Public services — Page 2

Public services
Pay cuts, job losses, outsourcing: local government in 2012

8th December 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Matt Dykes

A recent survey of local authority directors and chief executives painted a bleak picture looking ahead at the next 12 months, as the second year of front loaded cuts to local government bites even deeper.

We saw in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement that the combination of attacks on pay and pensions is imposing massive cuts on the average living standards of public sector workers.

Little wonder then that yesterday’s joint report from the Audit Commission and Local Government Association on the future of workforce pay and employment in local government gives us real cause for concern.

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Public services
Local Pay: Inefficient, unfair and divisive

6th December 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Paul Nowak

Last week Alice blogged about the impact of the announcements in the autumn statement on public sector workers.

Of course most of the headlines were grabbed by the Chancellor’s announcement that he would impose two years of 1% pay-caps on public sector workers at the end of the current two year pay freeze (three years if you work in local government). At a stroke this announcement managed to undermine the ongoing negotiations around public sector pensions (which in part are about significant contribution increases in the context of a pay freeze); confirm the government’s intention to cut the living standards of public sector workers by 16.5%; and signal his seeming contempt for collective bargaining and fair negotiations. Having days earlier called on public sector unions to ‘get back around the negotiating table’ over pensions, the Chancellor effectively pulled the table away from them when it came to public sector pay.

Of course whether or not the government can hold to its 1% cap remains to be see. Previous governments of different political persuasions have struggled to maintain medium-term pay/incomes polices, particularly against the backdrop of turbulent economic conditions. Both Edward Heath and Jim Callaghan can testify to that.

But perhaps just as important as the announcement of the 1% cap, was the Chancellor’s call for Public Sector Pay Review Bodies to look at how public sector pay can be made ‘more responsive to local labour markets’.

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Public services
Free schools given another boost

30th November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Iain Murray

As with much of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, the vast majority of the announcements on education, childcare and skills had already been trailed over the past week. The most controversial is the announcement that an extra £600M will be made available to establish 100 additional free schools in England over the coming three years, including a new type of specialist maths school for 16-18 year-olds. Another £600M will go to local authorities to help them create 40,000 additional school places to meet increased demand resulting from demographic change.

While the additional funding for schools is welcome, the inequitable distribution of resources is one further reminder of the favourable treatment that free schools receive at the hands of government in comparison to local authority schools.

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Public services
Autumn Statement makes grim reading for public sector workers

29th November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Alice Hood

The Autumn Statement paints a pretty bleak picture of the next few years for public sector workers, characterised by ongoing cuts and squeezed living standards.

After a two year pay freeze (and even longer in local government), the Chancellor announced today that pay increases in the public sector will be capped at an average 1% for the following two years. This comes at the same time as the proposed average 3.2% increase in pension contributions (phased in over 3 years), and inflation rates predicted to be around 3%. The TUC has calculated that this leaves public sector workers facing an average cut in their living standards of 16.5% by 2014-15.

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Economics
Tax avoidance by multinationals: teacher trade unions demand an end

29th November 2011 — Filed under: Economics, International, Public services

Owen Tudor

Yesterday the global teacher union federation, Education International, exposed the massive revenues lost to governments through corporate tax avoidance and the impact of this on education and other vital public services which are at risk from government expenditure cuts. A new report, launched at Congress House, shows how powerful multinational companies use their global reach to avoid meeting their fair fiscal obligations, through strategies like exploiting legal loopholes and offshore tax havens. Global Corporate Taxation and Resources for Quality Public Services highlights the extraordinary statistic that an estimated 60% of all global trade is actually routed through tax havens.

The study was released this week to suport EI’s UK affiliates (ATL, EIS, NASUWT, NUT and UCU) who are striking against Government plans to slash teacher and other public sector pensions, with some teachers losing more than £50,000 over 20 years from the value of their pension. It argues that if the UK government took firm action on tax evasion, the money released would be more than what is going to be cut from public sector pensions.

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Public services
How much more can the voluntary sector take?

24th November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Matt Dykes

The politics of positioning is always a tricky game. And so it is proving for many within the voluntary sector. As austerity bites and the sector finds itself competing for scarce resources, it is understandable that many charity and voluntary sector leaders find themselves boxing clever with a government that has explicitly courted them with Big Society talk, public service commissioning opportunities and some useful budget tinkering on Gift Aid.

However, it remains to be seen how tenable these positions remain in the face of a deepening crisis across the sector. It seems that every week brings worsening prospects for jobs, funding and services.

While this clearly makes a mockery of the government’s Big Society aspirations, it might be argued that voices of opposition in the sector have been muted. But is this soon to change?

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Public services
The view from local government

23rd November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Matt Dykes

Local government has borne the brunt of the government spending cuts this year and the prospect looks even bleaker next year as the front loaded cuts continue to bite, in many cases even deeper.

So the Local Government Chronicle quarterly survey of local authority directors and chief executives is a particularly useful snapshot of how public service providers are coping with government-imposed austerity.

The latest survey (see LGC 10/11/11) has some telling results, with three key themes particularly apparent.

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Public services
Government’s NHS promises in tatters

21st November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Alice Hood

Two stories published in the last few days should convince any remaining doubters that the Government’s promises to protect the NHS are in tatters. Cuts, growing waiting lists and the massive top-down reorganisation of the NHS are all taking their toll.

Research published by the Royal College of Nursing today finds that more than 56,000 NHS posts are set to be cut. Half of these are clinical posts and one third of them are nursing roles. Particularly worrying is the finding that the pace of cuts is increasing. There are also a number of associated trends of cutting hours and replacing experienced staff with cheaper workers at lower grades.

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Public services
UK Border Agency crisis: Cuts are the real story

18th November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Paul O'Connor

The crisis in the UK Border Agency has attracted much media commentary and coverage over the past two weeks. The vast majority of this has focused on the “she said/he said” spat between Theresa May and Brodie Clark. Sadly, this misses the real story.

The government is cutting the UKBA workforce by a third from 2010 to 2015. The simple fact is that they do not have enough bodies to do the job. That is the entire rationale for the Agency’s move towards the “risk-based” security controls at the heart of the spat. Both May and Clark have an interest in maintaining the lie that the pilot has improved efficiency. In reality, it has always been about keeping down queues at ports and airports because there are not enough staff to process them.

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Public services
Cuts make a mockery of ‘localism’

17th November 2011 — Filed under: Public services

Paul Nowak

Two articles in today’s newspapers show notions of ‘localism’ are being undermined by central government spending cuts.

The FT leads on an Audit Commission report ‘Tough Times’, which reveals that most councils have had to ‘reduce the quality and quantity of services’ they provide in the face of a real terms funding cut of £3.5billion over the last year. In addition to central government funding cuts, councils are faced with a £1.2bn funding squeeze driven by a loss of income and the government driven council tax freeze.

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