North Lanarkshire Update
The Unison branch chairperson in North Lanarkshire Council, Alan Love, has responded to the criticism levelled against him for raising concerns about the future of the Home Care service.
Now I'm not familiar with every twist and turn of this issue, but it seems to me that Mr Love is making a fair point because contradictory things are being said about the 'sustainability' of the service going forward.
But read what Mr Love has to say on the subject in the following detailed statement and decide for yourself.
On the 26th April 2016, I attended a Special Emergency Organisational Change meeting with Bobby Miller, Head of Social Work Adult Services who advised that savings of £6. 2m had to be made, the legal requirement and opportunities for extending Self Direct Support, giving service users as much choice as possible in arranging what, how and when they receive the support, giving service users and their families choices about how their support is delivered, Supported Providers and the possible future role of the Private Sector and consideration of TUPE transfers.
He informed us that at present there were 154 individual contracts in place and spoke of the need for more flexibility and the possible changes in work practice, focussing more towards early intervention, delayed discharges, reablement and end of life care which would have major staffing implications reducing the present level of Home Support Staff from 78% to 40%.
Two days after this meeting the new convenor of Housing and Social Work, Councillor Barry McCulloch stated in an article in the Wishaw Press that Home care workers employed by North Lanarkshire Council will not see their contracts being transferred to private contractors. Following budget cuts imposed on the council, one of the savings proposals being considered was to TUPE transfer around 400 staff to a third party provider, however, Councillor McCulloch announced at today’s (Thursday 26th April 2016) meeting that “this proposal will not be going ahead”. He said, “I am glad to announce our Home Care Support will be remaining in-house” This was our preferred option.
I intimated my concerns regarding the conflicting statements made over a matter of two days by the Head of Social Work Adult Services and from the Convenor of Housing and Social Work. Our Branch chose to support and endorse the statement from Councillor McCulloch.
Over the following weeks there were repetitive concerns from Home Support Workers about the impact of the freeze on recruitment, while an increasing number of Home Support Workers had notified me of regular service users’ care being transferred to private providers. A senior manager intimated her concerns that the continued freeze on recruitment would result in the service being taken over by private providers. The Branch secretary raised these concerns with the Leader of the Council, Councillor Jim Logue on the 26th May 2016 and was assured there was nothing to worry about.
On the 12th July 2016 a report on the Provision of Ongoing Support at Home was prepared by the Head of Adult Services to assist the Joint Integration Board (JIB) in agreeing a strategic approach to shaping service provision for the future.
The following recommendations asked the JIB to:
• Note the context of the Home Support service in North Lanarkshire, the volume of service users supported at home and the cost of the current internal and external contracted arrangements.
• Note the current expiry of contracts with private Homecare Providers in March 2017.
• Note the increased financial pressures on available resources following changes to in house Support Workers conditions in North Lanarkshire Council.
• Note the need for work to progress on making the in house service more flexible and responsive to need and the recommendation to commence formal discussions with staff and their representatives regarding proposed changes which will improve better use of resources and more flexibility in the service
• Note the opportunities for extending the use of Self Direct Support (SDS) for older adults.
Option 1 – Agree a recommendation to progression of plans to see market interest in support provision at home among independent providers.
Agree a recommendation to cease recruitment to in house Home Support Services meantime and allocate appropriate available work to the independent sector in line with their implementation of new charging and paying the living wage to their workers.
Option 2 – Seek additional funding from north lanarkshire Council and NHSL to maintain and expand in house Home Support Services to cover all areas of support at home for older adults in line with meeting the cost pressures this would entail – recommending that officers work on the illustrative costs highlighted at 4. 12.
Option 2 (4. 26) - The question which must be faced is whether the North Lanarkshire Council staff group – highly trained and relatively more generously paid, is the one best suited to meeting relatively settled and predictable ongoing support needs to a large service user group or if the home support service should be more flexible.
And Option – Recieve a report updating progress OPTION 1, OPTION 2 or both and produce more detailed information and proposals on financial and service modelling, at the Joint Integration Board to fully inform the commissioning strategy.
I then attended a JCC meeting on the 26th July 2016 outlining the way forward for home support in North Lanarkshire. A Briefing Note advised that in preparation for the JIB meeting of 12th September 2016 it was proposed to put a project team together to offer advice to the JIB and take this very significant piece of work forward. My concerns are that this team will progress the rapid transfer of work to the Independent Sector and progress the Self Direct Support agenda and a model of service delivery based on individual budgets.
The final two paragraphs of the Briefing Note reads as follows: “The scale of change needed to meet the growing demand for support, statutory requirements and financial pressures mean that the current arrangements are not sustainable and unless changes can be managed as well as possible, the future of the in-house service is not possible to guarantee.
To suggest I am scaremongering is an insult to the office I hold within Unison. Nor are my comments intended to mislead, I am simply extremely disappointed that Unison have chosen to ignore my concerns or the implications of a freeze in Home Support recruitment and the increase in the use of private providers while following the concerns I raised after the Special Emergency Organisational Change meeting on 26th April 2016 they chose to make a statement in support of Councillor Barry McCulloch’s announcement.
Can they explain why they chose not to make Home Support Workers aware of the report on the Special Organisational Change Meeting of 26th April 2016, the report to the 12th July 2016 to the Joint Integration Board regarding the Provision of Ongoing Support at Home and the Briefing Note presented at the JCC Meeting of the 26th July 2016.
I will await the decision of the Joint Integration Board Meeting on the 12th September 2016 regarding the future provision of Home Support and leave the home support workers of North Lanarkshire Council to decide whether I am misleading and scaremongering or whether Unison North Lanarkshire Branch have failed their membership. The best way to protect Home Care jobs is for Home Support workers to train as stewards and lead the fight from the front.
Alan Love
Vice Convener
Housing and Social Work
