The Saturday List #26 - The Porkies Barnet are telling about One Barnet

Sorry, the Saturday list is usually a One Barnet free zone. Sadly, I cannot ignore the whoppers which are being told by the Council. This list isn't exhaustive.

1. The Capita outsourcing deal will save £125 million in ten years..

2. Council tax would have to rise if Capita did not get the contract.

3. Front Line Services protected by Back office outsourcing.

4. Barnet Council have done a public sector comparator.

5. The Capita contract will bring huge savings

6. Barnet Council is protecting Front line services.

All of these claims have been made by Councillor Robert Rams on twitter in the last seven days. He is a member of the Barnet Council cabinet and the official One Barnet spokesperson.

https://twitter.com/CllrRobertRams

Let me explain why Mr Rams is telling porkies


1. The Capita outsourcing deal will save £125 million in ten years..

Mr Rams and his colleagues state that the deal "will save " £125 million. With all projects and any long term scheme, a sensible approach would be to give a list of financial forecasts and a likely probability that the savings will be met. One in four Local authority outsourcing projects have failed. There is a long list, showing that "projected savings" didn't materialise. In many cases the contracts were cancelled early and huge unexpected finanical costs were picked up by the taxpayer. No one knows what state the economy will be in in five, let alone ten years. A prudent council will factor in all manner of things which will affect this, borrowing costs etc. There is also likely to be many costs which are not in scope of the existing project plan. In short, nobody can say that a ten year project "will save £125 million" and be honest. They could say "we aim to save £125 million" but of course they don't. What makes the figures even more unreliable is the fact that the project has been quoting completely different and far smaller savings until two weeks ago. It is clear that the the council have asked their accountants to put the rosiest possible spin  on the numbers.

2. Council tax would have to rise if Capita did not get the contract.

This again is completely misrepresenting the facts. If the council did nothing and did not properly manage its functions, then of course we would see a rise in Council tax. If Robert Rams was being  honest, he would not say this. As Barnet Council have not undertaken a public sector comparator, to see what in house savings could be made, he cannot say that tax would rise. It may be that an house solution is uneconomical. It may be that it would actually deliver greater savings. The council haven't tried to find out. Therefore, what councillor Rams said is highly misleading.

3. Front Line Services protected by Back office outsourcing.

This is yet another unsustainable claim. Firstly Barnet has chopped many front line services already. They cannot claim to be protecting front line services, given the cuts they've made. Even if you discount this misleading aspect, you still find that there is a huge credibility gap. Rams has assumed everything will be fine with the Capita contract, there will be no hidden costs or legal disputes and that in eight or nine years time all of the conomic arguments he is using today will still hold water. It may well be that Barnet is lumbered with an expensive contract they can't get out of and will have to chop services accordingly. This may not happen, but Rams cannot make the cl;aim he has. He could say "we hope to protect front line services and hope we'll make savings" but he doesn't.

4. Barnet Council have done a public sector comparator.

Rams didn't tweet this claim, he said it in the cabinet meeting. He exposed the facts that he doesn't understadn the difference betyween an options appraisal and a public sector comparator.

5. The Capita contract will bring huge savings

This is misleading as he using a baseline of doing nothing (which everyone knows isn't an option). He also knows that using a definite "will" is misleading. We will only know what savings if any have been achieved once the contract has been running for a few years. He can say "it is probable", but given Barnets history of outsourcing, to use "will" is dishonest.

6. Barnet Council is protecting Front line services.


As mentioned above, services such as the Childrens service have been decimated.