John Sullivan who is seventy
years old, and father of Susan who has down's syndrome, sent an open letter to Tracey Lees, CEO of the Barnet Group and Kate
Kennally, LBB Director of People who is in charge of Adult Social Services,
expressing his concerns for the well-being of his daughter. He simply asks for
his and his wife's peace of mind back:
“Like many other parents I am growing old
and whilst I had peace of mind with in-house services about the future of
support services for my daughter and her peers, that peace of mind has now been
destroyed. I now like many others fear for the future, now profit has become
king along with the fact to "be more competitive in the market place" is the
benchmark rather than quality of care.
“Like many other parents and carers and
people that truly care for those whose lives and future are in the hands of a
very financially weak and shaky privatised LATC. I want my peace of mind back
and the only way that can be achieved is to fight for the right to have the
affected services brought back in-house, as was agreed from day one in the event
of failure. I simply want LBB YCB to honour the agreement and undertaking quoted
in my question number one above.
“Like all parents blessed with a disabled
child the first concern you have is "what will happen when I die", and all I am
asking is for some clarity some meaningful consultation some openness some
honesty some integrity, the democratic right to be heard. That will hopefully
put us on the path of the restoration of the peace of mind my wife and myself
and all parents of a disabled child need, and answer my simple and very direct
question "what will happen to her when I die"
John Burgess the branch
secretary of Unison, is no less worried: “the [one million] loan is not enough,
‘Your Choice’ submitted a proposal which if implemented would
decimate low paid care workers terms & condition.”
What you can do about the collapse of Your Choice
Barnet:
-
Put a comment of support on John Sullivan’s letter.
-
Use our Email Action to send a letter to the cabinet members, demanding the council to bring Your Choice back in-house.
-
Sign the petition on the council's website.
-
Help us distribute information leaflets about it on the march and afterwards.
-
Come to the public meeting organised jointly by Your Choice Care Workers Campaign & BAPS on Thursday 11th April, 7pm, at the Greek Cypriot Centre, Britannia Road N12.
* * *
One Barnet on
trial
Tuesday 19th March, 9.30am-1.30pm
Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Royal Courts of Justice, The Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Please join
us outside the Royal Courts of
Justice to support Barnet resident
Maria Nash who is challenging Barnet Council’s decision to outsource a large
group of public services without properly consulting Barnet residents, the
so-called One Barnet
programme. Read
more...
* * *
And the do not
forget:
Barnet Spring is almost here. We have
been working to make Barnet Spring march the biggest demonstration in North
London against privatisation, cuts to services and benefits, against the
austerity and against the unprecedented attack on our hard fought rights and the
welfare state. This is our chance to say to the government in one strong and
clear voice - Enough is enough!
Join the
march, next Saturday, the 23rd, from Finchley Central station (11 am), to Friern
Barnet people's library. A double decker bus will be available for those who
find it difficult to walk, but please note that the bus has no ramp. Wheelchair
users will be buddied up with supporters – there will be stewards to assist with
this at the assembly point.
Among the confirmed speakers: Tony
Benn, John McDonnell MP, Owen Jones, Christina McAnea, Shirley Franklin,
Andrew Dismore and Jenny Jones. More...
|
What you can do to help promoting the march?
Leaflet and put up posters –
last push for these this week, please email or phone for leaflets or posters, or
collect from 48 Queens Ave. N3 2NP.
Like us. If you have a facebook
account, you can like us – it's easy, we are very likeable. Just press this
link to go to our page. And then share the page on your
timeline.
Forward this e-mail to anyone
you think may be interested.
Storm twitter - If you are on
Twitter, then twit us with hash-tag #BarnetSpring and the link to our website:
http://barnetalliance.org.
To make it even easier, we prepared a list
of possible twits (below). If you like one of them – or some of them – click on
that link, and it will connect to twitter and append the text. All you have to
do is to login to your twitter account and click the tweet to
send.
So just
Click 'n Twit
- Saturday 23 March, 11am Finchley Central Tube join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Want to know more about #BarnetSpring see here http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Support Your Choice Care Workers Campaign join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against the BedroomTax join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against the NHS sell off join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against closure of Barnet & Chase Farm hospital join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- SaveLewishamHospital join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- DefendWhittingtonHospital join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Support public services not for profit join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against #OneBarnet join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Support the call to build new council homes for local people join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against cuts to services for people with disabilities join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against the forced eviction of local people from their homes join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Support affordable housing join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Support full rights & benefits for disabled people join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against privatisation of public services join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against cuts to social care services join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against privatisation of the NHS join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against privatisation of Fire Service join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against the privatisation of Further education join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against the privatisation of High Education join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against tuition fees join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Against Library closures join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
- Support call to end the NEW Poll Tax join the #BarnetSpring http://ning.it/15cX9Dz
What you can do to help during the march?
We need:
-
Stewards
-
help with fund raising collection
-
help with distribution of leaflets
-
help with decoration of the bus
-
putting up posters along the march route
-
various other jobs.
If you can help please let us know how or just turn up at 9 AM outside
Finchley Central tube station.
* * *
2E2 again
Apparently the council took a financial
stability survey of 2E2, the data centre provider which went into
administration, the same month it collapsed. The report stated unequivocally
that the company is sound and safe just weeks before it went into liquidation.
Makes one wonder about the robustness of those carrying out the survey on behalf
of the council, and whether these are the same ones who advised the councillors
on the financial viability of One Barnet as a whole...
To make things even worse, instead of
hiring the laid off (and unpaid) support staff of 2E2, who are familiar with the
council's equipments and procedures once 2E2 collapsed, the council decided to
take Capita
ITS - which is not doing brilliantly either – without any
tendering and on higher charges. Read the Barnet bloggers shared statement here.
Your Choice Barnet
During staff
consultation meeting held at Flower Lane for Your Choice Barnet staff, it came
to light that “in a procurement
exercise YCB had established they could find a cheaper IT
provider. LBB stepped in to say that IT should remain as provided through the
Council (Capita) and YCB need only pay the amount they had established through
their procurement exercise. LBB will
make up the difference (!)
“In other words LBB is
prepared to subsidise a service when it means securing a contract
for Capita, but this would then seem to be at the cost of staff working for
YCB!” The full report is here.
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