One Barnet, its Corrosive Impact and the Missed Opportunity

Yesterday I attended the One Barnet conference organised by BAPS. It was both hugely motivating and at the same time desperately sad that not one Conservative Councillor was present. With over 100 people in attendance, what I saw was a room full of people motivated and eager to listen and contribute to their community. A phrase I heard a number of times was "we recognise the need to change". Andy Mudd who works for APSE and wrote a report on the shortcomings of the One Barnet  programme, repeatedly talked about how he had worked with other local authorities to bring about change and cost savings without resorting to outsourcing.

I know John Burgess, the leader of Unison on Barnet and I have heard him say many times that he is willing and eager to discuss how savings can be made but that the Council are unwilling to listen. This came out yesterday time and time again. There is a huge amount of talent and knowledge within the Council workforce that could help to meet the tough budget cuts imposed on the Council by Central Government. What the current Conservative regime has failed miserably to do is utilise all of that talent and goodwill to deliver responsible and considered change in Barnet. Instead the Conservatives have been sold a model out mass outsourcing which has a dreadful track record at other local authorities and which is costing rate payers millions of pounds in consultants and legal fees.

Solving such a challenging problem of the budget cuts needs a clear vision and an ability to be creative in the way the council provides services. The outsourcing model the council have been sold shows no vision whatsoever and is a crude blunt instrument which assumes that the private sector have all the answers - which they don't.

What saddens me most is how the most vulnerable are being impacted by this crude and insensitive cost cutting model. They have few votes and they are votes the Conservatives seem prepared to sacrifice to push through their discredited outsourcing programme.  If One Barnet is pushed through there is a very high likelihood that it will fail. McKinsey's published a report in 2008 showing that 70% of major organisational change programmes fail. One Barnet is such a programme and already the signs of failure are apparent.

In questions to the Leader and Cabinet at Tuesday's Council meeting tucked away at question 69 there is a response from Cllr Joanna Tambourides which highlights the corrosive and damaging effect that One Barnet is already having on the operations of the Council. In response to why the planning service is failing to meet satisfaction targets Cllr Tambourides says,

"The Planning Service has had an unprecedented number of officers leave their posts either permanently or temporarily over the last year. Filling the vacant positions with suitable replacements has been challenging. As a consequence, remaining officers have had to take on significantly larger case loads than normal and these have proved to be difficult to manage. This has resulted in planning applications, on average, taking longer to deal with and this has impacted on customer satisfaction, together with the reduction of time officers are able to spend with customers on the phone. Every effort is being made to ensure the Planning Service has sufficient resource to deal with demands. The recent changes to delegated powers will also help in reducing the amount of time officers spend on processing planning applications for presentation at committee. It is anticipated that customer satisfaction will improve as the backlog of planning applications is reduced. The Service is confident of meeting customer satisfaction targets before transfer to the new provider and the new provider will be required to continually improve customer satisfaction."

What a surprise! Tell staff that in 12 months time they may not have a job and then show surprise when they all start looking for new jobs and why would new staff join the Council when they could be out of a job in less than 12 months. I said this would happen over a year ago at an audit committee meeting. Exactly the same thing happened when Government announced the intended closure of Primary Health Authorities. Key staff started leaving straightaway with no chance of recruiting new staff.

There is a very simple solution to One Barnet and that is to put it on hold. Start engaging with the staff and the community about creative solutions that have the buy in of everyone and they are much more likely to stick. This can happen quickly because the ideas are there and there is a will to make change happen.

Cllr Cornelius, there is most definitely an alternative solution to the problems we are faced with but you need to have the will and the courage to stop the One Barnet Programme now and start working with staff and the community to deliver a better, cost effective and more harmonious Barnet.

Church and Politics - A Lethal Cocktail

As many readers have probably already seen on various other blogs there were some unpleasant moments at the Friern Barnet Show. A banner belonging to the Barnet Alliance For Public Services was confiscated and subsequently lost by the Vicar of All Saints Church and he was very rude to an elderly gentleman that I know calling him a "rogue".

Normally I am a very reasonable chap but along with the other Barnet Bloggers I believe the Vicar overstepped the mark significantly. To register our concern the Barnet Bloggers have put our concerns in writing, a copy of the letter is set out below:

The Most Reverend the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury
Lambeth Palace
London
SE1 7JU
Via email to contact@lambethpalace.org.uk

Your Grace,

We the undersigned are writing to you to draw your attention to the behaviour of the Reverend Adrian Benjamin, the vicar of All Saints Church in Barnet. As you are no doubt aware, the London Borough of Barnet, like many other London boroughs, is suffering huge cuts to public services. A campaign, Barnet Alliance for Public Services (BAPS), has been set up to defend these vital services and has been active in opposing many of the policies being implemented by Barnet Council. The campaign is broad based and not aligned with any political party.

As part of the campaign, BAPS intended to operate a stall at the Friern Barnet Summer Show, a local festival. Rev Benjamin is on the organising committee. Originally Rev Benjamin gave BAPS permission to have a stall, but withdrew that permission at the last minute on the grounds that he deemed the campaign to be political.

The campaigners from BAPS were offered space on another person's stall and they took part in the festival after all. When Rev Benjamin learned of this he brought some other men with him, dismantled the stall, confiscated the BAPS banner and asked the campaigners to leave the park. When later asked to return the banner, Rev Benjamin replied that it had been lost and could not be returned. Since Rev Benjamin was also extremely rude to the campaigners, an unseemly row has now developed. Rev Benjamin spoke to one of our local papers, the Hampstead and Highgate Express and made the following statement:

“If someone came in with explosives then it would have been me who was responsible for disposing of it and as far as I’m concerned it [the banner] is as predacious as a bomb.’’ He referred to Mr Silverman (one of the campaigners) as ‘‘a rogue, a rogue.”

(The original article can be viewed here: http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/hampstead_archdeacon_called_in_over_row_with_minister_1_1009722)

Mr Silverman is a 74-year-old pensioner, who has worked tirelessly as a community campaigner in Barnet for many years. There are several questions raised by Rev Benjamin's behaviour, which we feel we must set out.

a) Shouldn't a minister of the Church set a better example in his dealings with members of the public? Publicly denigrating people who are clearly involved in community activities in the press is surely not acceptable.

b) Comparing local campaigners to terrorists is highly insulting and irresponsible. We believe that this shows an appalling lack of judgement.

c) The failure to respect the property of others and the failure to exercise a duty of care with materials in his charge shows a callous disregard for other people. The BAPS campaign has extremely limited funds and the banner will cost a significant amount to replace.

As Rev Benjamin is a part of the festival organising committee, we believe that he has brought the Church of England and the wider Christian community into disrepute. As leader of the Church, we call upon you to intervene. We believe that, at the very least, Rev Benjamin owes Mr Silverman a public apology and that he should pay for a new banner for BAPS. As to whether Rev Benjamin is a suitable candidate for such an important role in the community and the Church of England, we will leave that to your wisdom and judgement.

Yours faithfully,

Derek Dishman
John Dix
Vicki Morris
Theresa Musgrove
Roger Tichborne

(Concerned Barnet residents)