Tuesday, 3 July 2012

THE £1 BILLION GAMBLE: A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN


Barnet Council Not For Sale
Barnet Unison & Barnet Alliance for Public Services Special Conference
Saturday 7 July 12-3, The Greek Cypriot Centre, 2 Britannia Road N12

The bankruptcy of the South London hospitals, a direct result of the PFI scheme, demonstrates the dangers of involving private for profit companies in running public services. This is exactly the future that Barnet council is planning for us with their One Barnet Programme.

The One Barnet Programme that Barnet Council is pushing through is much more than 'outsourcing' - it is a total sell-off of all our council-run public services, which will create a 'hollow council' when 70% of the staff are shed en-route to becoming a 'commissioning council'. Should anything go wrong in the One Barnet plan - there will be almost no staff left in-house to remedy it. We, Barnet residents, will be left on our own. This is a catastrophe waiting to happen and we cannot afford to stand aside and watch.

Barnet residents and council staff will have an opportunity to learn more about the likely disastrous effects of this car crash waiting to happen that is the One Barnet Programme, in a conference on Saturday 7 July 12-3 at the Greek Cypriot Centre in North Finchley. Speakers include experts like Prof. Dexter Whitfield, Director of European Services Strategy Unit, Mr Andy Mudd chief consultant of the Association for Public Service Excellence, Mr John Dix, Barnet blogger Mr Reasonable, and guests from Aberdeen and Edinburgh, where similar programmes were stopped and reversed at the last moment by concerned citizens and the trade unions. Guest speakers from Sefton Unison, where Capita Symonds, one of the competitors for Barnet's huge contracts, were kicked out lately, not before they devastated the services they were supposed to provide, will share with us their experience and tell us how we can still stop the train.

Contact:
barnetalliance4publicservices@gmail.com; 020-8446 6799(Julian) ; 07957-486 379 (Tirza)

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