The Friday Joke - Your Choice Barnet Business Case Justification

Can someone explain how a shortfall of £2million in a total budget cost of running the Your Choice Barnet services of approximately £5million to £6.5million is a “solid” Business Case? 

The Councillor responsible for Adult Social Services response to a question at the recent Barnet Council Cabinet meeting was interesting. According to the councillor the Business Case was “solid” for setting up Your Choice. Indeed having insisted the Business Case anticipated these shortfalls, the councillor then went on to say that the draconian and vicious cuts to workers’ terms and conditions.... Sorry he definitely did not say that, he said the proposals will “deliver further efficiencies”. “Further to what?” we wondered. 

Just before that motion we had listened to the Leader of the Council talk to the Welfare Reform motion saying it was needed to ensure that it “pays to work”. With the cuts proposed to Your Choice workers and the Housing 21 workers and Fremantle workers before them, I’m starting to wonder if what is meant by the phrase is a society where the ‘worker pays to work?’

Having spoken to many Your Choice workers in the last few weeks, this is what one of them said:

“Support workers at Your Choice are being substantially de-skilled, by being given a new job description to justify a third of their monthly wages being taken from them. Service users at Your Choice are having a massive change in the hours that they are being supported – meaning that they can enjoy less leisure and educational opportunities. They are unaware of how severely their lives will be affected for the worse by these cuts”.

This has been repeated over and over that a cut to the workers ultimately means a cut to the service user.

What you can do

Please sign this petition  

http://petitions.barnet.gov.uk/YourChoiceBack/

Of course, you may just think it's all very funny, our money being wasted like this !