time now for those who provide public services and those receiving them to say enough is enough. When the bill for the war in Libya has cost 250 million, when we have big business making bonuses again that would pay for nurses and carers for our most vulnerable then we need to tell the Tory Government enough is enough. If we collect the unpaid billions of taxes from the rich the poor can be adequately cared for and those that provide that care can be given the decency at work they deserve for the important work they do.

I hope the 1700 workers in Bristol that this announcement today affects join forces and take on the Council to rethink this madness.

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Day 1 of UNISON National Delegates Conference

2011-06-21T06:49:00.001-07:00

Bristol Branch of Local Government had breakfast together and a nice stroll through Manchester to the conference centre. Two are new delegates and it was nice to see their delight at the range of stalls that abound at conferences. After collecting a variety of sweets, pens, cups and T-shirts and seeing the smiles on their faces we made our way to the conference hall.

A great speech from the President Angela, before accepting finance report. Then Clytus introduced SOC report. Can't wait to see him in the kilt doing his song and dance routine to close conference.

The first motion was carried on the cuts and many members gave speeches that brought reality to the cuts already happening up and down the country.

The second motion dealt with the attack on our pension. Many retired members spoke passionately about taking the fight on, and pledged to do everything they can to assist us in that fight.

We then broke for lunch, sat out side under the grey skies of Manchester, it's a wonder our mood didn't change the sky red. We are angry at the way the welfare state is being dismantled and the people we provide those services for are being so needlessly hurt.

We recognise our general membership have not really felt the full impact of Osbourne's spending review and the cuts will begin towards the end of this year on a scale never before experienced by public sector providers or service users.

The papers this morning have pitted public sector workers and the ever perpetuating myth of the gold plated public sector pension versus the private sector who don't enjoy the same benefits. They don't tell you we give up part of our wages to put away for our pensions and the millions of pounds the company chiefs in the private sector take in pensions at the expenses of the rest of us somewhere along the line. All working people regardless of employer need to have the means to provide for their old age, and occupational pensions should be available for all.

After lunch we came back to the motion supporting Sure Start Centres. We watched a young UNISON member who works in a Sure Start Centre, who became very emotional at the cuts she is witnessing young children suffering. Simple things like access to books are being denied young children. Sure Start is the Big Society at work within our Communities, not the Big Society the Tories really want us to have, despite ConDems propaganda that We are all in it together. The millionaire cabinet government just want us cheaper, poorer, so the "The Fat Cats" can become even richer.

All working people need to reject the ConDem attack on us all. We didn't vote on it, we don't want it, we will March On as the conference video clearly says from the 26th March.

march with us, march for us, march for yourself, we are all under attack together. We are all strong together. Dave's opening speech was a UNISON Member said "Eric Pickles has eaten my community centre" and when we want Ed Ball's advice we'll ask for it.

Dave Prentis clear, Join us as we struggle to pay our bills, as we wait to be made redundant, care homes close, children denied good education. We need to fight the brutality of the ConDems cuts. Together we are all in it together, it's us they are hurting, the providers and the receivers of services.

Time to say no we don't accept cuts on the poor to repay a debt the rich caused.

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Tough measures demanded by UNISON to stamp out appalling abuse.

2011-06-02T01:31:00.001-07:00

UNISON, the UK’s largest union, has today (1 June) demanded a comprehensive package of safety measures, following the appalling abuse revealed by BBC’s Panorama programme at the privately run Winterbourne View Hospital in Bristol.

The shocking undercover programme showed staff violently abusing adults with learning difficulties. UNISON is demanding urgent action to help protect
patients from abuse in other care facilities, including tougher regulation,
better training, regular monitoring and inspection.

Christina McAnea, UNISON Head of Health, said:

“The abuse revealed in the Panorama programme is sickening. We need action and we need it now. These patients have been betrayed by their carers, by the hospital owners, Castlebeck, and by the Care Quality Commission, who all failed to take action, despite repeated warnings about abuse.

“UNISON has long called for staff working with vulnerable adults to be given
quality training – it is very revealing that, without any previous
experience, the reporter got a job at Winterbourne View and was given just
one week’s training.

In addition UNISON is arguing against the Government for care assistants to
be covered by statutory, not voluntary regulation. The safety and welfare of
patients must be of primary concern and tough regulation would give much
needed protection.

“Finally, the failure by the Care Quality Commission to take action
following complaints, highlights fatal flaws in the system. We need more
inspectors going into these facilities and not the move to more light-touch
regulation, which leaves vulnerable patients at greater risk.

“The question has to be asked – how much more abuse is going on undetected because of the lack of thorough inspection by qualified inspectors? Self assessment is not the way to stamp out this disgusting abuse of trust.”

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Is Pickles making a pickle out of Local Government.

2011-05-09T07:20:00.001-07:00

There appears to be much change being advocated by Eric Pickles. Despite a good upward trend for Labour at the recent local elections and a crushing defeat for the Lib Dems, we must be vary and not so jubilant in thinking the Tory downfall is nigh.

The Tories didn't gain or lose much, which means they still have support and with most of the population firmly believing the Tory rhetoric that the debt this Country faces is solely down to Labour rather than a world recession caused by the Financial Sector is worrying for all those who receive and work in Public Services.

We have seen the end of the consultation Pickles conducted, wishing to rid the state of Red Tape. This includes doing away with duties that fall to Local Authorities now. I spoke with a social worker this morning and asked if she was aware of the recent consultation on Red Tape, she wasn't, and when I asked her what she thought of the possible removal of the duty to take children into care, she asked "well who would do it if we don't"

I asked office workers what they thought of, no one available to keep the highways clean of litter. They said exactly the same as the Social worker, "who would do it"

No one seems to grasp we are under Tory rule, and the concept of who does, is probably not something they consider. In America, a country we seem to be hell bent on following, has a system where the occupiers of a property have the responsibility to keep the patch outside their home within the street, clear of litter. If they don't do it, they get fined.

Two London Councils are considering to encourage all 40-50 years old to volunteer to care for the elderly. This will entitle them to accrue "care credits" for their old age.

The future if we continue to let the Tories impose the breakup of the Welfare State, the collapse of Local Councils and the duties they have to provide, we will all see changes on a scale that will be difficult to turn around.

Apathy in this Country will have us asking endlessly who does this now, only to find out no one does, or worse as we work longer for less, we do.

If we don't we get fined. The good old American model.

One of the duties up for consultation was under the Public Health Act, to respond to those hurt in a vehicle accident, which good old Pickles wants to scrap. So if you are unfortunate enough to have a crash in your car, think what would happen if an ambulance does not come. The person whose house you crash outside of, is going to be more angry that you have given them debris to clean up, as it would be their responsibility. You would then be reliant on upon the goodwill of those near to either patch you up in situ, or give you a lift to the nearest hospital. Then think about whether that hospital is still NHS, would they treat you if they were not, or if your insurance wasn't up to date.

As the big posters UNISON put out across the country "WELCOME TO THE BIG SOCIETY". Said very loudly in green and purple.

If anyone else asks me "who will do that" when I mention change, keep the Tories in power and the answer will always be you, you, you, and even yourself. Do they care NO THEY DO NOT.

Apathy will have a hefty price if we don't wake up soon.

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Another Gem passed to me by Jenny

2011-05-08T15:17:00.001-07:00

Government set to relax environment laws in bid to boost jobs

The conservative-led coalition appears to be on the verge of seeking to relax up to 278 environmental laws in a desperate attempt to encourage the private sector to create new jobs to make up for its big cuts in the public sector.

Tribune understands that civil servants at Defra, the environmental ministry, have been instructed to only look at the burden of environmental requirements on business” rather than balance regulation with the benefits to widen society and the environment.

The move amounts to a major attack on the progress of combating climate change and protecting the environment – supposed to be one of the flagship policies of both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

It could, ironically, cause even more job losses since there is now a burgeoning green industry employing more than 800,000 people in Britain dependent for growth on tougher regulations of the environment.

The laws which could be relaxed include strict business restrictions in national parks, pollution laws, hazardous waste and requirements for business to meet ever rising environmental standards to conserve energy.

Ministers have tried to play down the “red tape” review, saying it is aimed at encouraging the public to comment on the necessity for 21,000 regulations governing businesses. But this looks extremely hollow in the light of the instructions sent around Whitehall.

Any move to curb environment laws would be attacked by both environment campaigners and the green industry, which lives and dies by the regulatory framework. Government intervention is a vital ingredient in the creation of the environmental markets of the future.

The campaigning group 38 Degrees has also warned environmental protection is not “red Tape”.
By David Henchke, Westminster Correspondence.

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UNISON Press release on the horrors of the CLG proposals threatening a statutory duty removal.

2011-05-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

03/05/2011

Threat of statutory duty removal

Rubbish could litter our streets, bodies could pile up, vulnerable children could be left without care, strip clubs could be set up on any corner, and mouldy chops could stack up on our shelves. These are just some of the damaging things that could happen if the Tory government presses ahead with plans to cut the duties on councils that protect us all, and give us better communities.

UNISON, the UK’s largest union, today publishes a list of crazy cuts that could leave communities exposed. In its submission to the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (CLG) consultation on statutory duties, UNISON is calling on the government to protect our communities by putting a stop to its damaging plans.

Heather Wakefield, UNISON Head of Local Government, said:

“The coalition has made some pretty crazy and dangerous decisions, but even thinking about getting rid of some of these duties is up there with the best of them.

“If the Tories press ahead with their race to scrap the so-called ‘red tape’, they could see bodies pile up on the street, as nobody has responsibility for mortuaries. We could see gas safety fall and recycling schemes dry up. Unregulated taxis could prowl the streets and strip clubs set up on any corner.

“Eric Pickles only needs to scratch the surface to find out that these duties protect our communities, making them safer and better places to live. Like a lot of other Tory plans, this consultation should go on the scrapheap.”

Crazy cuts rundown

Gas Appliances (Safety) Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/1629)

Local Authorities are responsible for keeping gas safe. How many people will be put at risk of carbon monoxide poisoning if this is abolished?

Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 Section 7

Makes provision for the purpose of extinguishing fires and protecting life and property. Who else should do this?

Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 Section 8

Makes provision for the purpose of rescuing people in the event of road traffic accidents.

Fire and Rescue Services (Emergencies) (England) (Order) 2007 (SI 2007/735) made under s. 9 FRSA 2004

Makes provision for chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear emergency and urban search and rescue. Who will the public turn to if this duty is removed?

Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 Section 7

Local Authorities have a duty to provide a library service. Will libraries be cut to extinction if this is abolished?

Gambling Act 2005 Section 159

Councils have to licence premises for gambling activities. How would corrupt operators be stopped if this was abolished?

Licensing Act 2003 Section 18

Requires local authorities to have a system for regulating premises licenses, including issuing licenses. Would we see strip clubs set up on any corner?

Zoo Licensing Act 1981

Councils should ensure zoos are safe for the public to visit and have a high standard of welfare for animals. What cruel and bad practices would come into place with unregulated zoos?

Environmental Protection Act 1990, Section 45 A

Councils have to arrange for the collection of recyclable materials. Is our care for the planet going to be dumped?

Environmental Protection Act 1990, Section 89

Councils currently have to keep land and highways clear of litter. Would litter start to pile up on our streets?

Food Labelling Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/1499)

Councils are responsible for ensuring food labelling is accurate and out of date food is not being sold. Do we want to eat old sausages or have ingredients missed off the label?

Public Health Act 1936

Councils have to provide mortuaries. Would removing this duty see bodies pile up in the street?

Children Act 1989 Section 33

Councils take vulnerable children into care and look after them. Who would take over this role if this duty was scrapped?

Local Government (Misc. Provisions) Act 1976 Section 54

Councils licence taxi drivers. If they stopped doing this, how dangerous would it be to get into a cab?

Highways Act 1980 Section 41(1A)

Puts local Authorities responsible for dealing with snow and ice – who else could take this up?

New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 Section 81

Councils have to tell other bodies when they (or a utility company) are digging up the road. Without this, would we see roads in constant upheaval?

Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (as amended) Section 5 (1)

Makes local authorities one of the authorities responsible for formulating and implementing strategies to tackle crime and disorder. Who else can create a joined-up approach?

Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act (2004) Section 9

Requires local authorities to participate in domestic homicide reviews with a view to improving policies and practice and preventing further violence and homicide. Tackling domestic violence requires a multi-agency approach – should this be optional?

Juries Act 1974 Section 3

Requires electoral registration officers to provide the Lord Chancellor with copies of the electoral register from which potential jurors can be summoned. A vital cog in the wheel of justice.

Crime and Disorder Act 1989 Section 39 (5)

Establishes the multi-agency, multi-disciplinary ethos behind the Youth Offending Teams. Putting into practice decades of experience.

Criminal Justice Act 2003 Section 325

Requires agencies to work together to manage the risks posed by offenders following their release from custody, for example to ensure that paedophiles aren’t inadvertently housed by the local authority near a school, or in an estate with many families. It is necessary to have one body – the locally accountable one – ensuring that this coordination happens – it can’t be optional.

Freedom of Information Act 2000

Councils have to disclose information to the public on request. Do we want a culture of secrecy from the people we elect?

Betraying disabled people and Welfare

2011-05-03T04:03:00.001-07:00

Please note this research done by Ekklesia found on www.ekklesia.co they don't have a link to this info bit of a shame as it is very good. Someone kindly left the link to the article so please see this .

Abstract
This short research paper maps out the contours of a revolution in Britain’s benefits and welfare system. But the evidence Karen McAndrew examines and evaluates indicates that, far from enabling and supporting sick and disabled people, the changes and cuts the UK government is making – disguised by a superficial rhetoric of compassion and empowerment, and eased by ungrounded prejudices stoked in sections of the media – are causing real harm and destroying the fabric of national care and genuine opportunity. Putting human impact centre stage, this paper sets out disturbing evidence that disabled people are being betrayed, the public misled, and the welfare system endangered. Here is yet more indication that the 'Big Society' is punishing the most vulnerable and eschewing social justice, by making cuts and implementing an inadequate patchwork of policies whereby under-resourced voluntarism cannot substitute for official, statutory neglect.

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” Benjamin Franklin [1]

-------

Introduction: a harmful revolution

There is a 'revolution' going on in Britain, but not in the way Employment Minister Chris Grayling has recently claimed, not always in a visible way – and most definitely not of the kind where those at the bottom of the heap come out on top. Quite the reverse. Consider these developments:

* The removal of people from Incapacity Benefit to Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). [2]

* The time Limiting of ESA which is to be applied retrospectively.

* The replacement of the Personal Capability Assessment (PCA) with the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) – which has been described by many at the sharp end as ‘unfit for purpose’.

* The cutting the mobility component of the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for those in care homes. [3]

* The abolition of DLA, which is to be replaced by the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in 2013/14. [4]

* The abolition of the Independent Living Fund. [5]

* The scrapping of Legal Aid [6] for all welfare benefits matters, and the massive cuts for funding / closures hitting Community Law Centres. [7]

On top of this, we are seeing changes to work programmes, eligibility, housing entitlement, care packages, work guidelines, education provision and hospital care, and cuts to local council budgets for social care and so on – meaning that they will be unable to step in to cover the shortfall left by all these other changes. [8]

The reality is that the current welfare state system is crumbling, and it is only going to get worse as the cuts begin to hit real people and real communities, and as more and more services are privatised. This amounts to a crisis.

1. Media misrepresentations, fraud allegations

How can this be allowed to happen? An extremely important factor in this scenario is the powerful negative influence of defamatory press articles claiming or implying that sick and disabled are mostly “benefit scroungers”, “workshy” and otherwise unworthy recipients of assistance. There has been a continuous drip-feed of such articles over many months and it has biased many people against those on welfare benefits. A good number of these media allegations have been based on inaccurate or skewed statistics, often based on material from the Department of Work and Pensions.

Worryingly, disability hate crime has simultaneously increased. Anne Novis MBE, a leading activist, has submitted evidence on 68 violent deaths of disabled people – and more than 500 other potential disability hate crimes – to a major national inquiry into disability-related harassment. In addition, accusations of huge numbers of fraudulent claims abound. [9]

In fact, the latest available figures from the DWP state that the fraud rate for Incapacity benefit is just 0.5 per cent. The fraud rate for Disability Living Allowance is also just 0.5 per cent, meaning that 99.5 per cent of claimants are not fraudulent. They have the lowest level of fraud of all in relation to welfare benefits. It should be noted that the figures for official error for both benefits are actually higher than the level of fraud, at 1.7 per cent for Incapacity Benefit and 0.8 per cent for DLA. [10]

Despite these manifest facts, the misleading and malicious press articles continue. In December 2010 The Secretary of State himself, in an interview with the Sun, actually seemed to blame the deficit on ‘scroungers’, claiming that “…we have managed to create a block of people in Britain who do not add anything to the greatness of this country. They have become conditioned to be users of services, not providers of money. This is a huge part of the reason we have this massive deficit.” [11]

There appears to be a dubious agenda at play here. Planting seeds in people's minds that those on welfare benefits are faking or defrauding the system certainly makes it easier to justify the disproportionate cuts when they take effect. [12]

Overall, the tabloid-generated negativity towards disabled people has seriously set back attitudes and eroded work towards equality.

2. A series of attacks on disabled people

The massive so-called "migration" (an entirely forced one) of vast numbers of people who are currently entitled to Incapacity Benefit onto Employment Support Allowance or Job Seekers Allowance has already started this month. [13]

There are huge numbers of genuinely ill people being found 'fit for work' because of the flawed computerised Work Capability Assessment that is being used. The vast majority are being pushed involuntarily into the ESA 'Work Related Activity Group' where they are subjected to conditions and sanctions that are harming their health even more. Or they are put directly onto Jobseekers’ Allowance.

Not only that, but the ESA is time-limited to one year, retrospectively. What happens then? They too are forced onto Job Seekers Allowance. [14] Then more sanctions begin; and if they do not get a job, they lose that benefit as well. We are talking here about sick and disabled people with no money to live on.

Professor Malcolm Harrington conducted an independent review in November 2010, which condemned numerous aspects of the Work Capability Assessment. [15] In March 2011, Professor Paul Gregg, one of those who actually designed the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), warned that the WCA is ‘a complete mess' and ‘badly malfunctioning'. [16]

He said: “In the first trial, the system did not work. We need to trial the new, proposed, reformed system to check and prove that it works and avoids the serious stress and misclassification of people that we have already seen, before we start implementing it on a large and vulnerable population. The test so far has caused a huge amount of anguish to the people who have gone through it. We need to have something that is working accurately before we apply it nationally. We shouldn't roll this out until we have something that is working.”

But Professor Gregg’s clear calls for the new, harsher test not to be inflicted on claimants, including incapacity benefit claimants, have clearly not been listened to by government and policy-makers. [17]

3. The government is not listening

A report from the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion (CESI) says that “[t]he changes recommended by Professor Harrington in his review of the work capability assessment (WCA) should take effect immediately or, if this is not possible, the reassessment of incapacity benefits claimants should be postponed.” [18]

However, Chris Grayling, Minister of State in the Department for Work and Pensions, has announced that 10,000 sick and disabled people a week will undergo a WCA starting in April 2011. They will be subjected to the same test, despite evidence that it does not appropriately assess needs. But critics now argue that it will be even harsher, as DWP have introduced amendments to many of the ‘descriptors’ in the test that make it virtually impossible for anyone to be classed as unfit for work.

A motion to annul these amendments was tabled by Lord Kirkwood on 16 March 2011 (see: http://www.meassociation.org.uk/?p=4993). He spoke to the 23rd Report of the House of Lords Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee, which complained that the Government had rushed the new regulations through without thinking through the implications.

The WCA and the company who are running it, Atos, are the subject of fear and anger in many quarters. [19] The medical profession are now also making a stand, as GP Margaret McCartney’s own policy forum on health care illustrates. [20] She writes about attending an Atos Recruitment evening, arising from her concerns about them, referencing an article she published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) [21] and the General Medical Council’s (GMC) response. It appears that the Care Quality Commission cannot supervise the doctors employed by Atos Healthcare because it is a private company and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have had problems over accrediting the nurse training. Commentators are understandably alarmed. [22]

It must be remembered that these are not just numbers on a page or computer screen, but real people who will be put through untold suffering because of this seriously flawed system. There have already been suicides and deaths. [23] Close observers fear that there will be many more.

4. A threat to life and welfare

The Disability Alliance has this year been surveying disabled people’s views on Government reforms to Disability Living Allowance in particular [24]. With 900 responses analysed, the most shocking finding, DA says, is that nine per cent of disabled people and their families fear the Government cuts will cause death, suicide and make lives ‘not worth living’.

Neil Coyle, Disability Alliance Director of Policy, commented in February 2011: “Disabled people are telling us in great numbers that they fear the overall cuts – but that losing Disability Living Allowance in particular has resulted in people questioning the value of their lives”.

The DA survey also reveals that:
* over 800,000 disabled people could lose support if the £1 billion target for DLA cuts is realised;
* 13 per cent said cuts would increase their NHS use with further demand also on cash-strapped councils;
* 25 per cent of the respondents are in work, but half fear having to quit if they lose access to support;
* half the respondents believe DLA does not meet extra disability-related costs of living – and a third report it is ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ to get by before cuts are implemented; and
* two-thirds of the respondents use DLA to link to other support (e.g. bus passes, council tax benefit and Carer’s Allowance) and fear that the Government plans will have a ‘domino effect’ that will significantly increase poverty and social exclusion for disabled people and their families.

The Department for Work and Pensions Minister for Disabled People, Maria Miller MP, confirmed in December 2010 that the government plans include a 20 per cent cut in DLA expenditure [25]. But the DWP has responded inadequately on estimates regarding the number of disabled people and their families who could lose access to support as a result of DLA reform, and on real costs to the NHS, Treasury and councils, say critics.

5. Business as usual?

Despite all of this, only around a quarter of the recommendations in Professor Harrington's review have been implemented. The WCA will continue to inaccurately assess disabled people at a rate of 10,000 per week. The WCA has been made tougher and results in further disabled people routinely having their needs unmet. New guidance on the Access to Work scheme will mean employers and disabled people receive less help to provide an accessible workplace. And more disabled people will be cut from the benefits system through time-limiting contribution based ESA.

Inevitably this will lead to ever more complaints and appeals and cost even more money. Currently around 40 per cent of appeals are upheld. This figure rises to 70 per cent when the appellant has legal advice. However, this will now be denied as Legal Aid is stripped away. Each time an appeal takes place it costs the taxpayer money. [26]

In October 2010, the DWP had a backlog of 29,700 complaints about ESA decisions that had not yet been referred to a tribunal. The next highest backlog was for Disability Living Allowance, which the Coalition Government is also abolishing, there were 9,600 cases outstanding. Outstanding complaints about all other benefits administered by the Department number just 19,750.

These figures were revealed by Ms Miller in October 2010. [27] As many more people have been put through assessments since then, it is likely that the number has risen greatly in the intervening months, though accurate figures are not yet available. This was before the proposed changes had even begun, and the new harsher WCA test brought in. Critics predict chaos and breakdown.

6. Disability and employment

When sick and disabled people are forced onto Job Seekers Allowance, the question remains as to who will employ them? UK unemployment rose by 49,000 to almost 2.5 million in the three months to the end of November 2010. April 2011 figures showed a slight improvement overall, but with seasonal averages likely to rise in the coming months, and with worse impacts in particular sectors: among women, young people in Scotland, and long-term cases in Wales, for example. [28]

With massive cuts to public sector jobs across the board already, and many more to come, we must ask whether the government honestly thinks that in this climate employers will be willing to take on sick and disabled people who have been out of the workforce for a long time and who will, in all likelihood, only have a very limited capacity for work. Few at the sharp end believe that they will. Only half of disabled people of working age are in work (50 per cent), compared with 80 per cent of non-disabled people. [29]

A study has found that disabled people could be stranded in unemployment because job support services are being devastated by local authority spending cuts.
More than half of supported employment providers are facing local authority funding cuts of at least 15 per cent, according to the poll by industry body the British Association for Supported Employment (BASE). [30]

A quarter of providers said they were facing council cuts of between 50 per cent and 100 per cent, prompting some to predict that their service would close. Others were making redundancies and stripping back provision even though caseloads were rising.

7. The human impact

The government talks of reforms, but these cuts and changes (along with many others in social provision and public services) amount to an assault on the core principles and practices of the welfare state as a whole. The danger is that Britain will be left in a situation where the rich can afford the healthcare and support they need and the rest suffer or risk marginalisation and poverty. The government is already considering proposals which would see traditional sick pay for employees replaced by income protection insurance. [31]

The human impact is terrible, [32] and often overlooked or rendered a statistical inconvenience in the way public policy is formulated and implemented, without real involvement and determination by those in the greatest need. [33] People do not ask to become ill or disabled. At any time this can happen to you or to someone you love. A diagnosis of serious illness can change someone’s life overnight. A car crash can, in a moment, leave a person unable to walk, or with brain injury. A series of awful life events can leave someone with depression or anxiety.

Apart from those who are rich enough not to have to even consider the impact of the extra costs they would incur if this should happen to them or someone in their family, the government’s cuts, changes and abolitions affect everyone. The future of our welfare state is at stake. It is time to resist. [34]

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Another Gem from Jenny

2011-04-22T02:33:00.001-07:00

Jenny Could not resist this one.

Since David Cameron is so opposed to alternative vote (Cameron and Miliband to lock horns over AV, 18 April) he will, presumably, do the honourable thing – resign and hand over to David Dais. Davis was first past the post in the Tory leadership election and Cameron won because the Tories use the AV system which gave him second preference votes.

Kenneth Brown. Bisley, Gloucestershire

Can we believe him about listening to the comments on the health service??

Could Andrew Lansley answer a simple question (NHS chiefs predict ward closures, 20 April)? The banks have failed; the NHS is a success; so why do bankers get bonuses and hospitals get closed? - Kevin Donovan Birkenhead, Merseyside

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Little known facts that could hide a danger for Local Authority democracy.

2011-04-21T10:11:00.001-07:00

This was sent to me by Local Labour Councillor in Bristol Jenny Smith, little known facts that could make a big difference. The Secretary of State could decide who runs the local authority services embedded in the Localism Bill, which I thought gave decision making powers to local people. Have we been Condemned again.

Watch out for the small print The Public Bodies Bill – bonfire of the quangos – is replete with Henry VIII powers I am skipping the section on the History of the various Royal Dynasties but it at last comes to the king’s little domestic difficulty, producing a legitimate make heir, which was the trigger for the English Reformation. His reign saw the legal union of England and Wales; dissolution of the monasteries; creation of the Royal Navy and according to some historians a ‘revolution’ in government driven through by his energetic first minister Thomas Cromwell. These changes still have resonance today. It is however a piece of small print, a time bomb lobbed from the 1530’s into the second decade of the 21st century, which has the potential to wreak massive changes in the way England is locally governed. I am referring to “The Proclamation by the Crown Act 1539”. To understand its significance requires a knowledge of Statutory Instruments (SI),. These are the principle form in which delegated or secondary legislation is made in Great Britain – designed to implement the primary legislation as debated and passed by parliament. However some statutory instruments are made under provisions of acts which allow the instrument to change the parent Act itself, or to change other primary legislation. These provisions, allowing primary legislation to be amended by secondary legislation are known as “Henry VIII clauses”. Parliament has very little scrutiny over this type of secondary legislation. The disquiet about the power given by the ‘Reformation Parliament’ was evident when the 1539 Act was repealed following Henry’s death in 1547. However, similar powers to bypass parliament have resurfaced in modern legislation. A 1932 Report (the Donoughmore Committee) found that between 1888 and 1929 nine acts of Parliament contained such clauses. It recognised that their occasional use might be justified but concluded that their ‘use must be demonstrably essential, and justified on each occasion by the Minister “to the hilt”. There were none until the war, but they then returned in growing numbers. The use of Henry VII clauses now seems to have become habitual. According to the Minister of Justice more than 120 of them had been passed in the last parliamentary session alone. The coalition has continued the trend. The public bodies Bill (bonfire of the quangos) is replete with “Henry VIII” powers. Eric Pickles and his successors at the CLG are set to benefit from a massive extension of centralised power from the numerous Henry VIII clauses proposed in the misnames “localism Bill”. There are eleven such clauses alone in the Community Right to Challenge’ which will give the Secretary of State sway over how and who provides local authority services. This breath taking acquisition of power on a scale unknown to previous ministers responsible for local government requires a modern Holbein to capture the essence of the new monarchy at CLG and the shrunken status and role of the local government. Perhaps something dead and formaldehyde by Damien Hurst would fit the bill. John O’Farrell. DO ALL TRY TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THIS. I NOW HOLD A LIST OF THE ACTS IN THE Bonfire of legislation and quangos from the web site. I am going through them hopefully today and will place the whole lot in the Labour members room. I think the deadline is the 27th so we must ensure that our officers are moving in the correct direction.

Thanks to Jenny.

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The Spin and the Reality

2011-04-18T12:36:00.001-07:00

All credit needs to go to Barnet UNISON for the reality video and the fun overlays they've put in, but these two videos show the Local Government TV wasting money on the myth, and TV local news reporting on the reality. For once a Tory Councillor telling the truth.

Watch them both and weep for the spin, as this is what we get sold time and time again.

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=a5BbHOuKPVw

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=TkPe_qwZrgQ

It's about time the politicians and the management listened to staff who provide the very services they seem to take great pride in cocking up.

Jackie

Attack on Pensions all round.

2011-04-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

I have taken some cut and paste and left their names in as they have given the pension questions a lot more thought than most and it will be interesting to see as the debate unfolds who is right. As most Public Sector Workers face over the next few months see potential losses all round, we must look to the future with more informed information than we have now.

One retired person comments below:

Middle-class mums will be pension losers

Patrick Collinson needs to check his pension reform facts a bit more closely before announding that “undoubtedly, women who took career breaks are big winners”. (The nasty truth behind the spin, money 9^th April_. In the past, possibly, but in the future, far less so.

Pension credits for women leaving work to care for children only awarded to those who receive child benefit. Child benefit, itself, will shortly be confined to households where no one pays the higher rate of income tax and earnings on which that higher rate is levied, is set to fall. More middle-class, stay-at-home mothers will lose out. They will have to work and pay NI for at least 30 years.

Noel Whiteside Professor comparative public policy. University of Warwick.

I’ve been amazed at the lack of insight in the media, and from commentators, about the flat rate pension idea and it was really welcome to see you questioning the government line.

I’ve been retired for years. I receive a pension for my 25 years in the civil service (until 1986), so my S2P/SERPS entitlement is reduced by a contracted-out deduction. Nevertheless, I’ve just been told by the Pension Service that this year I shall get £122.98 per week in addition to the £102.15 per week basic State pension. The suggested £140 per week, if it were to apply to existing pensioners (which the government of course-thankfully-says it won’t), would see me lose over £80 per week.

And I’m far from one of the rich, as one commentator on the BBC referred to people with S2P entitlement! Keep up the good work!!

John Ellis, Burgess Hill, West Sussex

UNISON's views:

Public service pension schemes have around 7.3 million pensioners and approximately 5.4 million active members. If we were to count potential dependants as well it means about 20 million people are with us in the fight to defend public sector pensions.

The Move to Consumer prices Index (CPI) for measuring inflation

The Government is committed to increasing public service pensions by CPI instead of Retail Prices Index (RPI) from April 2011
Parliament has already agreed to up rate social security benefits in line with CPI
Basic State Pension will go up this year by RPI next year the prices index on the triple guarantee will be CPI
Pension credit will go up by the cash increase in the Basic State Pension which means an increase of around 3.6% for this year much lower than RPI.
An official Pensions Increase Order is expected any day now for Public Service Schemes
The consequences are very significant. CPI is typically, on average, 0.7% per year lower than RPI
The Office of Budget Responsibility predict that pensions will be 8.5% less by 2017

Lord Hutton says the move represents a 15% cut in benefits.
The Royal Statistical Society, Institute for Fiscal Studies and UK Statistics Authority don’t believe the CPI to properly reflect pensioner spending patterns.

The Implications of CPI

· Pensions may increase from April by 3.1% this year when otherwise would have increased by 4.6%

· A woman on the average LGPS pension of £2,600pa will be £40 a year worse off

· A member with an average LGPS pension of approx £4,100 pa will be £62 a year worse off

· A member receiving the overall average public service pension of around £7800pa will be £117 a year worse off

· The Government is well aware that CPI is set to be lower than RPI throughout this parliament especially in view of the likely increase in interest rates that would be covered by the RPI.

· This is not just a pensioner’s issue. Everyone will lose. The most affected are likely to be early leavers whose deferred pensions will now go up in line with CPI.

· Many private sector schemes are likely to follow suit where their rules allow a different index to be used.

Contribution Increases – the £4 billion Tax

Comprehensive Spending Review Statement 20 October announced that Pay As You Go Scheme excluding the armed forces have to make a saving of £2.8 billion a year by 2014/15 this will come from increased employee contribution phased in from 2012. This is in addition to any scheme changes although the expected saving of £1 billion from cost share is included in the total of £2.8 billion

The ‘savings’ for the LGPS England and Wales is around £900 million a year LGPS Scotland around £140 million. It is estimated that the flat rate increase to achieve this is 3% + of pay depending on the size of the payroll. If the payroll shrinks the size of the contribution required will increase.

It is meant to be progressive 40% of saving coming in 2012/13; 40% in 2013/24 and the remaining 20% in 2014/15. It will be banded to protect the low paid so middle earners will be hit with significant increases. If the low paid are protected and the threshold varies between schemes (egg LGPS England and Wales £18000 whole time pa, NHSPS around £21000) middle earners are likely to see their contributions increase by 2014/15 by more than 50%

The government wants the bands to be sorted out by June when it wants to start consultation on draft regulations for all schemes. UNISON broadly support the principles that any increase in contributions should protect the low paid, be progressive and not lead to opt outs.

We are implacably opposed to any increase that is just an across the board levy on members. It is little more than a tax on scheme members. It is called a saving but it will not benefit the schemes or the employers it will simply be a saving for treasury and central government that will cut the funding to the schemes and the case of LGPS the LA it will be a windfall for contractors with admission agreements.

The government says it is to pay for improved longevity which is not true this tax is over 3 times the amount necessary to cover improvements. The government says that it is to help pay for the current black hole in PASYG schemes because the gap between contributions and pensions being paid is increasing. But neither the LGPS nor the NHSPS need any government top up they are both cash rich.

We fear that this unjustified tax/levy will make the schemes unaffordable for a high proportion of members and there will be significant opting out that will implode the scheme as remaining members have to shoulder the burden of the government tax on their attempts to save for retirement our YouGov poll suggests around 35% of a general public would leave a scheme that had equivalent increases in contributions.

Pensions and TUPE Transferred Staff or Fair Deal

• FD is the agreement that enables TUPE transferred staff from public services to either remain in such a scheme where the regulations allow, or be provided with a “certified” broadly comparable scheme

• Before 1999 the government issued advice that it was prudent for employers to provide comparable pensions to avoid possible claims for constructive dismissal- this was never tested.

• FD came in wef 1999 it was guidance that was mandatory in the PASYG schemes but not the LGPS

• The scheme had to be certified as comparable by the Government Actuaries Department (GAD) not all benefits need be the same and some can be traded off like inflation protection.

• FD requires the new scheme to allow members to transfer their service in their former Public Service Scheme to the new scheme and get day for day credit or equivalent value –Bulk Transfer

• Since 2007 a Direction has been in force for the LGPS that requires contractors to offer a comparable pension scheme

Admission Agreements

· Since 2000 the LGPS has allowed private contractors to enter into an admission agreement with LGPS employer outsourcing the service and the LGPS Administering Authority –the fund

· Agreements are nearly always ‘closed’ so only transferred staff can remain in the LGPS but can also be ‘open’ allowing new staff working on the service to join.

· Joint talks continue with DCLG and CBI and other stakeholders to improve guidance and promote admission agreements as the option of choice

· There is no comparable provision in the NHSPS passport arrangements allowing staff to remain in the NHSPS when they are transferred to arms length organisations or reorganisation are awaiting treasury approval

The Abolition of Fair Deal?

· The Government stated in the CSR that it will launch a consultation on the future of Fair Deal. This should be launched shortly

· There is a big danger that the Government will look to scrap FD because of the relative cost to companies bidding for public service contracts. There has been a lot of criticism from contractors who see the rising cost of private sector pensions as making the bids uncompetitive. Key issues are different discount rates and comparable schemes having to pay a levy to the Pension Protection Fund and the cost of running small schemes

· Diluting Fair Deal would leave TUPE transferred staff at the pensions mercy of private contractors and effectively end any chance of an in house bid winning

on financial considerations.

What is UNISON’s position on career average schemes?

· This depends on the specific details of what’s proposed

· Not against in principle if the overall value of the benefits was not reduced.

· A scheme similar to NUVOS would be broadly acceptable

· Would not support CPI indexation or inflation caps as inappropriate - particularly for active members

· Reform should be on a scheme by scheme basis as average salary levels vary significantly between professions and hence a “blanket” career average scheme would be unfair

There should be flexibility to retain a final salary element, particularly in the NHSPS.

LGPS Governance and Fund Mergers

· UNISON’s legal advice is that the LGPS should be subjected to the requirements of Directive 41/2003 Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision and in particular Articles 8 and 18

· Under these articles the LGPS must be legally separated from the sponsoring employers. Investments must be made in the best interests of scheme members and where conflicts of interest arise, they must be resolved in the favour of scheme members

· We suggest the most appropriate approach for achieving this obligation would be to create non-departmental government bodies to undertake the responsibilities of delivering the LGPS benefits.

· There are considerable savings to be made from reductions in fund management costs and significant increases in income from fund merger, UNISON estimates that up to £1bn additional annual income could be made from fund mergers and additional economies of scale

· Based upon our own research we commissioned an investigation into the last 10 years of investment strategy, performance, fund management costs and the economic benefits of fund merger

· This research work was carried out by APG (All Pension Group) the fund managers for the Netherlands public sector pension scheme ABP. It established the following:

· Based upon a LGPS model made of 14 funds rather than the current 101, and each with no less than £8bn under management, gross investment income rose between 2001-2009 by a total of £10.4bn

· These income increases are equivalent to £624 per active (contributing) member per year – a figure we estimate to be around 2.7% of payroll^[1]

· This means there would be no need to increase member contributions by 3%

· From 2001 to 2010 there could have been an income increase of £30bn in asset value.

· We believe that fund merger offers the government the opportunity to create a modern and effective basis for the management of the scheme’s assets going forward and that the economic benefits of fund mergers should be shared between employers, (tax payers) and employees.

What does UNISON need to do?

· We would need to seek legal advice on the specific issue of potential claims 1995 Section members could lodge if their NPA was to increase in line with increases in the SPA for service after a future date - as we anticipate could be the case.

· Continue to advise members and ensure they are receiving their CHOICE packs

Hutton Recommendations and UNISON Comment

Hutton Recommendations	UNISON comment
Recommendation 1: The government should make clear its assessment of the role of public service pension schemes. Based on its framework of principles, the Commission believes that the primary purpose is to ensure adequate levels of retirement income for public service pensioners.	Public Sector Pensions should ensure independence in retirement so that our members can save and work without fear. The real problem with UK pensions is the decline of good quality pensions for workers in the private sector, while their Directors continue on gold plated pensions.
Recommendation 2: Pensions will continue to be an important element of remuneration. The Commission recommends that public service employers take greater account of public service pensions when constructing remuneration packages and designing workforce strategies. The government should make clear in its remits for pay review bodies that they should consider how public service pensions affect total reward when making pay recommendations.	Pensions are deferred wages and that they form an important element of pay and conditions. But pensions are long-term issues and members will not receive their income for years to come so any pay packages need to take that into consideration.
Recommendation 3: The government should ensure that public service schemes, along with a full state pension, deliver at least adequate levels of income (as defined by the Turner Commission benchmark replacement rates) for scheme members who work full careers in public service. Employers should seek to maximise participation in the schemes where this is appropriate. Adequate incomes and good participation rates are particularly important below median income levels.	Many workers do not work full careers in public services. We need to ensure that schemes and benefit levels are fit for purpose long after they leave employment. UNISON has reservations about what are regarded as adequate levels of pension income.
Recommendation 4: The government must honour in full the pension promises that have been accrued by scheme members: their accrued rights. In doing so, the Commission recommends maintaining the final salary link for past service for current members.	We are relieved that the Commission recognised the importance of protecting benefits so that any change in the schemes would continue to move in line with salary increases. UNISON also believes there to be a potential case for arguing that there are other issues that need to be considered as accrued rights, such as the Rule of 85 in the LGPS.
Recommendation 6: All public service pension schemes should regularly publish data which, as far as possible, is produced to common standards and methodologies and is then collated centrally. This information should be of a quality that allows simple comparisons to be made across Government, between schemes and between individual Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Funds.	UNISON has argued for a long time that there should be greater transparency of data so that pension debates can be based on real facts and not myths and propaganda.
Recommendation 7: A new career average re-valued earnings (CARE) scheme should be adopted for general use in the public service schemes.	There is not enough detail in the proposals. The key is that they provide pensions that are value for money for scheme members. It is essential that any CARE scheme is not a cost cutting exercise and we are concerned that this is not spelt out in the final report.
Recommendation 8: Pension benefits should be up-rated in line with average earnings during the accrual phase for active scheme members. Post-retirement, pensions in payment should be indexed in line with prices to maintain their purchasing power and adequacy during retirement.	We pushed for active members’ benefits to be up-rated in line with average earnings for the build up phase. Post –retirement, UNISON supports increases by at in line with the Retail Prices Index.
Recommendation 9: A single benefit design should apply across the whole income range. The differing characteristics of higher and lower earners should be addressed through tiered contribution rates. The government should consider the trade off between affordability and the impact of opt outs on adequacy when setting member contribution levels.	UNISON supports tiered contribution rates and believes it equitable that those members that earn more and benefit more should pay a bigger proportion of the overall cost. It’s vital that the current 85% opt-in rates are not undermined by unaffordable and unjustified employee contribution rates. This is why we fundamentally oppose the government levy of a 50% increase in member contributions.
Recommendation 10: Members should have greater choice over when to start drawing their pension benefits, so they can choose to retire earlier or later than their Normal Pension Age and their pension would be adjusted accordingly on an actuarially fair basis. Flexible retirement should be encouraged and abatement of pensions in its current form for those who return to work after drawing their pensions should be eliminated. In addition, caps on pension accrual should be removed or significantly lifted.	UNISON has continuously pushed for greater member choice so that members can retire and draw their pension benefits when they need them. We support flexible retirement and pensions being increased if claimed “late” and would very much support the removal of service limit restrictions.
Recommendation 11: The government should increase the member's Normal Pension Age in the new schemes so that it is in line with their State Pension Age. The link between the State Pension Age and Normal Pension Age should be regularly reviewed, to make sure it is still appropriate, with a preference for keeping the two pension ages linked.	UNISON is against this move as we believe the statistical evidence suggests that the life expectancy of public service workers does not mirror the general advances of the population as a whole because lower life expectancy is linked to low earnings. This will pose serious issues for the NHS CHOICE process as people whom thought their Normal Pension Age was 60 could find this being 66 and possibly even higher.
Recommendation 12: The government, on behalf of the taxpayer, should set out a fixed cost ceiling: the proportion of pensionable pay that they will contribute, on average, to employees' pensions over the long term. If this is exceeded then there should be a consultation process to bring costs back within the ceiling, with an automatic default change if agreement cannot be reached.	There is no justification in reducing current cost ceilings as agreed with the last government. The savings generated by previous reforms and the move to CPI indexation and contribution increases have reduced the cost of schemes to employers and government. UNISON will not accept any move to reduce the notional cost of the schemes. There are already cost-sharing provisions in the NHSPS which UNISON believes to be appropriate.
Recommendation 13: The Commission is not proposing a single public service pension scheme, but over time public service pensions should move towards a common framework for scheme design as set out in this report. However, in some cases, for example, the uniformed services, there may need to be limited adaptations to this framework.	UNISON argued strongly that only a defined benefit pension scheme would be able to provide adequate income for low to middle wage earning workers. Public service workers should only be moved to new schemes when this is agreed with UNISON.
Recommendation 14: The key design features contained in this report should apply to all public service pension schemes. The exception is in the case of the uniformed services where the Normal Pension Age should be set to reflect the unique characteristics of the work involved. The Government should therefore consider setting a new Normal Pension Age of 60 across the uniformed services, where the Normal Pension Age is currently below this level in these schemes, and keep this under regular review.	UNISON does not believe a “one size fits all approach” is necessarily appropriate because no workforce is the same. Reform needs to be on a scheme by scheme basis to ensure that the scheme best reflects and fits with the needs of its workers. However, there need to be clear and transparent underlying principles which are equality proofed and comply with equal pay and equality legislation.
Recommendation 15: The common design features laid out in this report should also apply to the LGPS. However, it remains appropriate for the Government to maintain the different financing arrangements for the LGPS in future, so the LGPS remains funded and the other major schemes remain unfunded.	UNISON supports the LGPS continuing to be a funded scheme and, because of this unique nature, questions the rationale for being included in the same reforms as the unfunded schemes.
Recommendation 16: It is in principle undesirable for future non-public service workers to have access to public service pension schemes, given the increased long-term risk this places on the government and taxpayers	The Commission completely misunderstands how admission agreements work in the LGPS and the safeguards to the Council Tax payer already built into such agreements. Excluding workers after they have been privatised means that if Fair Deal is scrapped the very race to the bottom for pensions the Commission and Government say they want to avoid will happen.
Recommendation 17: Every public service pension scheme (and individual LGPS Fund) should have a properly constituted, trained and competent Pension Board, with member nominees, responsible for meeting good standards of governance including effective and efficient administration. There should also be a pension policy group for each scheme at national level for considering major changes to scheme rules	Everyone who contributes to a scheme should be afforded the highest standards of governance and involvement in the management and administration of their money. A commitment to greater transparency and involvement by trade unions and scheme members will start to bring them into line with modern standards. However the composition of the pension boards and national policy groups needs more detail before full commentary can be made. In the case of the LGPS boards there is no guidance on who will make the investment decisions and in whose interest they will be made.
Recommendation 18: All public service pension schemes should issue regular benefit statements to active scheme members, at least annually and without being requested and promote the use of information technology for providing information to members and employers.	We agree that this would help member engagement and understanding. This is already done in the LGPS and seems to work well. With regard to information technology not everyone has internet and e-mail access.
Recommendation 19: Governance and the availability and transparency of information would be improved by government establishing a framework that ensures independent oversight of the governance, administration and data transparency of public service pension schemes. Government should consider which body or bodies, including, for example, The Pensions Regulator, is most suitable to undertake this role.	We welcome improved governance and transparency, subject to the specifics of the framework and the body or bodies being sufficiently resourced and independent enough to perform the role adequately.
Recommendation 20: When assessing the long term sustainability of the public finances, the Office for Budget Responsibility should provide a regular published analysis of the long term fiscal impact of the main public service pension schemes (including the funded LGPS).	As long as we can be reassured that the analysis is truly independent and has a high level of competency and understanding of Public Service Schemes.
Recommendation 21: Centrally collated comprehensive data, covering all LGPS Funds, should be published including fund comparisons, which, for example, clarify and compare key assumptions about investment growth and differences in deficit recovery plans.	Again, UNISON would welcome greater transparency in this area but would need to be reassured that the analysis is independent and that the relevant assumptions are justified.
Recommendation 22: Government should set what good standards of administration should consist of in the public service pension schemes based on independent expert advice. The Pensions Regulator might have a role, building on its objective to promote good administration. A benchmarking exercise should then be conducted across all the schemes to assist in the raising of standards where appropriate.	We stated clearly in our submission response that administration within public service schemes (and certainly costs) compares favourably with the private sector.
Recommendation 23: Central and local government should closely monitor the benefits associated with the current co-operative projects within the LGPS, with a view to encouraging the extension of this approach, if appropriate, across all local authorities. Government should also examine closely the potential for the unfunded public service schemes to realise greater efficiencies in the administration of pensions by sharing contracts and combining support services, including considering outsourcing.	There is no evidence to suggest that improved collaboration over the purchasing of fund management for the LGPS has delivered anything like the income generation that fund mergers would achieve. UNISON submitted evidence produced independently that showed up to £1.2bn additional income could be made from merging the 101 funds to 14. This is £300m more than the 50% or more increase in member contributions. Savings in administration are insignificant compared to what could be done with fund management costs. UNISON does not support the outsourcing of administration services and there is no evidence that costs or service levels are better than in house staff.
Recommendation 24: The government should introduce primary legislation to adopt a new common UK legal framework for public service schemes.	A full review of all the legislation both UK and EU and the creation of a transparent legal framework is required. The specific recommendations however do not go far enough; Lord Hutton only referenced EU legislation and did not mention in full the EU Directive 41/2003/Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision which should be applied to the LGPS, this legislation is vital for scheme member security of their assets which is absent from the LGPS legislation.
Recommendation 25: The consultation process itself should be centrally co-ordinated: to set the cost ceilings and timetables for consultation and overall implementation. However, the consultation on details should be conducted scheme by scheme involving employees and their representatives.	UNISON agrees that consultation needs to be on a scheme by scheme basis with clear reference to workforce and scheme characteristics and that unions need to be at the forefront of these negotiations.
Recommendation 26: The Commission's view is that even allowing for the necessary processes it should be possible to introduce the new schemes before the end of this Parliament and we would encourage the Government to aim for implementation within this timeframe.	It is important that this review is not simply accepted and rushed through by Government and changes need to be properly consulted on and accepted as being appropriate prior to being implemented.
Recommendation 27: Best practice governance arrangements should be followed for both business as usual and the transformation process, for each scheme. And there will also need to be the right resource, on top of business as usual, to drive the reforms; particularly given the challenging timescale and scope of the reforms.	UNISON has pointed out in previous responses to the Commission that the Governance arrangements already in force have worked well when the Public Service Schemes were reformed form 2005 to 2009. It is essential to build on the structures that are already in place and expand through dialogue between employers, unions and government departments. The trade unions made strenuous efforts to ensure that members were engaged in the process and their views were heard. It is essential that this continues into the future.

Protect Our Pensions Campaign and Negotiations Timeline:

Here is the predicted timetable for the campaign, the negotiations with government and consultation and implementation of the Protect Our Pensions Campaign

Get Active Now

Independent Public Services Pension Commission Reports

(March 2011)

Negotiations with Government All Things Pensions

(March 2011)

Government Budget March 23rd

UNISON Regional Briefings

(March/April 2011)

UNISON Training for Pension Champions and Contacts

(April/May 2011)

Negotiations with Government End (all things public service pensions)

(June 2011)

Government lays new legislation which increases scheme member contributions

UNISON consults with members/Government consultation over new legislation

(June 2011 – September 2011)

Government departments responsible for each scheme negotiate with unions

(October 2011)

Scheme member contributions due to start increasing by a minimum 50%

(April 2012)

Negotiations on New Pension Schemes Continue

(January 2012)

UNISON members consulted and agree on new schemes

(2012/2013)

New schemes implemented

(2014/2015)

ConDems invite the question should Equality Act be scrapped.

2011-04-13T17:22:00.001-07:00

The Government has added the Equality Act to its 'Red Tape Challenge' website. It is inviting comments from the public on regulation. The Equality Act is the only item on the website which is primary legislation not regulation. The questions specifically ask if the Equality Act should be scrapped.

http://www.redtapechallenge.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/equalities/

As individuals please put positive comments on the website ASAP. It is best that people respond as individuals.

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Employers must do more to support women through the menopause.

2011-04-13T17:20:00.001-07:00

The TUC has published new guidance on how employers and union reps can work together to support women through the menopause at work.

The menopause is an important occupational health issue for the 3.5 million women over the age of 50 currently in work. The TUC believes that employers need to recognise that women of menopausal age may need extra consideration, as changes during the menopause can affect how a woman does her work, and her relationship with her boss and colleagues.

The TUC guidance is drawn from the experience of union health and safety representatives and also important new research published by the British Occupational Health Research Foundation (BOHRF) in conjunction with the University of Nottingham.

Supporting women through the menopause will help union reps raise the issue of the menopause in workplaces, and ensure that employers are aware that poor working conditions can aggravate symptoms.

Menopausal women can experience hot flushes, headaches, tiredness, sweating, anxiety attacks and an increase in stress levels. High workplace temperatures, poor ventilation, poor or non-existent rest or toilet facilities, or a lack of access to cold drinking water at work can make all of these symptoms worse, says the TUC.

Female staff have told the TUC their managers didn’t recognise problems associated with the menopause – they speak of being criticised for menopause-related sick leave, their embarrassment at discussing the menopause with their employers, and being criticised or ridiculed by their managers on the subject.

The TUC believes that employers have a responsibility to take into account the difficulties that women may experience during the menopause, and that female workers should be able to expect support and assistance during what is, for many, a very difficult time.

The report suggests:

· Employers should ensure that all line managers have been trained to know how the menopause can affect work and what adjustments may be necessary to support women who are experiencing the menopause.
· Employers can highlight the menopause so all staff know that the workplace has a positive attitude to the issue. Guidance on how to deal with the menopause should be freely available.
· Women should be given information of how they can get support for issues that arise as a result of the menopause. Some women will feel uncomfortable going to their line manager, especially if it is a man, and other options should be available through human resources, or a welfare officer.
· Sickness absence procedures should cater for menopause-related sickness absence.
· Working time arrangements should be flexible enough to ensure they meet the needs of menopausal women, who may require to leave work suddenly. They may also need more breaks during the day.
· Risk assessments should consider the specific needs of menopausal women and ensure that the working environment will not make their symptoms worse. Issues that need looking at include temperature and ventilation. The assessments should also address welfare issues such as toilet facilities and access to cold water.
TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “We welcome the research published by BOHRF. Despite the increasingly large number of older women in employment, the menopause is rarely seen as a workplace issue.

“There is no excuse for the silence, embarrassment, confusion and inaction around the menopause – something which all women go through.

“The health of women in later years depends very much on their health when they are working through the menopause, and this report shows employers and unions can work together to do much more to protect them.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:
- Supporting women through the menopause is available at www.tuc.org.uk/extras/Supporting_Women_Through_the_Menopause.pdf
- The BOHRF research is available at www.bohrf.org.uk/downloads/Womens_Experience_of_Working_through_the_Menopause-Dec_2010.pdf
- International Women’s Day is held on 8 March every year, and is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. For more information please visit www.internationalwomensday.com/
- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk
- Register for the TUC’s press extranet: a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre‑embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

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Bristol UNISON going to March on the 26th

2011-04-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

March 26th Rally in London

2011-04-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

UNISON's views on Pay.

2011-04-08T05:30:00.001-07:00

The Pay Seminar will take place in early autumn 2011. The action list from the Pay and Cuts Roundtable which had been held on 2nd December 2010 was circulated. This had been agreed and endorsed by the PDCC on 26 January 2011.
The Union must maintain its firm opposition to the pay freeze, and must ensure that it relates prevailing economic conditions to members’ individual circumstances. This will be done by campaigning to ensure that all members are aware how much current government policy is costing them. In terms of providing information on the effects of the range of price rises on the decreasing ability of wages and salaries to keep up. Information should be provided by the use of real examples - rises in food prices, rents, travel costs, petrol and oil prices, utility bills etc. In order to build such a consensus, as well as leaflets and posters for branches, a dedicated Pay Campaign web wage must be maintained, providing easily downloadable materials to assist branches in campaigning
The number one issue for members is job security but that it cannot be bought at any price and we need to give good clear consistent advice on such issues as workload management and health and safety.
The cuts pack is being prepared by the Links Unit. The cuts pack to be circulated when completed to SGLC members for comment and if necessary amendment prior to distribution to branches.

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UNISON update on Local Government.

2011-04-08T05:23:00.001-07:00

Local Government employers have completed regional consultations on NJC pay for 2011/12 and they will report back on 16th February. It is thought that they will only make an offer in return for unions making some movements around giving up national pay bargaining. The pay campaign will be around a big push for an increase of at least £250 pa. Section 188 (4) of TULRCA redundancy notices are increasing. The final draft of the personalisation toolkit will be rolled out shortly. The Scottish Local Government conference had been held on 4th February and had agreed a pay claim for 2011/12 of £500 flat rate pa.

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UNISON's view on Education and Children's Services

2011-04-08T05:15:00.001-07:00

The new education bill has confirmed the abolition of the Schools Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB). Unions and local government employers are meeting at the end of February to discuss how to take forward work from the SSSNB. There is a consultation with branches on the direction of the campaign. This sets out the background of the SSSNB, the Government’s decision to abolish it and asks questions on the way forward. In Higher Education there are going to be huge cuts of around 6 per cent and further work will be done on that. There is a also a big campaign around Careers/Connexions where there are going to be massive job losses. In Scotland it was reported that there are major threats to jobs of classroom assistants and suggestions of a move to a four day week for schools.

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UNISON's views about our Communities

2011-04-08T05:09:00.001-07:00

There are typical cuts of about 15 per cent and the campaign on sector funding now operates within the context of the union’s overall campaigning on the cuts. The sector is facing job losses and severe changes to terms and conditions. In Scotland there are huge cuts, for example Glasgow City Council has asked all organisations to make cuts of 20 per cent. Personalisation is a big issue. UNISON’s response to the Cabinet Office green paper on Modernising Commissioning was noted.

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UNISON to produce A Duty of Care Handbook for members.

2011-04-08T05:06:00.001-07:00

A draft copy of the Duty of Care handbook was circulated to NEC for comment. This is intended to assist members in seeking guidance on how best to question and challenge unsafe practice in health and social care. There have been some high profile cases in recent years such as the death of Baby Peter in Haringey and failings in care at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust hospital. Members have been confronted with issues around standards of care and the handbook aims to empower members to have a positive influence on ensuring safe, effective and high-quality services.
The equality legislation is to be checked and possible inclusion of equality impact assessment toolkit in handbook.
The report was accepted subject to checking one or two issues.

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UNISON's view on Pension Consultation

2011-04-08T05:03:00.001-07:00

Copies of pensions briefings and campaign news were circulated to the NEC. With effect from April 2011 public service pensions will increase in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than by the Retail Price Index (RPI). The Hutton commission produced its report on 10 March and several meetings have taken place with Lord Hutton. He may recommend a move to a career average scheme, and retirement age may increase in line with state pension age. We have to watch for issues around transitional protection and risk and savings being shared. A briefing with Angela Eagle MP had taken place on 8 February.
It was agreed that a Pensions meeting to be reconvened after final Hutton report is published and an LGPS meeting will follow on.

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UNISON's views on procurement

2011-04-08T05:00:00.001-07:00

A report is currently being produced based on case studies looking at how UNISON branches across all sectors are dealing with the intensification of procurement arising from the cuts. There are changes at the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) as it has been moved from the Treasury to the Efficiency and Reform Group in the Cabinet Office under Francis Maude. The trade unions have quarterly meetings with the OGC. There are also changes at European level with the European Commission (EC) publishing a guide to taking social considerations in public procurement. It takes a very limited view of the scope for including workforce protections. The EC is also undertaking a review of EU public procurement legislation. The European Procurement Network (NGOs and trade unions) has organised a workshop in the European Parliament around the review.

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The Abolition of The Two Tiered Workforce, UNISON's views

2011-04-08T04:47:00.001-07:00

The Two Tier Code of Practice on Workforce Matters was withdrawn on 10 December 2010 and replaced with the Cabinet Office Principles of Good Employment Practice. The abolition of the two tier codes will affect central government departments and agencies first. As each government department implemented the code in their own way, the mechanisms for removing it will vary. However, the code stays in place for existing contracts. The situation is different for Best Value authorities as the code is statutory. They will not be affected immediately because the best value two-tier code is a separate piece of legislation which will have to repealed first. The devolved administrations have their own regulations which protect against a two-tier workforce and the two tier code will remain in Wales.
UNISON has organised a series of meetings with the major contractors which has established that they were not in favour of abolishing the codes. We are arranging another meeting soon.
Discussion followed which included:
• There is a major procurement exercise in the probation service coming up and employers are saying that Fair Deal for Staff Pensions never applied to the probation service. It looks as if this is going to develop into a very serious issue.
• At the last Public Services Forum small and medium size employers were saying that Fair Deal is a major obstacle.
• At the recent meeting of the PDCC the matter was referred to the D & O Committee to look at the organising implications.
• It is a moving situation
Fair Deal for Staff Pensions to be raised again with the Cabinet Office and through the PSF.

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A UNISON Briefing for Local Elections Love your Libraries by Lucille and Hannah

2011-04-07T15:40:00.001-07:00

Local Government

UNISON LOCAL ELECTION BRIEFING: LIBRARIES

UNISON says ‘Love Your Libraries’!

The UK public library service has existed for over 150 years. Responsibility to provide library services is set out in the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964, which states that it is ‘the duty of every library authority to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service’.

Libraries are a valued community resource for many people from all walks of life, in cities, towns and villages up and down the country. UNISON’s long-running ‘Love Your Libraries’ campaign has recently stepped up a gear in order to address the huge challenges facing services following the Comprehensive Spending Review and disastrous local settlements.

Cuts to library services – key facts

• There are currently 4,517 libraries in the UK. At present, 521 are threatened with closure – over 10% of all libraries
• This figure includes 61 mobile services, which provide a vital lifeline to many, including schools, older and disabled people
• Only 11 local authorities have indicated that they will not cut services
• In a recent survey, 74% of users surveyed described libraries as ‘essential’ or ‘very important’ in their lives
• Furthermore, 59% of non-users also think libraries play an ‘important’ or 'essential’ role in the community
• Libraries have been viewed as soft targets for cuts by many local authorities – despite the fact that spending on these services equates to only 1% of their overall budget
• Libraries have suffered years of under-investment – spending on new books and total book stock has fallen by over 15% over the last ten years
• Yet where investment has occurred, for example in Wales, there has been an increase in visitors to public libraries by 5.6%

Challenging the cuts

Recent press coverage has demonstrated that people have been prepared to mobilise in great numbers to campaign to protect local library services, as seen during the coordinated day of action on 5th February, where ‘read-ins’ were held all over the UK. These ‘grassroots’ activities shows how important library services are to local people and communities.

What UNISON wants election candidates to do:

UNISON is urging local election candidates to oppose library cuts and instead commit adequate resources and funding for libraries, staff and premises, as a long-term investment in the future of their communities. There are key questions to ask candidates in your council elections:

 What are the plans in your area for library services?
 How is the local community being consulted on the proposals?
 How are the views of staff helping to shape proposals?
 How well thought out are these proposals?
 Will you argue against any closure plans if elected?
 If elected, will you ensure that trained, experienced employees are retained to run local libraries?
 How will you ensure investment in new library stock if elected?

UNISON LIBRARY CONTACTS:

Lucille Thirlby – l.thirlby@unison.co.uk

Hannah Bailey – h.bailey@unison.co.uk

http://teams.unison.org.uk/departments/ServiceGroups/LocalGov/LGAdmin/Admin/localelectionbrieflibraries.doc

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A UNISON briefing note during elections for Social Care by Helga and Allison

2011-04-07T15:38:00.001-07:00

Local Government

UNISON LOCAL ELECTION BRIEFING: SOCIAL CARE

Introduction

Social care budgets are being drastically reduced, despite growing need. The 2006 Wanless report identified a £6.6 billion funding gap between now and 2026. With budget cuts in 2011 – 2014, Age UK estimates that this figure is now more likely to be £8.8 billion. An ageing population and growing numbers of people with learning disabilities mean that spending needs to rise at 4% above inflation just to keep pace with demand. As well as local authorities passing on the government grant cut to social care services, there has been little evidence that the additional £2bn that the government provided to help plug the funding gap has been ring fenced to protect care services.

Some facts and figures

Around the country we are witnessing a devastating reduction in care services and jobs:

• Budgets for 2011 – 14 care services being slashed. E.g. £22m in Nottinghamshire and £17.5m in Birmingham
• Residential Care homes - of whom 6/10 rely on public funding - are reducing their services and places, reducing staff and de-registering their homes from CQC through personalisation
• 1 in 5 independent care providers say that they don’t believe they will survive the cuts in 2011 and will close due to reduction in council fees and the move towards contracting smaller numbers of providers
• Establishing arms length employing bodies – often with worse pay and conditions for mostly women workers, giving rise to potential sex discrimination claims
• Service users and providers are legally challenging fee cuts and winning cases
• Voluntary and community providers are receiving less funding, making their provider status unsustainable. Some councils have ended contracts with voluntary providers of day centres, in part because of the personalisation agenda. A recent survey of Community Care readers found that more than half had seen closures of services in their areas
• Increased rationing of care packages being offered by increasing cost prices or by raising the criteria to access public funds
• Meals on Wheels services being closed or privatised, increased prices and use of frozen meals delivered less frequently
• Day care centres, including specialist centres, being closed. Difficulty in accessing centres due to enforcement of direct payments, rather than being offered a mixed personal budget of cash and local services

• Community care transport being cut or rationed. Difficulty in accessing remaining services due to direct payments, rather than personal budget or fee for using the service
• The Association of Directors of Children's Services highlights the dangers of cutting the "vital infrastructure" that helps free-up time for social workers
What’s happening to the workforce?

• Staff cuts on the frontline in all roles and functions of care
• Wages have gone down and turnover has gone up: The average pay for care works is now £6.00 an hour, compared to £6.75 two years ago and the turnover rate of care workers in the private sector is now 25%
• Some local areas cannot cope due to lack of staff and the fact that personalisation has not delivered a care market. The opposite appears to be happening, with a decrease in diversity of providers
• Some councils have had to stop transferring service users to contracted companies due to the high volume of complaints and the fact that the company was not properly staffed
• Vacancies not being filled for adult social workers and occupational therapists, needed to assess the elderly and prevent long periods of bed blocking
• Reduction in local working conditions as well as freezing pay: Care workers are being asked to take further cuts in pay and conditions by removing car allowances and unsocial hours’ payments. Worse still, some authorities are asking workers to stay on call at home without getting paid unless they get called out
• Privatisation: Councils are rushing ahead to privatise remaining in-house services and staff without proper legal re-employment or TUPE transfer agreements
What commitment should council candidates make?

UNISON wants councillors to acknowledge the growing demand for adult social care, show their concern about the Coalition’s cuts and pledge to fight them! It is vital that councillors talk to care users and their families and engage with UNISON and the other unions over the future of care services. There are alternatives to cuts. Local election candidates should make a commitment to:
• Ring-fencing care budgets
• Properly funding care contracts to ensure decent pay, conditions and training and therefore a good service to users
• Ensuring that new starters on private contracts are paid equivalent pay, conditions and pensions to transferred employees
• Setting up companies wholly owned by the council to run in-house services. These companies can compete in the market against voluntary and private providers. In-house trading units could also provide services to people with direct payments who are barred from using traditional council-run services
• Not setting up so-called ‘social enterprises’ just to cut pay and conditions!
• Draw up a parallel budget to show what the council needs to spend to meet local care needs and campaign for it!
UNISON CONTACTS:

Helga Pile – h.pile@unison.co.uk

Allison Roche – a.roche@unison.co.uk

http://teams.unison.org.uk/departments/ServiceGroups/LocalGov/LGAdmin/Admin/local electionbriefSocial Care.doc

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Something to give your local Labour Councillors, Briefing note from Heather Wakefield

2011-04-07T15:34:00.001-07:00

Local Government

UNISON’S LOCAL ELECTION MANIFESTO

WHAT WE ARE ASKING LABOUR CANDIDATES TO SUPPORT

As the UK’s largest public service union, UNISON believes that local government services and local democracy are key to a thriving, cohesive and fair society. Local government should bring democracy and power closer to the people and we support community and workforce engagement in local service delivery. This is our Manifesto for Local Government. We hope all Labour local election candidates read it and make contact with us, so that we can work together for a real future for local government.

Our message to Labour councillors

Labour councillors need to show their local communities and their workforce that having a Labour council will make a difference when faced with the cuts forced on them by the Tory-led Coalition. We would like to see open and effective engagement with the workforce and trade unions, in a joint effort to defend services, jobs, pay and pensions. Labour councils need to be out in their local communities, campaigning against the vicious Government cuts, not just being seen to manage them. We want local people to know who is destroying their services and erasing local jobs and Labour councils which look for positive alternatives.

UNISON’S largest group of members work within local government and schools – over 700,000, employed throughout the structure – from the Chief Executive to the cleaner, from the Director of Children’s Services to the social work assistant and the school meals worker.

Tell it like it is!!

Local people need to know who is responsible for decimating their services and local employment. UNISON wants Labour councils and councillors to:

• Publicise widely that it is the Coalition government doing the damage through widespread publicity and meetings with local people
• Let local people know that the financial difficulties councils now face flow directly from the economic collapse caused by the financial institutions - not from investment in public services
Support your local economy and local community!

Coalition cuts will not only affect council jobs and services. Your local economy will feel the ripple effects as spending power falls and the private sector suffers. Cuts to voluntary and community sector projects will deprive local people of services and support when they need them most. UNISON is asking Labour councils and councillors to:

• Go public on the impact of the Coalition’s cuts on your local economy and the voluntary sector
• Take a medium term view of council finances – over 3 to 4 years – to help manage the current difficult financial situation
• Achieve deficit reduction through economic growth, job creation and tackling tax evasion
• Tackle council tax fraud
• Carry out an economic and social audit of all cuts to jobs, pay and conditions and services before they are implemented – look at the long-term
• Work with local businesses to influence the Government’s agenda
• Work with community groups and the voluntary sector to identify ways of maintaining key services
• Support calls for fairer taxation – such as the Robin Hood tax on financial transactions
Local government finance

The Local Government Association submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review said that councils would need an extra £20 billion by 2014/15 to maintain services and respond to an ageing population. Instead of addressing local need, the Coalition government is slashing funding and front-loading cuts. An extra £4.6 billion is needed to maintain existing levels of adult social care. The £1 million allocated by the Government is completely inadequate.
UNISON wants Labour councils and councillors to:
• Make all financial documents publicly available on one page of your council’s web site
• Draw up and publicise a ‘needs’ budget for your council area to show how the cuts will impact and to tell local people about Labour’s alternative for your community
• When looking at budgets for 2010/13 onwards, use Council Tax increases to mitigate the effect of the Government’s cuts
• Examine ways of generating income through appropriate charges, elimination of waste and energy generation
• Review expenditure on external agency staff and consultants
• Involve trade unions and service users in early identification of budget pressures , means of reducing them and related financial decisions
• Explore options such as a review of outsourced contracts to reduce profit at the expense of the public and the workforce and look at in-house options
• Review reserves and balances to examine appropriate use in a time of cuts
• Examine every possible alternative to privatisation. Budget problems wont be solved by handing services over to the private sector, as many consultants would claimSupport your workforce!

Local government workers and school support staff have been doing more for less for years, as efficiency savings have bitten into staffing levels. Pay and conditions are already the worst in the public sector and now they are facing a second year of a pay freeze, without even the £250 promised by the Chancellor for those earning less than £21,000 a year. That’s a massive 70% of our members doing vital jobs. Councils are using Section 188 notices to dismiss and re-engage our members on worse pay and conditions, showing no respect for their loyalty and experience. UNISON wants Labour councils and councillors to:

• Work with UNISON and the other unions to examine and agree options for dealing with the Coalition cuts
• Recognise that three quarters of your workforce are women, and many are part-time workers – there will be sex discrimination and equal pay issues when redundancies and cuts to pay and conditions arise
• Plan for a workforce for a better future, retaining as many committed and experienced employees as possible
• Look at up-skilling, redeployment and flexibility as an alternative to redundancy
• Recognise that local government needs to keep and attract high quality staff by maintaining pay and conditions above the ‘bargain basement’ they are being pushed into
• Maintain a commitment to Single Status and equal pay – abolishing or changing Single Status pay and grading structures could lead to a new wave of costly equal pay litigation
• Show your support for retaining the Local Government Pension Scheme by opposing increases in contributions which could push the scheme under as low paid workers leave it
Keep Equality High on Your Agenda
In recent years, councils have had to pay out millions of pounds in equal pay compensation because they have not complied with the law. This is a waste of public money, which can – and must - be avoided in a cuts climate. Councils need to ensure that changes to pay and conditions are not creating new legal issues.

• Make sure that as a councillor, you are informed about the public sector equality duties and equality is promoted within your council
• Make sure that your council has a commitment to carry out equality impact assessments of all proposals relating to services and the workforce
• Eliminate any discrimination arising from them
• Work with UNISON and the other trade unions in the process
• Ensure that your council has carried out a Single Status pay and grading review, using job evaluation schemes that comply with equal pay principles and the Equality Act 2010
• Make a commitment to annual equal pay reviews to ensure that pay and conditions comply with the law
• Make sure that equality criteria are built into the procurement process and contracts
Support Public Service Provision and Public Value

Outsourcing of local services means that public money is wasted through use of consultants, scoping exercises, transaction costs, the shareholder premium and inflated private sector management salaries. Accountability to local people is also lost. At the same time, pay, conditions and pensions are driven down to generate cost ‘savings’. UNISON supports ‘public value’ services, in which public money and an in-house workforce are put to the best possible use, in the interests of local people.

We want Labour councils and future Labour Councillors to:

• Support directly provided services as the best use of public money
• Look at the potential for changes to in-house services before tendering
• Include a well thought-out and resourced in-house bid if tendering has to proceed
• Review existing outsourced contracts and adopt a positive approach to bringing them back in-house
• Renegotiate contracts to reduce profit occurring at public expense
• Ensure that equality and a fair deal for the workforce are built into any contract
• Oppose attempts by the Coalition to remove the Fair Pensions provisions
• Continue to use the ‘Two-Tier Code’ principles, even though it has been abolished
• Make your council is a ‘TUPE Plus’ council, which guarantees to maintain quality pay and conditions throughout any contract
UNISON LOCAL GOVERNMENT, POLICE AND JUSTICE CONTACTS:

Heather Wakefield, Head of Local Government, Police and Justice - h.wakefield@unison.co.uk
Lucille Thirlby, Deputy Head– l.thirlby@unison.co.uk
Ben Priestley, National Officer, Police and Justice – b.priestley@unison.co.uk
http://teams.unison.org.uk/departments/ServiceGroups/LocalGov/LGAdmin/Admin/manifestolgamarch2011 (2).doc

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Million Voices for the NHS

2011-04-07T15:13:00.001-07:00

Million Voices for the NHS
Campaign Week – 7-11 March 2011

Introduction
In July 2010, staff and lay members agreed to dedicate a week of campaigning under our Million Voices Campaign, focussed on the NHS. This was an initial experiment to see whether this approach worked, with the aim of evaluating it for the future.
There was a long lead in period to the campaign, particularly to build support via the Health Annual Forum as well as at local forum meetings and the week selected was in march, some eight months after the original decision. Dates were blocked out in staff calendars well in advance
Resources
Three GPF bids were submitted by each of the Area Forums, on behalf of the joint branches. These were used to fund materials, a campaign bus for Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. A campaign specific leaflet was designed for use with the public, but other materials were designed to be more generic – for example the logos for the bus were designed around the theme of public services, so that they could be used in future campaigns. The get Active Event was also designed to kick start the week and offer training to those taking part, as well as delegates across the whole region
Outcomes
Over 70 events were organised during the week, from recruitment stalls in canteens to street stalls for the public or workplace visits. The attached schedule shows the success of these events in terms of members recruited or contacts or stewards. In addition to the recruitment figures, the week also resulted in a strong media profile as well as creating a stronger profile for UNISON in the workplace and the community. Many involved reported feeling energised and enthused by the week and there was a really positive response from members, non-members and the public. While the timing of weeks like this with a long lead in time is always problematic, it turned out that the NHS was a really prominent public issue, especially in parts of the South West where services are to transfer to Social Enterprises.
Difficulties
There is no doubt that there were some problems in terms of staff involvement due to the problems of keeping a week free and also in branch involvement being inconsistent. Some events were solely attended by staff, even where local reps were present on site. There was also resistance from employers as well as other unions, who resented such a high profile campaign
Recommendations
There is no doubt, that despite scepticism, the week of campaigning was successful, both in raising our profile, recruiting new members and reps as well as getting the public to understand our key messages. We should consider a further event of this type later in the year and need to decide:

a) What would be the theme – e.g. Pensions?
b) Would this be a week or a moth with two days in each week?
c) How do we get universal branch involvement and also ensure staff have sufficient time to make the week a success?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Learning how to blog on the iPad

2011-04-03T10:18:00.001-07:00

As my UNISON NHS mates head off to Liverpool for the 11th annual Health Conference, it seems unbelievable for the first time since the NHS was created we are faced with the thought it may cease to exist.

There is something very comforting about being ill in the UK. You make a doctors appointment if it's not too serious, visit the walk in centre if your worried, or go to the local hospital if it's an emergency. ALL FREE. No need to worry, no need to check your pockets for cash. Just arrive and get seen when it's your turn. We have taken it for granted as I don't see a mass of angry UK citizens bellowing for Tory blood, yet the Tory Government have also announced the potential privatisation of the Blood Donor Service. We give that blood free, in the hope it will help save a life, not so someone can make a profit out of it. I hope the Health Conference comes up with some inspiring motions the whole country can endorse and we get to keep something you may never need, but you don't ever want to find gone.

Jackie

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A very Special Day with thousands of Special People.

2011-03-26T12:13:00.000-07:00

Many joined in the March to day to protest over the ConDem Coalition attack on our services, women, children and the elderly who will pay the worse price of all.

Sent by Jackie using BlackBerry® from Orange

2011-03-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

Who would feel sorry for Golden Boy now, does he deserve to feel like he looks, darn right given the mass of pain he's inflicting us all with.

Save Homecare For Swindon.mp4

2011-02-28T14:59:00.000-08:00

Bristol City Council: Council and democracy Portal

2011-02-27T02:47:00.000-08:00

Bristol City Council: Council and democracy Portal

Have a look at the disgraceful way our elected politicians behaved. Labour at least showed constraint, backed the thrown out public to be reinstated and were not part of the general melee to shouting out rather horrible nasty comments to the general public. Has to be said some of the other Lib Dem and Tory Councillors were well behaved, but many of their colleagues let them down badly. Judge for yourself if you have the stamina to watch the first few hours, its all bad.

YouTube - Clegg Fail

2011-02-26T13:22:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Clegg Fail

YouTube - Captain SKA - Liar Liar

2011-02-26T13:20:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Captain SKA - Liar Liar

YouTube - Speaking up for public services - Suffolk

2011-02-26T13:18:00.000-08:00

YouTube - Speaking up for public services - Suffolk

Sad Day for Democracy

2011-02-23T01:28:00.001-08:00

Bristol City Council had a Full Council meeting last night to agree the budget for the forthcoming year and to essentially rubber stamp the 28 million pounds worth of cuts. The Council is currently led by the Liberal Democrats, so it was with great sadness as I do not understand why they didn't allow a public forum to shape the debate. Why when feelings became understandably high the response was to eject people and then ultimately close and eject all the public from the Public Gallery. Labour Party walked out with the public so after an adjournment it was agreed we could be allowed back in. As long as we behaved. What did the Lib Dems do in debate over issues of meals for the elderly, increase in PCSO's well someone snapped them, and was told off for doing so but see attached Pic as yawning and telling the public to shut up was not the best political move by some the Lib Dem and Tory Councillors.
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Bristolians take to the streets to protest about the cuts

2011-02-23T01:10:00.001-08:00

It was a grand sight this saturday 19th to see so many people waking up to the horror these cuts to Public Sector actually mean and demonstrating peacefully against them.

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Chancellor Announces £81bn Of Cuts In Spending Review

2010-11-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

TUC lobby of Parliament ahead of CSR

2010-11-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

ConDemo - Conservative Conference Right to Work Protest March

2010-11-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

Anti Con-Dem Austerity Protests - Birmingham 2010

2010-11-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Public Service Cuts Hurt

2010-10-29T03:42:00.000-07:00

Pass this one around and post it everywhere.

2010-10-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Bristol Branch of UNISON urges you to support this rally.

2010-10-21T07:44:00.000-07:00

Tories run scared to avoid hearing the truth

2010-10-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

It has just been announced that the Tory MPs have been called to see David Cameron this afternoon, Tuesday 19 October, avoiding the meeting with union members and representatives from across the country.

Despite UNISON members travelling hundreds of miles to see their MPs, the Tory MPs have decided to put their leader before their constituents.

Ian Ducat, Regional Secretary, UNISON South West said:

“They will not escape. We will be arranging to meet them in their constituencies to challenge the Coalition's disastrous cuts. This is no way to run a Government, hiding from the truth.”

FOR CSR READ: “CUTS STRANGLE RECOVERY” - LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN PERIL, WARNS UNISON

2010-10-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: WEDNESDAY 20 OCTOBER, 2010

FOR CSR READ: “CUTS STRANGLE RECOVERY” - LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN PERIL, WARNS UNISON

George Osborne has condemned the country to decades of hardship and the people to unnecessary wholesale unemployment, with his “ideologically driven, no hope, no ideas, cuts CSR” warned UNISON, the UK’s largest public service union. The government has failed to consider that there is a fairer alternative.

Speaking about the impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review on Local Government services and staff, Dave Prentis said:

“For CSR read Cuts Strangle Recovery. The Tories’ ideologically driven, no hope, no ideas, cuts agenda is poisoning the country’s chances of recovery, infecting the public sector and costing 425,000 jobs in the private sector.

“The much-trailed cuts come as no great surprise, but the scale is a devastating blow to workers and their families whose jobs are in the firing line.

“The cuts announced today come on the back of 25,000 jobs already lost in local government, which has left many staff doing the work of two people to cover for vacant or deleted posts. Tory Councils have already jumped the gun and are redoing their mid-term financial strategies even before they know their true settlements.

“Libraries, day care centres, elderly care services and residential care are already being cut and the cost of meals on wheels and home care services are rising. Councils are being squeezed from all sides – something has to give and it will end up being people that rely on services that suffer.

“The morale of local government workers is rock bottom. They have had no pay rise this year and their families face a further two-year freeze. Many are fearful about their jobs and the future of the services they provide.

“The cuts to local government funding cuts are huge – the same as abolishing the fire service, ending all support for older people and those with disabilities, or removing all child and family services.

“The Chancellor’s plans will be a green-light to Authorities to escalate their plans, decimating staffing numbers and services without any real analyses of the consequences for their local economy and population.”

Commenting further on the reduction in the new homes budget, Dave Prentis, said:

"This is bad news for those working in the housing sector and bad news for more than £4 million people on the waiting list.

"The Chancellor talked about how we've lost more than half a million homes over the last 10 years, but then cut the budget by half.

"Those new homes that are promised come at 80 per cent of market rent, which taken with cuts to housing benefit and attacks on social housing tenancies, spells misery for families across the country."

Notes to editors:

Funding to local government is being cut by 28% - around £9bn a year by 2014-15

This is roughly equivalent to each of the below:

• Abolishing the fire service and ending all local government spending on highways and transport services
• Ending all local government support for older people and adults with physical disability or sensory impairment
• Removing all local government spending on cultural, environmental and regulatory services (including all libraries, museums, sports centres, open spaces; regulation of water, food safety, housing, waste collection, disposal and recycling)
• Cutting all local government spending on children and families services (inc child protection) and spending on adults (under 65) with learning disabilities

UNISON London Rally 19th October 2010

2010-10-20T05:16:00.000-07:00

I met with Dawn Primarolo MP for Bristol South as part of my Trade Union role in London on the 19th October 2010, although Dawn is my local MP.

Dawn was very pleased to engage with UNISON on matters of mutual interest for our members and her Bristol South constituents will have concerns about, we all felt waiting times for hospital treatment, seamless quality community services for the elderly, and the extremely important issue of a secure home for social housing tenants, the cap to Housing Benefit, child tax, child benefit and the recent press releases that the elderly free bus passes and winter emergency fuel allowance all seen as a "gimmick".

I raised the concerns I have for the City of Bristol and the 66,600 public sector jobs that people in the city rely upon, the effect this will have as 40% of the Council budget also supports voluntary and private sector to provide services from the public purse. This will have a damaging part to place on Bristol's job market on the whole and as we are seen as a prosperous city we may not have access to the regional money for growing our economy. Dawn shared similar concerns and offered to put UNISON in touch with all the local community groups in her constituency who will suffer from the Spending Review if their grants are cut by the ruling Liberal Democrat Party in Bristol City Council.

Dawn has pledged her support to us and we pledged to support her tireless campaigning for the people of South Bristol especially in regards to her secure rights for council tenants as Bristol South has approx. 15,000 Council Housing tenants and this proved to be a worrying Coalition Government attack on their rights during the Labour doorstep campaign in last Mays local and national elections. Please sign up to the petition that Dawn has started on this link

We thank her for her time yesterday and her support to UNISON and our members and will endeavour to highlight the campaign she is running for the right to a secure tenancy.

Jackie

UNISON's General Secretary Dave Prentis starts his own Blog

2010-10-14T08:28:00.001-07:00

Another week, another attack on public service workers -
UNISON general secretary, Dave Prentis.

Another week, another attack on public service workers. This week's right-wing attack focuses on the small minority of workers who earn more than the Prime Minister.
Well I have news from them – more than six million people work in the public sector and the percentage earning more than Cameron is just 0.15 percent.
The vast majority of public-sector workers get nowhere near these salaries. Two thirds of local government workers earn less than £21,000 a year and face a three-year pay freeze.
http://www.unison.org.uk/young/news_view.asp?did= 6349

Jackie
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Budget Conversation Income Ideas

2010-10-10T14:36:00.001-07:00

We were asked to contribute to ideas that would raise an income for the Council and reduce the need to cut so with great gusto I reeled off as many ideas as I could. One was on generic one council logo for letter headings which would negate the cost of changing departmental letterheads a very costly arrangement as many departments acquire new chief officers and or name changes, this was considered very early on. The following are responses I had recently to some of the other ideas I had.

Hello Jackie,

Thank you for these great ideas (received by email) and several were selected for the feedback report and were discussed at the Council's Cabinet and with Service Directors. This report will appear on Ask Bristol 'Budget Conversation' later today

www.askbristol.com, 6th October.

Members/Directors have given the following responses to your ideas:

Advertise on pay slips - We do this already but can try harder to raise more money in this way, as you say, reaching 17,000 people has to be worth exploring.

Encourage the use of pavement art and involve young people - Good idea - we'll explore this further. Would you like to get in touch and help us?

Open up Redcliffe Caves - Great idea - we'll certainly 'explore' taking this forward, as we have such a great hidden heritage.

More multi use sites - We already share some buildings - for example from NHS colleagues. We're always keen to explore more such ideas - do you have any particular buildings or particular partners in common we could share them with?

Strategy for happy/healthy workers - This is a really important idea. We're now trying a range of such initiatives amongst our own workforce.

General/improved use of Blackberrys throughout (and blackberry messenger) the council - Fair point - we'll see if we can make more of the hardware we've purchased.

Regards,

Consultation, Research and Intelligence Team

Bristol City Council

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I'm Teaching people how to use their Blackberrys

2010-10-09T04:03:00.001-07:00

At Regional Council I have been networking all our berries.

Jackie
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Cameron Speech – UNISON South West Response

2010-10-07T03:40:00.001-07:00

Ian Ducat SW Regional Secretary said:

“David Cameron's speech had superficial credibility but with careful examination and thought the flaws are obvious. It sounds brave to tell higher level tax payers that they have to suffer too. But this is dishonest. To suggest that the effect of the cuts on low paid, elderly or unemployed people is justified because someone earning £100,000 a year will no longer receive Child Benefit is crass. So is his catchy statement about those with the broadest shoulders bearing the heaviest burden.

“He obviously thinks we are too stupid to work out that a £1,000 cut in income to someone on the minimum wage has a far more significant impact than a cut of twice or three times that amount to someone earning £100,000.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: THURSDAY 7 OCTOBER

2010-10-07T03:28:00.000-07:00

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

“Our key priority is to make sure that our members’ pension schemes, that they pay into all their working lives, remain sustainable and affordable and that there is no damaging race to the bottom. We will seek to maintain, using all means possible, the agreements reached two years ago to make our public service schemes sustainable and also protect existing members of the scheme.

“This is an interim report, and UNISON will continue making the case for public sector pensions throughout the course of the review.

“It is only right that the report recognises that public sector pensions are not gold-plated. We are pleased that Hutton recommends keeping a defined benefit scheme, but we are adamant that the final salary scheme should be retained.

“There is a real danger that taking a career average to calculate pensions will see the low paid getting less in their retirement – especially as the government has switched from using the RPI to using the CPI to calculate pensions.

“Public sector workers already pay a sizeable amount into their pension schemes year in, year out. Many of our members would struggle to pay more. Council workers, including home carers, librarians, social workers and dinner ladies, pay in 6.4% of their wages, while NHS workers pay an average of 6.6%.

“Plans to make public sector staff work until they drop will hit the low paid hard. For many public sector staff, working longer is not an option. Many nurses, home carers, paramedics and refuse collectors are already forced into early retirement because of the physical nature of their jobs, and the damage it does to their health.

“It is time the government turned their attention to the private sector, where two thirds of employers don’t provide a single penny towards their employees’ pensions, forcing taxpayers into picking up a massive long-term benefits bill.”

The Cost of a Home

2010-10-07T02:14:00.000-07:00

As this article quite rightly points out, the cost and value we place in the roof over our head is very high.
We value our networks and communities and the history that ties us to the place where we live.

See this article, Letters: Right move to keep down rents
http://bit.ly/9O5x5H to understand the implications of attacking the Housing Benefit that many low paid workers and unemployed people will endure if the ConDems get their way.

Remember most of us working people are only a pay check away from being those we are being asked to despise and refuse to pay for.

The women, children, elderly and disabled are all in it together, we will pay dearly for Cameron's attack as he pushes his ideological attack on the working people, that we fend for ourselves and make the rich richer.

Cheers Cameron I bow and scrape accordingly.

Jackie
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As Cameron explains his Chaos.

2010-10-07T02:06:00.001-07:00

David Cameron's big society: great news for huge people
http://bit.ly/bZW6Rr

Never forget if you work you are never more than a pay check away from Cameron's chaos and what appears to be such disdain from the working people he would rather box us all out of his site and have us fend for ourselves.

This is a fine idea if you had the millions he and his Cabinet members had.

Jackie
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Lets make our feelings known to Cameron and Clegg, turn the Country Red.

2010-10-03T04:06:00.000-07:00

Ed Miliband has made a commitment to decent Living Wage and supports those carers who care for others. All the carers on my facebook need to think about who their next Prime Minister should be, show your support to Ed here http://twibbon.com/cause/Ed-Miliband-4-PM-EM4PM-3/discuss and make sure this man leads our Country sooner rather than later.

All join up for the turn the Country Red for one day and let the Coalition Government know you do not accept this "we are all in it together" when their cuts hurt women, children, vulnerable and the elderly. Do not take this lying down or with apathy, as the next big savage attack will be the White Paper on the NHS which will also destroy social care.

Andy Burnham MP: An open letter to Andrew Lansley MP

2010-10-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

Andy Burnham MP: An open letter to Andrew Lansley MP: "Dear Andrew NHS White Paper Reforms I would like to put to you a way forward on NHS reforms, in light of the fierce criticism that is emergi..."

Leaked plans to turn libraries into Charity like shops.

2010-08-17T02:37:00.000-07:00

We have a large membership in the Bristol Libraries and they are a wonderful knowledgeable group of people whom most of the citizens of Bristol appreciate. The thought of losing libraries is an an emotional one for many users, but to lose the libraries to a charitable status and run them like charity shops with volunteers, makes a mockery of the qualified staff who currently work in them. They are a wondrous vibrant group of individuals who are usually at the cutting edge of new information and are an invaluable local resource.

The staff who currently give their time to charity shops should not be forgotten, but the library service is the back bone of our treasured information and written history and the library preserves things that would have long been lost. I am hoping the library UNISON members will do a small article of the history of this great resource.

All civilised societies from the dawn of time have found it essential to have libraries, why now do we choose to abandon this tradition.

Jackie

"Public Service spin-offs"

2010-08-16T13:07:00.000-07:00

You might be forgiven for thinking what exactly is a Public Sector spin off, but by any other name it is privatisation. No mention at all how the year on year cuts will affect not only the new ideas, or the spin on the old, but see here for the new Pathfinder Initiatives lead by Francis Maude. Whose behind it well those lovely consultants that cost a fortune for every Local Authority to be told how to kick start "Transformation" KMPG and PriceWaterhouseCooper.

Jackie

The Sheriff's of Nottinghamshire, we will all have to be Robin Hoods.

2010-08-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

All UNISON members should have an eye to what is happening in Nottinghamshire, see here for link, if the Tory run council get their way we will all undoubtedly follow a similar route. They started by cutting 1,500 jobs and then decided to add another 1,500 jobs bringing the total to 3,000.

Jackie

Clegg in charge or is he?

2010-08-16T12:36:00.000-07:00

With Clegg in full control whilst Cameron is on his holidays, back benchers from the Tory party remind him he will be fine as long as he doesn't stray from Government policy, so much for the Liberals making an impact on the Coalition then, see here for what he plans to do with his time and how the Lib Dem popularity continues to decline significantly.

Jackie

Are you green?

2010-08-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

For many of our members interested in the environment and our planet, the coalition Government may be planning a u-turn on green house emissions standards, please see here for the full story on coal fire power stations being built.

Jackie

Work till your 72 now!!!!

2010-08-16T12:22:00.001-07:00

This article deals with the possibility of raising retirement age to 72 and in acknowledgement that working people live shorter lifespans than the rich, wait for it, see here they may increase the pension amount payable to those that have a shorter life span. What's the point have having more money for less time fails to impress me I'm afraid, what do you think?

Jackie

What is going to get cut?

2010-08-16T12:06:00.001-07:00

Many UNISON members want direct information about what the cuts will mean to them in terms of their Public Sector Job, here is the most recent up todate department by department cuts the ConDems plan for each one. It does not make for easy reading and if you are a Public Sector worker you will be in here somewhere.

Jackie

Council Housing but not as we know it.

2010-08-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

With all the things this ConDem Coalition has thrown our way so far, from Child benefit frozen, Incapacity benefit under threat and tighter eligibility criteria, raising the costs of Homecare and taking away the subsidies of Meals on Wheels, we should not be surprised to learn see here that the very roof over our heads could now be time limited or taken from us. Social Housing and Council Housing in particular is the basic form of protection many people have to assure them of a roof over their heads and protection from the elements. Cameron plans to change all of that, more dismantling of the welfare state setting precedences never before seen and ensuring these changes can never be reversed.

The Spending review in late October will map out all the ConDems plans for the next five years and if the last 5 weeks are anything to go by, then working people, vulnerable older and younger people need to react now.

Jackie

Bristol Trade Unions and the Public tell MP Minister what he can do about his cuts.

2010-07-27T05:52:00.001-07:00

The trade unions and their members representing the Youth of today from Connexions and the LA Youth Service and the education of your children, Housing workers for affordable and social housing, Health workers who want a stable health service and concerned members of the public. All joined forces on Monday 26th July to let the Council and their visiting Minister for Local Government know in no uncertain terms, frontline services to the elderly, the vulnerable and children should not be touched to pay for the deficit this country faces at the hands of the bankers and the Financial sector whose greed allowed them to play russian roulette with our money. We were joined by local Labour Councillors who have come out in Condemming the cuts imposed by the ConDem Coalition Government. Bristol City is lead by a Liberal Democrat administration, we look forward to having them back us, the workforce of frontline services and the public who receive them, and we are waiting to hear them ConDem the cuts as well.

We are in this together the working person who is being hit the hardest for the mistakes and greed of the rich. I am proud to be a voice of the millions who will be vulnerable and hurt by the ConDem proposals.

Bristol City Council plans to raise charges for care services hitting the most vulnerable and take away the subsidy for Meals on Wheels leaving thousands in worse state of poverty and potential ill-health because they cannot afford a nutritional well balanced meal in their old age.

Bristol's population and businesses rely heavily on the 66,600 public sector jobs across the city and we will all pay a price to high for thousands of out of work crucial frontline service staff who will just add to the misery of this city and potentially create a double dip recession for Bristol. Something no one will benefit from and cause even more hardship across the board.

The latest ill-thought through scheme of the ConDem coalition is to create a National Citizen Service for 16+ and a boot camp in the summer. What parents want for their children is a good job when they leave school, not a life of cheap labour doing 'community work' to make the privileged few a lot richer on the backs of those who deserve a better start in life our children.

Jackie

How Care is provided, something to think about

2010-07-27T05:40:00.000-07:00

An interesting article in Community Care this morning describing many different alternatives on how care services could be delivered in ways we may not have thought about.

The article talks broadly see here about privatising generally, social enterprises or local authority trading company. All designed to reduce costs of hourly rates like homecare.

This on the surface appears like a wonderful idea, but in my own local authority the management of care services were tasked with just that job in 2006 and we are still waiting for them to do something. Care costs remain as high as ever, so maybe we should be thinking that management who can't deliver on their job descriptions are the problems that need to be removed ansd certainly before any creative alternatives are tried, otherwise whats changed. The care workers themselves are fed up of being a experiment for managements inadequate plans and poorly executed strategies.

We need visionary managers that can achieve these kind of results no matter who provides the services.

Jackie

Our NHS is being destroyed.

2010-07-25T11:56:00.001-07:00

Many moan about the Labour Government but they had a massive job re-investing in the NHS after a decade of Tory under-investment.

Many don't wait long for emergency operations and hip n knee replacements have been common place. Please see the link below to see what the ConDems have planned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/7908742/Axe-falls-on-NHS-services.html

The health, well-being of our nation is severely under attack.

Please join us Monday 26th July 3.30pm on Castle Green Bristol to protest about this and an endless list of attacks on our way of life. Jobs will be scarce so they've created the National Citizen Service for a generation of young people who won't find work, so cheap labour doing community work your legacy, homecare and Meals on wheels charges set to increase. VAT will affect everyone. Child benefit frozen, working conditions and pensions under attack, Family credit withdrawn for thousands and many more to follow. Older people being asked to leave their family Council accommodation.

Please join us tomorrow to let your feelings be known, we will not take these cuts from our front line services. The Tories via Cameron promised in his last election leadership debate he would not hurt the young, the vulnerable or the elderly. Everything they've decided since has gone back on that pledge. He didn't win Downing Street and he wasn't elected out right, so let's tell him to go.

Jackie
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The Big Society to me

2010-07-25T01:07:00.001-07:00

A poem from the new statesman.

I am the Big Society
As vacuous as ash,
A dose of petty piety
While we are strapped for cash:
My voice is made of mimicry,
My muscles of veneer,
My lips of wholesale gimmickry.
My substance? No idea.

I call myself Philanthropy:
You'll gather round me, shall you?
But I'm the great misanthrope
And I possess no value.
I am a slogan, brief, inane,
Coined by someone keen,
But utterly without a brain.
I don't know what I mean.

Suppose you wish to start a school,
Or hospital, or vet's,
The Big Society says Cool -
Bring pupils, patients, pets,
And organise the whole bang shoot.
We think you'll find it cheaper.
The Bible has some words to suit:
Am I my brother's keeper?

The Big Society contains
A most expressive void,
Yet runs the blood-cells through the veins
Of all the unemployed.
It's visible as wi-fi
And not of bricks or mortar:
It's like the Big Chief I-Spy
And his Wigwam-By-The-Water.

Yes, I'm the Big Society,
A feeble, forceless fable
With no vim or variety
But one great trestle table:
You put it up, you celebrate,
You roast a local pig,
But find Society, too late,
Is anything but Big.
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A good enough reason to join UNISON.

2010-07-17T08:39:00.001-07:00

There is a direct link between paying taxes and having services which all of us will need at some point in our lives. Think of it as the insurance policy of the "just in cases" life throws at us.

The ConDem Government will dismantle everything around us and probably still continue to tax us to the hilt so it can give the rich tax breaks or perks.

See attached link for how bad these cuts are going to get http://m.guardian.co.uk/?id=102202&story=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/17/tories-are-demolishing-the-nhs

Join UNISON, now is not the time to be silent. If you have a desire to be political maybe its also time to come home to the Labour Party.

Jackie
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Overview Scrutiny Management Committee 15th July.

2010-07-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

UNISON and GMB made statements to the OSM committee this evening and with a presentation on a best guess estimate as the final figures for income and grants still not known the officers explained as best they could.

We have to take what they are saying at the moment in good faith and some clarity around their reports, figures were not clear in the presentation, at this stage though my understanding of the figures laid out in the previous post are accumulative and the max potential gap in the Council Budget I am assured is a maximum of 71 million at the end of 2015.

The Public Sector jobs of 66,600 is the total number of workers employed in various public Bodies and it is this number that may be subjected to the 40% cuts. One would hope they will cut waste, efficiency savings before the need to look at the workforce for the those cuts.

The Council is very clearly saying things cannot remain the same and after the consultation period they would be able to give a clearer picture in November 2010.

They have a clear vision that jobs could be transferred to social enterprises, co-operatives, and charities. How this will ultimately save money without further reducing low wages, pensions terms and conditions of the workforce, I guess we will start to see the devil in the detail soon enough.

What is clear is that many Councillors quite rightly are worried about the effect in Bristol, and the jobs that will or will not surface, the income that will or will not be raised as a result of job losses versus jobs created and how that may further exacerbate an already tough place to be in due to the cuts expected from the new coalition Government. A small minority of Councillors were rude and dismissive to the trade unions and other Councillors and had very little if anything to say about opposing the Coalitions plans.

UNISON requested they all work together on what is best for Bristol and potentially sign up to a group response of 70 Councillors in asking for alternative ways of dealing with the deficit. We asked them to take back to their respective political parties the information we gave and ask them to approach their political leaderships for alternative strategies.

I think by the end of the meeting there was some consensus to obtain the right information, the impact of each decision, and the Leader of the Labour Party Helen Holland, fully backed by the other Labour Councillors present Mark Bradshaw, Martin Golding and Mark Brain and felt that some condemnation of the severity of the cuts and the slash and burn application needed to be challenged.

Some Liberal Democrat Councillors appeared to be uncomfortable with the Coalitions plans and UNISON thanks them for showing that concern.

Helen Holland was also forthright in her feelings that staff and the staff representatives were due consideration and respect that this would be difficult and worrying time for all the workers in Public Bodies across the city.

UNISON will at this stage keep all avenues of communication open to all Councillors to have a proactive dialogue/discussion about our members jobs, terms and conditions, future job security.

Sent by Jackie using BlackBerry® from Orange

Tories "NOT" all in it together.

2010-07-15T03:42:00.001-07:00

If this don't make you mad with one rule for us the working people and one rule for them the Toffs in the Tory Party, what will as they slash and burn all you have ever taken for granted and will realise everything you hold dear.

Keep your hands off Our Public Services. Go tax the rich and have better policies for repaying the debt the rich caused in the first place.

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/07/no-frills-tory-council-votes-through-massive-pay-hikes/
Sent by Jackie using BlackBerry® from Orange

A must read for anyone earning less than £40,000 a year and the affect of the budget cuts in Bristol.

2010-07-15T02:51:00.000-07:00

There is a meeting called Overview Scrutiny Management on the 15th July in the evening see here for a copy of the Council report it discusses the impact of the cuts and this is an extract of the extent of the cuts

Working on a basis of a 25 per cent budget reduction to 2014/15 equating to 6.25% per annum over the next four years, if we were to continue to provide the same level of services we would have to make the following savings to balance our budget:

2011/12 - £26m

2012/13 - £40m

2013/14 - £56m

2014/15 - £71m

These are huge sums of money to be cut from services over the next 5 years and it will affect every man, woman and child in this city, 28% of jobs in Bristol are in a Public Sector area and many more in the private sector will depend on a Local Authority contract or grant. Evey single family will feel the effect of a pay cut as public Sector wages are frozen for two years, or a job loss (The Councils wording from their own report .The cuts in public sector funding may lead to a reduction of the 66,600 jobs in public administration, defence, education and health within Bristol, making up 28.8% of all jobs (Annual Business Inquiry, 2008). There may be relocations into Bristol from London, to offset job losses. There may also be opportunities for saving money through joint working on public sector asset management. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has said it will give us a list of government buildings). The few who may not be hit and everyone else will have their standard of living reduced by the VAT increase to 20%, Child Benefit frozen check this link out to see the full story of how your family will pay a hefty price indeed.

Many economists are saying this could set the recession back and the volume of unemployed people will hit every one with a business, because if the majority are suffering severe financial hard times or are unemployed then we won't be buying much of anything, this is a gamble with us as the guinea pigs and George Osbourne playing yet again with our family, our lives, our jobs, our pensions with no real concrete evidence all this will work, check out the gamble here. When times get tough, crime soars and at least Labour promised us safety by saying they would not cut the police, see here to see the first waves the Coalition are doing to the police forces. See what they are doing to the Health Service. Bristol like other Local Authorities will follow and our cupboards will be bear and our street unsafe, are hospitals decimated.. No worries however, because if the work dries up then the Coalition have offered (well at this stage) but knowing them it could well become mandatory or lose your benefits, if you live in Council accommodation they are offering to move you where the work is, kid you not see this link. Last but not least if you are an Older Person now living in the family home on your own and it happens to be a Council home, then they will consider moving you out, to let possibly the relocated family move in or just free up your home for someone else, this must be the single biggest insult the Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition could do to a frail elderly person who may have fought a war for the freedon of this Country. The latest craziness from the Coalition Government is to give the health money to the GP's who are not part of the Health Service, other strains on GP's having to do Medical Assessments for incapacity benefit, their patients on poorer wages, more unemployment creating more physical and mental ill-health, fit notes already being challenged by employers when GP's make reasonable adjustments, giving them the reduced budgets year on year to fund and choose health care for us, they are asking rather a lot of GP's, who are in essence private businesses, as they are not part of the NHS, also asking GP's to challenge patients self care, can see the GP becoming a very unpopular person in our communities placing all health staff in surgeries in a very volatile environment.

When you put all these things things together and you start to see the very true stark picture these evil Conservative and Liberal Democrat millionaires are bringing to you and yours as soon as they can, then we need to collectively get involved in politics, shape the Labour Party for us the working people and if you think that doesn't mean you before you click off read this as if you earn less than 40, 000 per year you are going to get stung by the Coalition.

The worse thing of all is this could all be avoided if the Coalition took steps to recover the missing 120 billion of unpaid taxes normally by the likes of Lord Ashcroft and the millionaire Coalition Cabinet members

Get involved, get heard, come to the next Labour Branch meeting if you are in a trade union you do not pay so much to be a Labour Party member, but this party and your family needs you to be strong and to start fighting back. It needs you to shape a Labour Party that suits us, the ones earning less than 40,000 a year.

Trade Union's views on Academy Schools

2010-07-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

1600 schools targeted in anti-academies campaign
In the latest stage of its campaign to defend local schools, UNISON, the UK’s leading public sector trade union, has written to 1600 schools, warning about the dangers of rushing ahead headlong into becoming an academy. A letter, backed by 5 education unions*, points out that there is no evidence academies raise standards. There are however, real risks that the loss of local authority support could hit the life chances of vulnerable, disadvantaged or special educational needs (SEN) children.

Setting up new academies, which could open their doors as early as September, will top slice local education budgets, hitting other local schools hard. The plans are in contrast to what the public want. A recent UNISON and NASUWT survey showed that 96 per cent of people want schools to be run by local councils. Only 4% want schools to be run by private companies.

Christina McAnea, UNISON Head of Education, said:

“The new government is rushing the new academy schools programme through without talking to parents, children and staff. If they had asked the public, they would have found out that 96% want local schools to be run by local councils.

“Introducing academies will dramatically alter the way education is delivered. These plans will have huge implications for children in academies and mainstream schools.

“The initial academies programme targeted disadvantaged areas. These new academies will be formed from outstanding schools. If it ain’t broke, why fix it? Outstanding schools should concentrate on what they do best – teaching children well, rather than jumping through hoops to get academy status.

“A similar process in health, where managers chase Foundation Trust status, has seen hospitals take their eye off the ball, and on the balance sheet, and patient care has deteriorated.

“The academy programme needs serious scrutiny. UNISON, along with other education unions, is calling on the government to put the brakes on the academies programme, for the sake of children, staff, parents, and the future of education.”

*ATL, GMB, NASUWT, NUT and UNITE.

Use these examples to tell ConDems what you think.

2010-07-07T05:44:00.000-07:00

The following is the text of a message sent to the Branch by our Head of Local Government;

Cameron, Osborne and Pickles are asking all public sector workers for your ‘best cost saving ideas’, to help them implement cuts - so let’s tell them! Please reply by going to this website, which is open until 8 July - http://spendingchallenge.hm-treasury.gov.uk/

Below are some responses that you and members of your branch can use. Please ensure you cascade this around all your members and ask them to respond by 8 July.

1. 65% of local government workers earn below £21,000 pay them the £250 now!

2. Local government workers have the lowest pay and worst conditions of service in the public sector, don’t cut them further!

3. Get local residents to decide on council tax levels to maintain vital local services – not Council Tax freezes from Westminster

4. Stop wasting public money on privatising local services

5. Stop dividing ‘front’ and ‘back’ office worker. They need each other to deliver efficient and effective local services

6. Councils – not private companies - must continue to run local services to ensure transparency and a real say for local residents

7. Stop cutting vital public services – this will make life harder for everyone, especially women and poorer households, and set back the economic recovery

8. Stop cutting public sector jobs – this will hit tax revenues, increase unemployment and make the deficit worse

9. Cut the bankers’ bonuses, and make them pay for the crisis they caused – a Robin Hood Tax could raise billions every year

10. Cut spending on private consultants and employment agencies – directly employed in-house staff are the best people to improve services

11. Cut out the privatisation profiteers – outsourcing and PFI are damaging our public services and cost the taxpayer more

UNISON telling Cameron what we think

2010-07-04T03:15:00.001-07:00

The Tory Lib Dem coalition has asked us all where we think fair cuts should take place, this is UNISON's response to a fundamentally unfair question as where we take cuts has already been decided. If you are receiving or working in the public sector Cameron and Co have decided its you, so this is what UNISON thinks of that.

http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=6238
Sent by Jackie using BlackBerry® from Orange

BBC paying out for Advice

2010-07-02T01:01:00.000-07:00

The BBC have paid for legal advice on how to avoid saying what it pays its top stars. We're not all in together as ConDems would have us believe.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/7866094/BBCs-12000-legal-bill-to-keep-stars-pay-secret.html
Sent by Jackie using BlackBerry® from Orange

This is the briefing Councils got on the budget.

2010-06-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

Briefing in full given by the Local Government Information Unit that advises Councils.

Headlines

• The standard rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) will increase from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent from 4 January 2011.

• The Government will introduce a levy based on banks’ balance sheets from 1 January 2011, intended to encourage banks to move to less risky funding profiles.

• The Budget also announces a two year freeze in public sector pay, except for those earning less than £21,000 a year.

• An independent commission chaired by John Hutton will undertake a fundamental, structural review of public service pension provision by Budget 2011 and consider the case for short-term savings in the Spending Review period, by September 2010.

• A reduction in the main rate of corporation tax from 28 per cent to 24 per cent over the course of four financial years from April 2011, a reduction in the small profits rate to 20 per cent from April 2011, and a reduction in the main and special rate of capital allowances to 18 and 8 per cent respectively in April 2012.

• A reversal of part of the planned increase in employer National Insurance Contributions by raising the threshold by £21 a week above indexation in April 2011.
• The Government will work in partnership with local authorities in England to freeze council tax in 2011-12.

Local Government

• The Chancellor announced savings of £32 billion per year by 2014-15 from spending reductions. This includes £30 billion of current spending reductions and no further reductions in capital spending beyond those already announced.

• A Regional Growth Fund in 2011-12 and 2012-13 to support increases in business employment and growth will be created, and a scheme in which new businesses in targeted areas will get a substantial reduction in their employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

• The Government will enable locally-elected leaders, working with business, to lead local economic development. As part of this change, Regional Development Agencies will be abolished through the Public Bodies Bill. A White Paper later in the summer will set out details of these proposals. As part of this, the Government will:

1. Support the creation of strong local enterprise partnerships, particularly those based around England’s major cities and other natural economic areas, to enable improved coordination of public and private investment in transport, housing, skills, regeneration and other areas of economic development.

2. Consider the most appropriate framework of incentives for local authorities to support growth, including exploring options for business rate and council tax incentives, which would allow local authorities to reinvest the benefits of growth into local communities.

3. As part of the shift to a more locally driven planning regime, promote the role for a simplified planning consents process in specific areas where there is potential or need for business growth, through use of Local Development Orders.

• To ensure the fiscal risks around local authority borrowing decisions are better understood, the Government will monitor lending from the Public Works Loans Board more closely.

General Taxation

• The personal allowance for under 65s will be increased by £1,000 in April 2011, with the gains limited to basic rate taxpayers. The Government estimates that the 880,000 lowest income taxpayers will be removed from tax altogether.

• Capital gains tax will be increased to 28 per cent for higher and additional rate taxpayers, with an increase in the entrepreneurs’ relief lifetime limit to £5 million.

• The main rate of corporation tax will be reduced from 28 per cent to 24 per cent over the course of four financial years from April 2011.

• The small profits rate will be reduced to 20 per cent, instead of the planned increase to 22 per cent, from April 2011.

• The Annual Investment Allowance will be reduced from £100,000 to £25,000 from April 2012.

• The higher rate of Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) will increase on 4 January 2011, from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent, while the standard rate will increase from 5 per cent to 6 per cent.

Welfare

• As part of the spending reductions, the Budget announced £11 billion of welfare reform savings, including adopting the Consumer Prices Index for the indexation of benefits, tax credits and public service pensions from April 2011.

• The Government will introduce a package of reforms to Housing Benefit from April 2011 onwards. This includes changing the percentile of market rents used to calculate Local Housing Allowance rates, and uprating these rates by CPI from 2013-14, capping the maximum Local Housing Allowance payable for each property size, time-limiting the receipt of full Housing Benefit for claimants who can be expected to look for work, and restricting Housing Benefit for working age claimants in the social rented sector who are occupying a larger property than their household size warrants.

• The Government will reform the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to introduce the use of objective medical assessments for all DLA claimants from 2013-14 to ensure payments are only made for as long as a claimant needs them.

• From April 2011 the Government will restrict eligibility to the Sure Start Maternity Grant to the first child only and abolish the Health in Pregnancy Grant from January 2011.

• The Chancellor announced that Child Benefit will be frozen for three years to help fund increases in the Child Tax Credit.

• The Basic State Pension will be uprated by a triple guarantee of earnings, prices or 2.5 per cent, whichever is highest, from April 2011.

• The State Pension will increase by at least the equivalent of RPI.

Infrastructure

• The Budget confirms the establishment of Infrastructure UK (IUK) to lead work within the Treasury to enable greater private sector investment in infrastructure, and improve the Government’s long-term planning and delivery. In the autumn, the Government will publish a national infrastructure plan that will set out goals for UK infrastructure. This will include priority public and private sector investments and proposals for delivering and supporting investment on a cross-sector basis. IUK will also carry out an investigation into how to reduce the cost of delivery of civil engineering works for major infrastructure projects. This will be chaired by Terry Hill (Chair of Transport Market, Arup).

Spending review

The Budget announced that the Spending Review will be on 20 October 2010.

Comment

25% real term cuts over four years
The budget reveals that “Once the Government’s commitments on protecting health and overseas aid are taken into account, other departments could see average real cuts to their budgets of around 25 per cent over the four years.” The final split between Annual Managed Expenditure and Departmental Expenditure Limits will be decided at the Spending Review on the 20 October 2010. This means local authorities will need to produce contingency plans to reduce their budgets by a quarter over four years. However, details on where the further reductions will take place will be announced in October 2010.

Public Sector Pay

Public sector pay freeze for those earning over £21,000 for two years from 2011/12. There will be a flat rate pay increase for public sector workers earning less than £21,000 in both years. Pay will also be frozen in 2010-11 for civil servants who are yet to agree a legally binding pay deal, except for those earning £21,000 or less, who will receive at least £250 a year. These civil servants will exit the freeze ahead of other groups.

National Insurance Contributions

The Government inherited plans for National Insurance rates to increase by 1 per cent in April 2011. This will remain. However, part of the planned increase in employer National Insurance Contributions will be reduced by raising the National Insurance threshold by £21 a week above indexation in April 2011. This represents a net benefit to local authorities as employers because the expected NI tax increase they will have prepared for will be lower.

Public Sector Pensions

Public sector pensions are subject to an investigation by John Hutton into their affordability. He will deliver an interim report on September 2010, which will identify short term savings. More extensive reforms will be detailed in the full report before Budget 2011. The Government will consult on whether to abolish the default retirement age, with a view to begin phasing it out in April 2011.
Children’s Services

The real pain for children’s services will be contained in the autumn spending review. Departmental cuts of 25 per cent for non ring-fenced departments signal a dramatic statement of intent. Directors of Children’s Services will be concerned that their will be insufficient time to terminate contracts that are no longer affordable and build in protection for the most vulnerable. The immediately obvious impact of the Budget, however, is on benefits and welfare spending. Some of the measures announced impact directly on children’s services: in particular the announcement that the government will restrict eligibility to the Sure Start Maternity Grant, abolish the Health in Pregnancy Grant from January 2011 and freeze Child Benefit.

Children’s services professionals will be concerned about the impact that this will have on children, in particular the poorest, at what all Parties agree is the most vital stage of development. The government has assured, however, that Child Tax Credit will be better targeted on low-income families to ensure a minimal impact on child poverty in the next two years. There will also be concern; however, that the capacity of council’s to step-in and provide effective support to families that are struggling will be compromised by the significant reduction in departmental budgets and the abolition of the ring-fence on services for the most vulnerable.

Housing capital

The potential good news for housing is the Chancellor’s announcement that the government will not make any additional cuts to total capital spending in the budget beyond the previous government’s plans. However, he also said that “we will still make careful choices about how that capital is spent. The absolute priority will be projects with a significant economic return to the country. Assessing what those projects are will be an important part of the autumn spending review.

It is not clear how well new housing will fit these criteria. The statement seemed to emphasise the importance to the economy of capital projects such as transport infrastructure, but not housing construction. Housing will, in any case, see major cuts as they were present in the previous administration’s plans. It is not clear what will happen to the programmes frozen by the Homes and Communities Agency at the end of May.
Housing benefit

From April 2013, housing entitlements for working age people in the social sector will reflect family size. Housing Benefit awards will be reduced to 90 per cent of the initial award after 12 months for claimants receiving Jobseekers Allowance. This will be introduced in April 2013.

The most radical change is that from April 2011, maximum limits on housing benefits will be introduced: from £280 a week for a one-bedroom property to £400 a week for a four-bedroom property. The package reduces the costs of Housing Benefit by £1.8 billion a year by the end of the Parliament, or 7 per cent of the total budget.
The changes will have a major impact on claimants but also on landlords. Housing associations may be concerned about future income streams. Tenants living in large homes may find it difficult to move or meet the additional costs. There is a huge problem with mobility (and problems with overcrowding and under occupation) in social housing – whether these reforms in isolation will be the key to positive change in open to question, without much increased supply of new affordable housing.

Infrastructure

The regions of the north are winners in this Budget. They will be keen to see the details of the white paper, which promises local leadership in job creation and capital projects. While it is good news for big infrastructure, as the budgets tighten there will be a concern that smaller, revenue heavy but sustainable programmes are dropped, such as cycling or parks.

'Tough but fair' Budget: but little to cheer for Bristol

2010-06-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

'Tough but fair' Budget: but little to cheer for Bristol | Bristol24-7

What this savage budget means to us in Bristol.

UNISON briefing on the Academies Bill

2010-06-23T04:53:00.000-07:00

UNISON briefing on the Academies Bill

House of Lords Second Reading Briefing 7 June 2010

INTRODUCTION

The Academies Bill is proposing sweeping changes to the primary and secondary school management and ownership. It would allow hundreds, if not thousands, of schools to be fast tracked into becoming academies from September 2010. There are countless questions that will not be resolved in this time.

The new Government’s approach to academy schools is fundamentally different to the previous Government’s. Rather than focusing on ways to improve schools in areas of disadvantage, the new proposal focuses on rewarding those schools who are already performing well, with no regard for broader school provision in an area.

The Bill would be another step towards a huge opening up of educational provision. Indeed Michael Gove has recently made comments that he has no 'ideological objection' to firms making profits by running academy schools. There also appears to have been no consideration of how important local authority functions that many schools rely on would be delivered in this new system, or the impact on staff who will now be at the whim of a fragmented network of individual school employers.

UNISON is the largest education union representing education and children’s services staff. We represent members in both local authorities and schools across the primary and secondary school sector. UNISON would urge peers to call for a delay in this process to allow for the appropriate level of consultation with those working in and using educational services on the ground. For these, and many other reasons, UNISON is opposed to the Academies Bill.

Lack of consultation
The proposals outlined in the Academies Bill would lead to sweeping changes to our educational system at both primary and secondary level. While we would expect such changes to be open for wide consultation and consideration, involving all of those who are likely to be affected, there is going to be no formal consultation through a Green or White Paper, or any way for local government, parents, governors or staff to have a say on these proposals.

A MORI survey in March 2010 for UNISON and the NASUWT showed that 94% of the public wanted a good local state school provided by the local authority. However, the Government seem determined to race ahead with plans that would lead to huge intended and likely unintended consequences without due consideration.

Pace of reform
The Secretary of State has said that he wants to see schools transfer to academy status by the start of the new school year in September. UNISON is highly concerned that attempting such rapid change, without due consideration, would lead to completely unnecessary mistakes, challenges and gaps for both individual schools and the local authority who are trying to plan for good provision for all local children.

Under the proposals outlined in this Bill, the Secretary of State would be able to order the creation of academies against local wishes. The consultation with local authorities would be removed and the consequences for neighbouring schools will not be considered. Currently, schools have many of the freedoms they already need, but these are, quite sensibly, balanced with local authority responsibilities for services and advice.

New academy schools would be taking on complex tasks such as Special Education Needs, property management, admissions policies, staff employment, health and safety, VAT, Private Finance Initiative contracts, safeguarding and many other responsibilities that are currently supported by the local authority. UNISON believes that schools should not be pressured into taking on these additional responsibilities – and we are wholly unconvinced that schools would be ready to take them up by September.

Lack of evidence of improvement
Despite claims to the contrary, there is considerable evidence that academies do not raise standards faster than Community Schools. Academies are currently not covered by the Freedom of Information Act and have to report very little of their activities or exam result subjects to the Department for Education.

So while they can claim to be ‘improving’, there is no way of knowing if pupils are still receiving the broad based curriculum that other children receive. For example, a 2010 Civitas report highlighted that academies are allowed to opt out of publishing data on how students are performing in specific subjects, so it is impossible for anyone to assess how their ‘improvement’ is reached. Further concerns and recognition of a lack of robust evidence have been raised in reports for the Centre for Economic Performance in 2009, and the PriceWaterhouse Cooper’s academy evaluation Fifth Annual Report.

Furthermore, while there may be some improvement in some schools that become academies, there would be acceleration towards a divided two tier system. The local authority would be left with a rump of schools from poorer areas than the new academies, with more social problems, surplus places, and a significantly reduced budget to support these schools and pupils.

In terms of the broader impact of ‘freeing’ schools from the local authority, there is no real clarity on whether new academies would be expected to take part in the broader role of the school in the community. For example, UNISON would like clarity on how they would be expected to deal with exclusions, Behaviour Improvement Partnerships or those children with Special Educational Needs. We would also be very concerned if there was a move away from important initiatives which have supported a great number of families such as Extended Schools and Breakfast Clubs.

Impact on school support staff
Professional school support staff play a vital role in every school. UNISON’s support staff members are often part time and still low paid. Under the proposals outlined in the Bill, school support staff would be directly employed by the new academies, taking them outside all recognised pay and conditions agreements. This leaves them much more vulnerable to cuts, poorer working conditions and uncertainty.

They would also not be covered by the new School Support Staff Negotiating Body (SSSNB), which has been in development for several years and has been designed to deliver long awaited fairness, consistency and equal pay for support work that has increased in both scope and demand.

UNISON is greatly concerned that a huge number of support staff will effectively be transferred into the private sector without any say or due consultation or consideration.

Inefficiencies will cost more not less
By getting direct funding from Whitehall, academy schools will benefit from a 10-15% increase in funding. As a consequence, this would result in corresponding cuts to local authority provided specialist services and jobs. This would fragment services, lessen co-operation, encourage competition and lead to inefficiencies. Local authorities play an important role in coordinating and delivering a range of services, and it would be highly unfair for non-academy schools in an area to be penalised because extra resource is being given to the academy.

Services that UNISON fear could be damaged include Special Educational Need, human resources, finance, governor support, school transport, health and safety, safeguarding, procurement, road safety, arts, music, outdoor activities, and excluded children – with many more besides.

We know that as a result, these services would be replicated at many different levels at far higher cost. There are already 70 civil servants dealing with finances for the 200 existing Academy Schools, but this number would have to increase with the increase in new academies. The current Academy chains employ their own managers, administrators and professionals to provide services to their schools previously done by the local authority and in some areas academies themselves have to employ business managers and other extra staff to cover this work. In addition, multi-million pound grants are given to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) to provide assistance.

In other key areas there are still unanswered questions - for example, a parent that has a problem with an academy school not complying with a SEN Statement would have no recourse except at national Government level – would each individual problem end up on the Secretary of State’s desk, with civil servants required to provide advice? And if not, who will provide advice without charging a hefty private sector fee?

UNISON again does not believe that these important issues have begun to be addressed, are is calling for far closer scrutiny and consultation before these proposals are developed.

The future of Governing bodies
Governing bodies play an important role in school accountability and management. There is currently a governing framework that ensures all those with a stake in the school are represented – parents, staff and support staff and representatives from the local authority. We believe this is an important safeguard to ensure the head teacher is well supported and held to account.

However, it is unclear whether such arrangements would be compulsory for academy schools in the future. UNISON is seeking confirmation that it would not be possible for a governing body in an academy to vote on significant changes to its composition – for example excluding staff or support staff representation.

Lack of scrutiny
Academy schools are allowed to work almost entirely without scrutiny. In addition to the lack of scrutiny from the local authority or Department of Education, they are also exempt from Freedom of Information (FOI) and act as ‘exempt charities’ – exempt from registration with, and oversight by, the Charity Commission. UNISON can see no justification for this complete freedom, and would question why it is in any way appropriate for an institution as important as a school should be allowed to act in such a way. We would strongly urge a reconsideration of the FOI exemption as a priority.

CONCLUSION

UNISON has always supported measures that improve the quality of education for children as well as ensure that those working in schools are treated fairly and with respect. We believe the measures outlined in this Bill are not helpful to improving the vast majority of schools for all children. In fact we believe that the pace, lack of consultation, and lack of consideration on the impact on neighbouring schools and staff makes this Bill completely unfit for introduction. We would welcome your support in raising these concerns at Second Reading, and would be happy to provide further information if required.

For more information please contact:

UNISON: Christina McAnea, National Secretary, UNISON Education and Children’s Services 020 7551 1693 c.mcanea@unison.co.uk

UNISON Views on the budget and the alternative budget our union suggested.

2010-06-23T03:50:00.000-07:00

“This budget signals that the battle for Britain’s public services has begun with the Government declaring war. Public sector workers will be shocked and angry that they are the innocent victims of job cuts and pay freezes.

“Freezing public sector pay when inflation is running at 5.1% and VAT is going up, will mean a real cut in living standards for millions of ordinary workers and their families - already struggling to pay rising bills.

“Nurses, social workers, midwives, paramedics, police community support officers, housing and environmental officers who provide vital public services, are amongst those who will be hit hardest by the two year pay freeze. And for local government workers this comes on top of this year’s freeze.

“A 25% cut in departmental public spending will decimate our public services. The budget will do nothing to restore confidence or kick-start the recovery, but will push local economies into the ground, raising the spectre of breadline Britain.

“They haven’t even bothered to consider any other option but slash and burn. What of the bankers who caused the recession and the super-rich who evade tax? They must be breathing a sigh of relief that they got away so lightly. The bank tax levy is a poor substitute for a serious ‘Robin Hood” tax on financial transactions. It is a missed opportunity to raise £30bn which would have made a significant dent in the country’s deficit.

“Throwing tens of thousands of public sector workers on the dole will cost the country billions in lost tax revenue as well as piling billions onto the benefits bill.

“The Chancellor dreams of a private sector recovery but how can that be on the back of brutal cuts to public services workers. Local businesses, shops, hairdressers, restaurants will go to the wall as spending dries up. No amount of fiscal stimulus will do any good if they have no customers

“Vital services that the poor, the sick and the vulnerable rely on, are in the firing line. There is no compassion in this coalition.

“Freezing council tax is a useless gesture saving people pennies but cutting tens of millions from council budgets, threatening jobs, losing services and undermining the local economy.

“Raising VAT affects the poor the most as they spend a higher proportion of their meagre incomes on goods and services.

“Meanwhile major utility companies spend money sponsoring sporting events whilst attacking pay and conditions – that cannot be fair.”

Adding 500,000 public service workers to the dole between now and 2015 – which the CIPD says would be the likely effect of Osborne’s spending plans – will cost around £10 billion in lost tax and increased benefit payments. This would almost entirely cancel out the reduction in the pay bill, as well as dealing a massive blow to local economies and communities.

The Alternative budget is as follows:

£14.9bn could be raised every year by using minimum tax rates to stop reliefs being used disproportionately subsidise incomes over £100,000

£30bn could be raised every year by introducing a Major Financial Transactions Tax on UK financial institutions – the Robin Hood Tax

At least £1.5bn could be raised this year by bringing back the windfall tax on bankers’ bonuses.

£4bn could be saved this year by cancelling Trident, the project could cost as much as £100bn.

£500m could be saved every year by eradicating healthcare acquired infections from the NHS – the extra cleaners would cost half this.

£495m could be saved every year by adopting measures to improve the health and well-being of NHS staff, thereby reducing sickness absence

£1bn could be saved every year by halving the local government agency bill, as has been achieved by high performing councils

£5bn could be raised every year with an Empty Property Tax on vacant dwellings. This only exaggerates housing shortages and harms neighbourhoods.

£2.8bn could be saved every year by ending the central government use of private consultants who bring little discernable benefit

£3bn could be saved in user fees and interest charges every year if PFI schemes were replaced with conventional public procurement

Total – £77.895bn.

Budget 2010: coalition minister defends 'unavoidable' VAT rise - Telegraph

2010-06-23T03:31:00.000-07:00

Budget 2010: coalition minister defends 'unavoidable' VAT rise - Telegraph

Raising VAT means any small givens to the poor in one hand will be hugely taken back with the other when you come to buy your everyday needs.

Budget 2010: Public-sector pay frozen for two years - People Management Magazine Online

2010-06-23T03:27:00.000-07:00

Budget 2010: Public-sector pay frozen for two years - People Management Magazine Online

This is what good old Savage George is doing to you and yours, but we are all in it together!!!!!! Unless your rich of course.

BBC News - Managers 'braced for greatest ever NHS challenge'

2010-06-23T03:26:00.000-07:00

BBC News - Managers 'braced for greatest ever NHS challenge'

ConDems said the NHS would be saved, they lied.

BBC News - Budget: Osborne rejects Labour 'carping from sideline'

2010-06-23T03:24:00.000-07:00

BBC News - Budget: Osborne rejects Labour 'carping from sideline'

Savage cuts from a savage man, we are not all in this together, the banks were expecting to get hit by 5 billion, but good old George only makes them pay 2 billion back from the mistake they caused in the first place. Justice for the poor paid and hard working people of this country, I don't think so.

Unison: Osborne 'declaring war' with pay freeze - 22/06/2010 - Community Care

2010-06-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

Unison: Osborne 'declaring war' with pay freeze - 22/06/2010 - Community Care

Glad to see my trade union getting it's act together over the savage cuts on our members and the services they provide to the most vulnerable of our society.

Medical assessments for DLA claimants 'may not save cash' - 22/06/2010 - Community Care

2010-06-23T03:19:00.000-07:00

Medical assessments for DLA claimants 'may not save cash' - 22/06/2010 - Community Care

Good old Tory principles of divide and conquer the working class hard at work.

The Conservative Party | News | News | George Osborne outlines the Emergency Budget

2010-06-23T03:17:00.000-07:00

The Conservative Party | News | News | George Osborne outlines the Emergency Budget

When are the politicians going to acknowledge savagely cutting public services and the people who provide them is not a financial necessity but a political choice.There are other ways Mr Osbourne.

A serious shame on the new Government.

2010-06-14T04:31:00.001-07:00

UNISON has revealed information that private companies are being given a heads up in the budget cut and their contract bidding will have a very negative affect on low paid workers, which are still predominately women.

http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1886&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Jackie
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Deputy Dawn aims to end 'Punch and Judy' politics.

2010-06-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

Our Local MP has been elected as one of three Deputy Speakers of the House.

Deputy Dawn aims to end 'Punch and Judy' politics | Bristol24-7

Bristol MP urges protection for council house building funds .

2010-06-11T05:40:00.000-07:00

Bristol has a serious need for more housing.

Bristol MP urges protection for council house building funds | Bristol24-7

Welfare shake-up for disabled to go ahead in 2011.

2010-06-11T03:34:00.000-07:00

Changes for anyone receiving benefits who have disabilities, please read to ensure you are fully up to date.

Welfare shake-up for disabled to go ahead in 2011 - 10/06/2010 - Community Care

Councils may get health commissioning role .

2010-06-11T03:28:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting article for anyone working in Health as it it may be the start of the back door approach to privatisation.

Councils may get health commissioning role - 10/06/2010 - Community Care

Yvette Coopers response

2010-05-29T02:40:00.001-07:00

I found this on Twitter courtesy of Ed Balls who is promoting his Partners response to being criticised for not standing as Leader. An interesting read.

http://m.guardian.co.uk/?id=102202&story=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/28/yvette-cooper-labour-leadership

Jackie
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Good Labour Article

2010-05-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

Talking about the Coalition well worth a read.
http://www.labourlist.org/are-the-liberal-democrat-top-brass-forgetting-their-roots
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Labour Leader Race

2010-05-28T05:49:00.001-07:00

They seem to update the site everyday and it would appear many slept on Ed Balls over night check it out

http://www2.labour.org.uk/
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Blogging

2010-05-22T06:52:00.001-07:00

I taught Nick how to blog today at Regional Council
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South West Regional Council.

2010-05-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

Lovely day in Devon for an inside meeting, but Council this morning has Gerry Gallagher Unison President as a guest speaker.

We watched a moving DVD Demand for Change on motion presented by the Women's Committee, fringe meeting arranged for National Conference, its the first UK campaign to challenge the demand for prostitution.

Our own Sharon Foster from the Bristol Branch talked on Million Voices Campaign.

Interesting debate on Motion 1 Shared Services and Total Place which was overwhelmingly endorsed at Council

Jackie
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UNISON News | The public service union | A milestone for A Million Voices

2010-05-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

How many UNISON members in Bristol who work in the Public Services whether in UNISON or not have signed up for this campaign. How many Vulnerable people in our society should be signed up for this campaign, and what are you going to do now in signing up for this campaign.

UNISON News | The public service union | A milestone for A Million Voices

UNISON News | The public service union | BNP electoral disaster

2010-05-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

Despite much worry that the BNP would make in roads into politics the last election seems to have seen them off with a flea in their ear, trouble is did they all vote Conservative???

UNISON News | The public service union | BNP electoral disaster