Feb 2015 newsletter

Inside

AUSTERITY FOREVER: its official unless we fight

SOCIAL WORKERS & THE COURTS

UN ANTI-RACISM DAY:

no to racism & fascism

City and County of Swansea

Review Swansea Care-Homes to stay open after UNISON campaign City and County of Swansea Council has decided not to close any residential care homes or day care centres in 2015. This follows the issuing of the report of the Older People Review that was set up as a result of UNISON’s campaign against the closures after they were included in the council’s budget proposal for 2014.

UNISON Regional Organiser Eddie Gabrielsen commented ‘we welcome City and County of Swansea Council’s decision to reconsider their original proposals and keep open the Care Homes and Day Care Centres that provide vital services to the people of Swansea’

Organiser Eddie Gabrielsen did a phonein on Swansea Sound, and a resident of Rose Cross House wrote to the Older Persons Commissioner For Wales and was interviewed by the press.

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In a re-writing of history that would make Joseph Stalin blush, they claimed the report ‘endorses our overall direction of travel in older people’s care’.

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Rob Stewart, Leader of the Council, said: ‘We have ruled out residential care home closures and day care centre closures following our consultation last year. We are pleased to give that commitment in these budget proposals.’

Wales estimates that the number of over‐ 65s living in Swansea will rise by 44% by 2036, and that the number of over‐80s – the age of many existing service users – will rise by 84% over the same period. It stated that ‘it is difficult to say with any certainty that the need for residential care will fall’ and concluded ‘we would not prioritise closure of local authority residential care homes at this time.’

Danger The danger is that the Council tries to close them again in the future, or attempt privatisation under the guise of an ‘armslength’ company. There is also another danger. When the respite-care home Earlsmoor was closed five years ago the remains of which still lie in near-ruin in Brynmill - it was pre-ceded by misinformation and half-truths which ran the service down.

The campaign resulted in Swansea council putting their proposals on hold and commissioning Dr. Rod Hick and Dr. Shane Doheny of Cardiff University to undertake the Review of Older Peoples’ Services.

There is a similar risk that care-homes and day-centres are deliberately allowed to run with empty places and empty beds

by Social Services managers. This undermines the service and attempts a ‘closure by stealth’ to avoid scrutiny by elected members and others. This must not be allowed to happen.

Despite rumouring the possibility of closure for many years, the Council tried There was great press coverage - a to portray the report they commissioned publicity event with beds outside St then backed them. In a re-writing of Mary’s Church, which had the full support history that would make Joseph Stalin of the Rector, was covered by the South blush, they claimed the report ‘endorses Wales Evening Post with front page our overall direction of travel in older photos and interviews, UNISON Regional people’s care’.

The review report pointed out that Stats

At present there will no closures thanks to the UNISON campaign and a report that points out that there is an obvious to keep services in a period of rising demand. It shows that campaigning and fighting to defend services - and the jobs in them - works and cuts are not inevitable. We need more fights like these in this future. ♦

Campaign UNISON’s campaign between December 2013 and February 2014 involved, linking up with and supporting spontaneous local campaigns to save individual homes, gathering signatures on paper and online petitions and handing them in, and the consultation meetings.

Public Service Not Private Profit

February 2015

Austerity forever...?

The huge cuts in council spending forecast for the next three years are only the beginning. So says our Head of Financial Services in the Authority’s recently published Medium Term Financial Plan. He calculates over £85 million in savings are necessary to balance the books by 2018/19 and admits that this is a conservative estimate.

Propaganda Relentless propaganda within councils and in sections of the national media presents the whole business as a wonderful opportunity for local government to transform itself. In reality the transformation is akin to someone lopping off their limbs and then being expected to run the hundred metres. It will require the loss of thousands of jobs and the wholesale destruction of services. In an innocuous looking table the report makes clear the level of savings expected in the three years of the plan: Education CUT 15% Children’s Services CUT 15% Adult Services CUT 20% Place (that’s everything else the council does CUT 50% Corporate Services CUT 50%

office all but shutdown, the council will be forced to return to the sacred cows of Education and Social Services.

Again the Report candidly refers to the ‘gearing’ effect of savings if some services are protected: “…if our current savings requirement of £86m over three years was applied, for example, just to Corporate Services…and Place Services, the budgets for these areas would be cut by around 90%. Consequently, other areas such as Schools and Social Care also need to face some level of reduction over the next 3 years, given the relative size of their budgets” Vulnerable Despite their best efforts, councils in England have been driven to cut services to the most vulnerable people in our society. In their report ‘Austerity Uncovered’, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies make clear that in many councils substantial cuts have already been made to Adult Social Care and Children's Social Services.

by Bill

offer is so miserly. The staff to the Guildhall, ha physically possible, give will be displaced by the giving up other satellite

The answer would seem substantial job losses s England where some co halved.

Resistance

Conscious of what the f being placed by Swans Programme’, which has required savings. Over is expected from stoppi on ‘new models of serv whacking £30m of savin expected to raise £8m, investment, and ‘efficien

If this weren’t bad enough, two whole pages of the report are dedicated to listing all the factors that may force the Council to revise the amount it needs to save – UPWARDS! Cuts until 2022 What’s more, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel as the cuts are expected to continue. The document warns that , “Some commentators, such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies, are predicting cuts in public spending up until 2022, reducing the overall level of spending in the UK to immediate post Second World War levels.”

It then lists a few factors which my make our prospects even bleaker, such as LGR in Wales and the elections.

Unlike previous twists and turns in the policies of central government, these measures represent a one way ticket to oblivion for local councils. At the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives in November 2014, Sir Derek Myers (Chair of the Service Transformation Challenge) defined transformation as, “a radical new way of performing a statutory duty or a core service that will involve drastically reduced costs and will likely be irreversible.”

Transformation or decimation?

There is no doubt that under the whip of austerity, new ideas are being generated and new ways of working will be introduced that may even benefit service-users.

However, the experience of England is that councils are being forced beyond relatively benign stage of looking at ‘how we do things’ (which has nevertheless cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs) towards financial meltdown and insolvency.

Once the easy victories have been achieved, inefficiencies driven out of the system, and the back

Austerity can and must be resisted: supporters of Syriza, the radical anti-austerity party in Greece celebrate their general election win (main picture); the London-wide bus strike in February (right)

Local authorities are only half way through what had now become a nine year programme of austerity that has already resulted in a 37% reduction in funding to local government.

this becomes harder to

There is no doubt that M unions will work hard to austerity, save jobs and must be a vigorous poli Nine out of ten council Chief Executives and Leaders, policy. Staff and trade when interviewed by Price Waterhouse Cooper, felt that to be ready to fight to d over the next five years some councils faced severe terms and conditions, w financial crisis and would fail to deliver essential services. attack as part of the dr This is the road that Swansea now finds itself on.

Responsibility Redundancies We have a huge respon Working together the Council and Trade Unions have so all mainstream political and racist, ex-Tory part far avoided compulsory redundancies, but how long can sector as much as the p this last? Around 60 posts are threatened this coming alternative in the next fe year as it gets increasingly difficult to redeploy staff to or the decimation of ou other parts of a shrinking council and while the EV/ER

Williams, Branch Chairperson

e decision to relocate nearly all as left staff wondering how this is en the hundreds of workers who e sell-off of the Civic Centre and e offices.

m to be ‘headcount’ reduction, i.e. similar to those experienced in ouncils have seen their workforce

future might hold, great store is sea on its ‘Sustainable Swansea s a target of delivering £62m of the r three years, only £9m in savings ing services, while we are relying vice delivery’ to produce a ngs. Improved prevention is but may require some ncies’ £5m each year even though

Social-workers and the Courts In what could have implications for wider groups of staff, UNISON is increasingly concerned about the impact of the naming of social workers in court judgements.

Some ‘practise guidance’ for court cases was issued by Sir James Munby in February 2014 – Transparency in the family courts/court of protection, publication of judgments. This contains a presumption that judgments will be published and that expert witnesses will be named, unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. It is intended to promote transparency and public understanding of the work of the courts.

However UNISON has growing concerns about the effect this is having on morale, recruitment and retention in the social work profession.

Our experience of supporting members named in court cases has illustrated the dangers of selective media coverage, often from a Tory press that hates public-sector workers. Invariably, this focuses on extracts taken from complex judgments and can cause a backlash against the social workers involved, exposing them to public hostility and media intrusion into their private and family lives. Workers in these situations have no means of defending themselves because confidentiality obligations mean they cannot speak about the cases.

Senior managers, independent reviewing officers and others involved in reviewing, scrutinising and approving decisions are often not named in judgments. This is a skewed version of accountability and risks scapegoating front-line staff for decisions which the council should take ownership of at a senior level. In Unison’s experience, this is a particular risk if councils fail to provide a senior named person to front up media enquiries.

achieve as time goes on.

Members, Officers and the trade o limit the harmful effects of d retain services, but equally there itical campaign to end this insane union members in particular have efend public services and their which will inevitably come under rive to reduce costs.

nsibility to take action ourselves parties are committed to austerity ties like UKIP hate the public present government does. The ew years is either an active fight r lives and services.

Consequences for morale and future practice The consequences for our members who are social workers can be grave. They, their family, friends and neighbours have faced days of hounding with reporters barricading their homes. In addition, the very real fear that being named in court judgments makes them even more vulnerable to attack from angry family members and members of the public.

being. Furthermore, being named and vilified in the press will have a major impact on their ability to continue to practise. In short, their reputation as a professional will be damaged. This will make securing cooperation and respect from service users/ families and other agencies very difficult.

Employer response UNISON is taking up our concerns nationally about the effect on morale, recruitment and retention in social work with government and with local authority leadership organisations. However, we also want to work with employers to minimise the impact on individual social workers. It is vital that employers are adequately prepared to meet their duty of care towards social workers involved in contentious court cases.

The duty of care comes under common law and the obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, requiring employers to take reasonable steps to ensure the health, safety and well-being of social work staff.

This extends to carrying out risk assessments in connection with the likely consequences of being named in court judgments and taking steps to protect social workers’ identities in court proceedings in the event that risks to them will arise as a result of identification.

It also includes taking all reasonable steps to: social workers from harassment •byprotect reporters in connection with carrying out their professional duties protect social workers from threats and •abuse from the public or from service users • prevent physical or psychiatric injury arising from their work • prevent work-related stress UNISON is therefore seeking from employers a protocol for handling such cases. It should include agreement on early notification of UNISON officials where they have information to suggest that one of our members is likely to be named, so that we can work with them on advising and supporting the staff members involved.

Further advice and guidance for any Such experiences take social workers way members is available from the branch from the frontline, increase stress and office or your steward anxiety, and impact on their health and well-

Stand Up To Racism AND FASCISM

AGM dates for 2015

UN Anti-Racism Day Demonstration - March 21st

Guildhall Council Chamber - 12.30pm

Far right and fascist organisations are gaining support across Europe including in Britain. Arguments wrongly blaming immigrants for the fall in standard of living, economic problems and austerity have provided the cutting edge of support for the far right, fascism and racism.

4.3.15 Pipehouse Wharf - 6.30am Civic Centre Council Chamber - 12.30pm 5.3.15 Clydach Depot - 6.30am Penllergaer Council Chamber -12.30pm

3.3.15

Across the globe the promotion of fear and hatred of Muslims and Islam is continuing, creating a climate of Islamophobia that is directly leading to violent attacks on Muslim people and mosques, and other communities such as Sikhs and Hindus who are wrongly identified by racists as Muslim. Anti-Semitic attacks have also coincided with the growth in support for fascism. Black African and Caribbean communities continue to experience racism and hatred as seen with the killing of Michael Brown in the USA. Following the success of last year’s event, another international day of action has been called coinciding with UN Anti-Racism Day. UN Anti-Racism Day commemorates the victims of the Sharpeville massacre in Apartheid South Africa.

Once again many organisations have come together to reject racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism; to celebrate diversity and show that migrants are welcome; to demonstrate our confidence in a future free of scapegoating, racism and hatred; and to remember Nelson Mandela and cherish the ideal of a free and democratic society in which all persons live together in harmony and equal opportunities.

11.30am Assemble Clare Gardens, Clare Street, Riverside, Cardiff. Marching to City Hall. Simultaneous demonstrations will be taken place in London and Glasgow and across Europe.

YOUR UNION

http://www.standuptoracism.org.uk/ Transport details from the branch office

Contact us:

Benefits & Welfare If any members need assistance in completing a benefits form, please note that this can no longer be obtained from the Contact Centre as it used to be able to.

For help with completing forms anyone 65 plus can go to Age Cymru, and any other age to Carers Centre or CAB. Anyone with a visual impairment can use the welfare rights service provided by RNIB. Age Cymru: 648866 CAB: 08444 77 20 20 RNIB: 655424 Carer’s Support Centre: 104 Mansel Street, Swansea: Tel: 01792 653344 Welfare Advice for other issues is also available via the branch office

Unison Office, Rm 153-G, The Guildhall, Swansea 01792 635271

unison@swansea.gov.uk

Branch Secretary: Mike Davies / Asst. Secretary: Andrea Thomas Unison has over 100 trained union reps throughout the council, schools and FE colleges. We will advise, support and represent you collectively and individually on issues from sickness, disciplinaries to legal matters inside and outside the workplace. If you need advice or representation please contact the Senior Steward(s) for your department below or go to your workplace steward. Alternatively please contact the branch office.

Social Services Alison O'Kane - 07856 641234 Alison Davies - 07941 757853 Martin Chapman - 01792 635271 Education Pat Lopez - 07557 560097 Mark Otten - 07789 485009 Eve Morse - 07532 232873 (after 3.30 pm) Chris Bell - 07967 551025

Sports & Social website: www.suss.me.uk

Regeneration/Housing John Llewellyn - 07557 560093 Roger Owen - 07847 942458 Gower College Ron Job - 07963 454041 Resources Rhydian Prismick - 01792 635803 Housing Sallyanne Taylor - 07825 401711

www.unison.co.uk

This newsletter is produced by the City and County of Swansea Unison Branch. Any letters, comments or suggestions for articles should be posted to the branch address or emailed to Unison@swansea.gov.uk. Correspondence is not guaranteed to be published and contents may not necessarily reflect Unison policy.