Byrony Rudkin with David Miliband
Council sell-off anger reaches Labour conference floor
By Paul Geater, Local government correspondent
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
10:58 AM
ANGER over the proposed out-sourcing of services at Suffolk County Council reached the floor of the Labour Party Conference when the Tory administration was described as “a circus act with no safety net.”
Former county council leader Bryony Rudkin told the conference about the county’s attempts to sell off – or divest – all its services leaving just a few hundred contract managers at Endeavour House.
She said: “It is one huge experiment. The Conservative administration is behaving like a circus act with no safety net.
“There are no contingency plans if their brave new world goes wrong. Nothing to ensure that vulnerable people continue to get the services they need.”
She attacked what she saw as the complacency of Conservative councillors who were keen to involve the voluntary sector.
She said: “At the council meeting last Thursday, one Conservative said his village had come together to build a new doctor’s surgery.
“That might be fine in the nice comfortable villages but who’s going to come together to build the doctor’s surgery in my area of Ipswich where there are some quite serious deprivation issues?” She asked.
Earlier UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis had praised our coverage of the proposed changes at the county council for bringing the radical reform to public attention.
He said: “As one of the key ways people find out about things happening in their area, local papers like the EADT are really important to communities.
“And now more than ever, the people of Suffolk need to know the truth about the county council’s damaging plans.
“They need to know that the council’s plans to sell off vital local services like child protection, leaving them to the vagaries of the market, will be a disaster for this community.
“And that this ideology-driven agenda will see vital local jobs lost, just as Suffolk needs a helping hand to recover from the recession.
“At Labour conference this week, UNISON is making the case for public services, and calling for an alternative approach to the economy that supports growth and ensures recovery.
“Instead of making hardworking people pay the price for the recession, the government should be making the bankers and super-rich pay their fair share.
“Introducing a Robin Hood Tax on the banks that caused this crisis would raise £30 billion – 15 times what the government’s planned bank levy will add to the country’s coffers.”
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3 comments
Privatisation of public services simply leads to less competition and higher prices for customers. This has happened with water, electricity, gas and the railways and it will happen with any services Suffolk County Council wishes to privatise. We, the public, will all end up paying more for a worse service. Private companies will also cherry pick services. For example, what private company is going to spend money storing salt for a harsh winter that may only happen once in 10 years? Answer - none! Therefore, when that harsh winter does come there will be a mad scramble for salt and the delays in getting it will cause dangerous road conditions to continue for longer than they should.
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Ipswich Red
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Well said Bryony! As to outsourcing look no further than the Customer Service Direct fiasco. Supposed to save £50million it has so far cost an additional £150million. Outsourcing tends to provide a worse service at a higher cost and the government's money , instead of paying for qualified staff and good service goes to profits and bonuses for firms such as BT and Capita.
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Dee G
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Is it a given fact that outsourcing will lead to cheaper services for the council tax payer? I'm not so sure. Quite apart from the small army of commissioners, contracts managers, monitoring officers, solicitors and associated admin staff that will be required to safely run an outsourcing experiment I cannot see the private or voluntary sector being able to run the required services at a similar quality for significantly less money than at present. All potential service providers will be very aware that they will have to take on all existing staff together with their current terms and conditions, including length of service, as requred by TUPE. Any service provider looking to subsequently reduce staff numbers will have to find significant funds to meet the redundancy packages and this will surely be factored in to the tender prices submitted. A voluntary sector provider will need to earn significant surpluses from contracts won in order to be in a position to meet all its' statutory employment obligations so it is unlikely to provide a cheaper service than a private or public sector bidder.
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nothingsnew
Tuesday, September 28, 2010