Fears over frontline services as workers volunteer to quit
Some local authorities are now working to an updated doomsday financial forecast. According to the chief executive of the nation’s largest council – Glasgow’s George Black – a realistic scenario is a 20% cut and the impact on the public would be devastating.
This week the Scottish Parliament’s finance committee said plans for wide-ranging budget cuts in the public sector were “patchy and lack urgency” and that efforts to tackle the issue to date were inadequate.
Glasgow cannot be accused of dragging its heels in taking on the often brutal decisions required to balance the books.
The council has offered early retirement to all workers over 50 and almost 3000 staff will be let go over the next few years, with the target being 4000 by 2013.
It will now “positively respond to the applications from staff for voluntary severance” as “it is clear that allowing the number of staff to leave over the next three years will be critical in meeting the budget challenges”.
But the fear now is that in its endeavours to avoid compulsory redundancies and trawl for volunteers, key services could be depleted as a result.
Unions say the council should have looked at how crucial services will be delivered before making its trawl, and that it is now in a situation of having 2840 staff wanting out “by accident rather than design”.
With staff going over a three- year period, changes will come about gradually. Here The Herald looks at areas of operation in Glasgow where there’s an indication of what is likely to happen.
Social work
Frontline qualified social worker posts and residential childcare posts have been protected as the package was not offered to those workers, but the impact of mass departures among the ranks of social care staff, assistants, clerical and admin staff mean an additional burden for those remaining.
It is of little surprise that this is among the first areas where alternatives are being planned.
Although details are still being worked out, plans for a new call centre, dubbed Social Care Direct, are being prepared.
The service would help address variations across the city in the response received when people contact social work.
Anyone contacting social services will initially speak to the new centre, before being directed to the appropriate council service. A spokesman said: “The way people get in touch and the response they get has been very uneven. Having one point of contact will simplify things for service users.”
Ronnie Stevenson, Glasgow social work convener for Unison, said the union was open to the idea of a call centre, but added: “It may assist the council in mitigating against the effects of the loss of frontline admin staff.
“But any system of triage relies on the quality of receptionists. We also want to preserve the possibility of face-to-face contact for members of the public. Field workers already don’t have enough administrative support and severe pressure is likely to build up on those that are left.”
Glasgow is also having to look at other ways to handle the social work cutbacks, part of a bid to save £65 million.
Around 100 trainees who are about to qualify as social workers will be used to boost staff numbers, while modern apprentices will help by taking on low-grade care work and administrative tasks. A significant number of those leaving are understood to be in residential care homes and this service is already being restructured.
Cleansing
In recent weeks the city council has issued a notice via the official Journal of the European Union website indicating it is seeking to secure a partnership with a private sector contractor to take on its commercial refuse collection service.
Unions reckon the move is the tip of the iceberg in terms of privatisation of services provided by the land and environment department (LES) but, for now, the focus seems to be on the jobs of those employed within the commercial waste section.
Rather than staff moving to a private sector partner they will transfer to the section dealing with domestic waste to fill the gap left by departing colleagues.
Earlier this year the council had discussions with the private sector over their potential involvement in many LES departments, which unions reckon will again be on the horizon as it struggles to fill the gap left by the vacancies.
Representatives from across the political spectrum, including within the ruling Labour administration, believe that as budget discussions get under way the issue of fortnightly bin collections will be raised again.
A senior Labour source said: “If as part of service reform there was a readiness to introduce new, larger bins aFnd additional recycling bins then it could be discussed, but a simple reduction is a major no-no.”
The department is under pressure from civil servants over recycling and landfill targets, with little account given for Glasgow’s topography of tenements and high-rises. The unthinkable could be on the horizon.
School libraries
Seven of the council’s 21 full-time librarians and a member of staff from the education resource service have applied for Fthe
voluntary redundancy package.
Three libraries are temporarily operating without a professional librarian. However, the authority insists no campus libraries are closed and “we do not envisage that any will close as a result of agreed retirements or voluntary redundancies”.
Bereavement
Currently running at an annual deficit of £700,000 and needing millions in investment, attempts to find a private sector partner have been unsuccessful.
Cremations and burials will stay in-house but the departure of 10 staff within bereavement services by the end of 2010 have union leaders sounding the death knell of the municipal funeral.
In the immediate term a burial in the city will cost an additional £268, a rise of almost 50% to £808, while cremations will increase by £173 to £521 – the costs to non-residents having a funeral within city boundaries.
Another reason for the change is the questionable legality of the two-tier payments system. The authority admits rising costs could drive people into the private sector funeral market and is proposing allowing mourners 45 minutes a send-off rather than half-an-hour.
Martin Doran, of the GMB, whose membership makes up the bulk of the frontline LES staff, said: “Ten staff will be going from a relatively small department so it’s difficult to see how they can continue running the service at the same level. Alternative service provision by the private sector isn’t an option anymore and it’s staying in-house. But unless there’s recruitment, which is unlikely, or staff are moved from another area, I can’t see how it can continue.”
Teachers
Teachers are exempt from the over-50s’ early retirement scheme and are not included in the 2800 figure. Teachers have their own scheme, which was open to people over 55 and, to date, there have been 314 expressions of interest. Some 98 teachers retired voluntarily under a similar scheme in 2009/10.
There are around 5500 teachers in total at the council.
