Learning and literacy difficulties, no computer – but must do jobsearch online with no help

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Kate B

Video and report from today: #FocusE15 mothers reopen boarded-up Carpenters’ estate flats

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Kate B

Update 27 September:

Big day yesterday. To begin with, the council turned up at the Carpenter’s estate to turn off the water at the occupied flats. Jasmin Stone told me that she was sworn at when she asked why people were there to cut the water:

“We just asked them what was happening and the response we got was “don’t fucking record me or I’ll smash your camera on the floor.”

I’d ask the council for a comment on that, except that the council has refused to talk to me since the start of this year. Suffice to say for now that those of us who’ve spent time with this campaign have come to expect aggression and a not-so-latent misogyny from those who oppose it. There has been something nasty and unnecessarily confrontational about the council response from the start. I’ve often wondered why the council and its PR advisers didn’t make a better attempt to work with the women, at least at various junctures in their campaign. It would have been smart, for instance, for a councillor or two to have accompanied the women when they took a petition for social housing to Boris Johnson earlier this year. There have been chances like that which a Labour council might just have taken.

That hasn’t happened and it’s hard not to conclude that the council made a mistake by not opening things up for discussion, rather than trying to close them down. The women told me months ago that Robin Wales told them he was annoyed at their campaign. I saw that fury again earlier this year (here on video) when the council rushed from a council meeting to avoid the women and again when Wales rushed from me to avoid questions about his attendance at a property fair in Cannes. The upshot of all this is that the council now has a problem. People all over the country are watching this campaign and responding with enthusiasm. As Jasmin told me yesterday – people starting donating bottles of water as soon as news of the water being cut started to circulate on social media. I noticed a man distributing further bottles of water outside the court yesterday, too. As I said yesterday on twitter, I’m starting to get the feeling that half of Newham has been waiting for the chance to subvert Newham council. Chickens do come home to roost. I’ve spoken to residents on the Carpenter’s estate, as you can read below, and noted their enthusiasm for the campaign. They are not securely housed themselves.

As for the council’s botched attempt to fast-track an eviction yesterday – well, we all know what happened there. I spoke to Ravi Naik, one of the attending lawyers, who said:

“We were only instructed about an hour before the hearing so I had to rush to get there.

“The Council had made an application for an interim possession order – which means asking for possession of the building which would have had the effect of ending the protest. For this to be lawful, they have to give three days’ notice to the group. Obviously, the group would want to have that time to consider the position and properly defend themselves. The council wanted to shorten that time period to two hours – that’s from three days to two hours. This would have undermined any hope of legal representation.

We made the point to the judge that we’ve got all these complex legal arguments, but we haven’t had any chance to consider them with the group or look at the Council’s evidence; we only met the clients about an hour before. We didn’t have any chance to consider this with the group. The judge agreed with our position. In the rules governing civil procedure, the key rule is the Overriding Objective. This means that cases must be considered justly and fairly. The judge said that there was no chance that this case could be considered justly and fairly in the circumstances. I don’t think they expected the group to put together a legal team so quickly.”

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Update 23 September: more perfectly serviceable flats on the Carpenters’ estate:

This is a video I took a couple of weeks ago of another of the flats in the Carpenters’ estate tower block. The film is a little jumpy as I couldn’t see what I was doing – had to stick my hand with the phone camera under one of the metal security doors to film this. I believe this is one of the flats used by the media during the Olympics. Would ask the council about this to confirm, except that the council refuses to talk to me. Boo. Anyway – again, you can see these are of a good standard. There’s a video of another of these flats at the end of this post.

Another update: September 23 2014 – the many people in Newham who are struggling for housing:

Every week at their Saturday stall on the Stratford Broadway, the Focus E15 mothers have asked local people to write their own housing stories on sheets that the women taped to the pavement.

The Focus E5 women have collected all sorts of stories about people’s housing problems this way. It’s been interesting to see. There are a lot of sheets and a lot of stories. This is one of the reasons why the Focus E15 campaign for housing is so significant – and the reason that Newham Labour can’t ignore the campaign, even though it is trying very hard to right now, as the women continue their occupation of the Carpenters’ estate. A great many people have housing problems – they’re stuck in B&Bs, or temporary housing, or in the private sector where they can barely afford the rent. Those people and those problems won’t go away, even if Newham council does ultimately decide to drag the Focus E15 women out of the flats they are occupying. (Mayor Robin Wales is speaking at a Labour party fringe meeting on winning back “left behind” voters tonight, which is hilarious. When you read the comments on the sheets, you get the feeling he’s left quite a few voters behind).

You can see some of the comments people have written on the sheets in the pictures below (click on the images for a bigger pic):

“Single mum in B&B – for three years with my children.”

“Private landlord threw all my daughter’s clothes and furniture in a skip.”

“The council sent me to temporary accommodation in Barking. It was so disgusting with mice running around. I was there with my children for two years. The council did not listen to us. My children had to travel far every day back to Newham.”

“I live in a house with 10 people and only one toilet. I pay £500pm.”

On it goes.

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Update to beat all updates September 23 2014 (h-t Clifford Singer): Can Robin Wales – mayor of a borough where young homeless women who’ve been fighting him for housing all year are occupying abandoned flats – REALLY be speaking tonight at a Labour party conference fringe on “bringing insights on community organising and movement building?” What – is he going to talk about the Focus E15 campaign that has wrongfooted him at every turn? Will he show this video – the one where he spat the dummy at one of the Focus E15 mothers (an action for which he now finds himself the subject of an official complaint)? Don’t often say this sort of thing – but that’s a Labour party fringe event I wouldn’t mind attending.

Update September 22: were these abandoned flats originally adapted and made accessible?

I went back to the Carpenters’ estate this morning. On the ground floor of the building that the Focus E15 mothers have moved into, I found these abandoned flats. They have been left to rot. One of them looked like an accessible flat to me – it had ground floor access with an adapted wet-room bathroom. There’s such a shortage of accessible flats in London. Leaving an adapted place to decay does seem criminal. Pretty sure you can still see a bottle on the floor.

I also talked to several of the other estate residents this time – people who’ve been living at the estate for a while. A few residents visited the Focus E15 mothers in their reopened and occupied flats last night. There’s concern among residents about being identified and targeted by the council – but not about the occupation itself, it seems, at least among the people I spoke with. I spoke to four people and they seemed sympathetic to the Focus E15 fight for homes. That surprised me and didn’t surprise me. Not everyone likes an occupation, or a confrontation with council, but a lot of people can relate to a battle for housing.

Said one of the women I spoke to (she’s lived on the Carpenters’ estate for nearly 20 years):

“They [the Focus E15 mothers] should stay. We don’t mind them here at all. They have to stay longer to make it work, though. Tell them don’t do it for a couple of days and then go. Keep it going. I haven’t got a problem with them putting young mums there. Young mums got to have a place.

“I been here for nearly 20 years. It used to be lovely, with all the kids running round on that grass. But then, people moved out and they didn’t move anyone in. That’s all boarded up there. See, I will show you this place here [she walked me up a small path to another home which was sealed with a metal security door]. That has been closed up now for five years. But you don’t want to say anything. You don’t know now how long your tenancy is going to last now. It never used to be like that. It’s in the last few years.

“That’s a housing officer walking around here (she pointed out a woman walking around with papers and a small bag).

“You’ve not got a problem with that [occupation and banners], have you?” she said to another woman who emerged from her flat then.

“Nah,” the second woman said. “It’s for the right reasons. They’re doing it for the right reasons. People do need homes. The council say they haven’t got any homes, but they have.”

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Original post:

Back to Newham today – where the women of the Focus E15 mothers’ social housing campaign took the admirable step of reopening some of the long-boarded-up flats on the Carpenters’ estate. I hope news of this move has reached those Labour councillors and MPs who are all tucked up nice and warm at conference in Manchester.

Video: entering the flats and being welcomed by the Focus E15 campaigners:

The Focus E15 mothers have been fighting for social housing for a year. Newham council was planning to send them out of London to live, but pulled back from that idea when the women complained and campaigned. The women were placed in private tenancies for a year – but those tenancies will end soon. That will leave the women again with nowhere to live. Meanwhile, the Carpenters’ estate sits, partially abandoned and empty, next to Stratford station, with boarded-up flats all over. Newham council’s housing waiting list is 24,000. The women decided that flats shouldn’t be shut off when so many people are homeless, or struggling to find a decent place to live. This is a borough which likes to slap Asbo warnings on rough sleepers let’s not forget. So, the women arranged for a block on the Carpenters’ estate to be opened. They plan to stay for at least a couple of weeks.

And look at the flats they found inside the estate. I was a little shocked and surprised myself when I saw the flats. They looked pretty good. They certainly looked perfectly serviceable. I’d happily move into one myself. They’re carpeted, clean and the second one in particular looked as though it had a new kitchen. How can it be that Stratford’s homeless people are left to sleep in the Stratford centre, or run out of town entirely, when these places exist right next to Stratford station? How can it be that young women are told there’s no room for them and their children in Newham? I’ve asked the council about its plans for the estate – but no answer, alas. That council refuses to talk to me.

There will be mealy-mouthed statements about safety, planning, new builds and homes for all from the council, but the truth is that there is no justification for empty homes when so many people are homeless. It really is as simple as that. When it comes down to it, who’d rather live outside in winter than inside one of these places? The women are right to raise this issue and to force this issue.

Here’s Focus E15 Mother Sam Middleton explaining why she decided to take part in this operation and why she’ll stay in the Carpenters’ estate for a while.

“We know that if there’s the Carpenters’ estate then there’s loads of other estates out there like this. We thought – do you know what? There’s too many boardedup places and they need people to live in. If you look around today, you can see that the flats are liveable. So why not get families in and do what’s right?”

Indeed.

An unmarked car full of coppers began circling at about 5pm. I went over to ask them if they planned to “do” anything. “We’re just keeping an eye on things,” they told me. “Who are you?” Then, they asked me what “they” (the people who were occupying the flat) had inside the flats. I told them that the occupiers had found a bunch of nice flats that should be lived in. As they have.

I also spoke to one of the Carpenters’ estate residents. He wanted to go inside the reopened flats to see how the flats looked. He said he was worried about getting into trouble with the council, though, and so decided against going in.

Inside the flats: sitting room

Kitchen:

Bathroom:

This is a video I took several weeks ago inside the tower block at the estate. It’s jumpy, because I had to shove my phone under the boarded-up door of the empty flat I filmed here to get pictures. You can see that the flat is in pretty good condition, though. It’s empty, though.

New short film with the Daily Mirror: Save the Independent Living Fund! #SaveILF

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Kate B

New short film about the fight for the Independent Living Fund I’ve made with False Economy, Ros Wynne Jones at The Daily Mirror, Disabled People Against Cuts and Moore Lavan Films.

The ILF is a fund that disabled people use to pay for the extra care hours (personal assistance) that they need to live full and independent lives. The government plans to close the fund in June 2015 – even though the court of appeal overturned a previous closure decision at the end of last year.

The film features Mark Williams and Daphne Branchflower – two disabled people who talk about their lives and interests, and the central role that ILF funding plays for them. The film also features Angela Smith, a disabled woman who does not receive ILF and must rely solely on her cash-strapped local council care system.

Disabled people will again fight the government for the ILF in court on 22 and 23 October. See Disabled People Against Cuts for regular updates on campaigning and events, and https://www.facebook.com/ILFpostcard to take part in the Save the Independent Living Fund postcard campaign on facebook.

Earlier this year, disabled people occupied Westminster Abbey to protest at government plans to close the ILF. Disabled people have every right to independence and to live their lives just like everyone else expects to. This fight against government can’t and won’t be lost.

We’re all in it together – aren’t we? from Moore Lavan Films on Vimeo.

Local people were ignored – why an 83-year-old man is occupying a carehome & why politics is losing everybody

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Kate B

Update 24 September 3pm: Just spoke to Michelle Robson, who is 84-year-old Don Robson’s daughter-in-law. Don is an 84-year-old ex-headteacher who has been occupying the Newtown house carehome in Durham since last Thursday in protest at Durham council’s plans to close the carehome (see posts and interviews below). Apparently, council security at Don’s 84th birthday party at the occupied Newtown house carehome is heavy – see the 23 September update post below for more on the warning letter about security for the party that Durham County Council sent the family yesterday. There are six – SIX – bouncers from a private security firm present. Michelle says Don’s great granddaughter and daughter were denied entry to the party. She also said that the council was trying to stop local press from covering the story now. Don and his family are due to be evicted from their occupation at 6pm. “It’s a fine day when upstanding people like ourselves have to do this to make our point,” Michelle just told me (there’s a long interview with her on the reasons for this occupation at the end of this post). She had heard about the Focus E15 occupation of the Carpenters’ estate and sent greetings to the Focus E15 campaigners. “Tell those ladies I’m with them in spirit.” I’m thinking that Durham county council is with Newham council in spirit…they don’t want campaigners and occupiers and people protesting at service and support cuts in their neck of the woods. If this is Labour reaching out to people, they may need to refine their approach.

Update 23 September: Well. I suspect that fear of a Focus E15-type occupation has spread north. Mr Robson’s family have received a letter from Durham county council which places very tight restrictions on his planned 84th-birthday celebrations tomorrow AND gives him his marching orders. The letter, which I’ve reproduced below and will post a copy of tomorrow (posted below now), says his occupation must end after his birthday party tomorrow and that the council expects him out. Don Robson and his daughter-in-law Michelle have been occupying the Newtown house carehome in Durham since last Thursday in protest at council plans to close it. You can read about that and an interview with Michelle after this transcript of the letter:

The letter from the council:

“I write to confirm that Durham County Counciil are prepared to consent to a birthday celebration being held for Mr Robson at Newtown House on 24 September 2014 between the hours of 12 noon and 6pm.

Since you spoke, however, we have been made aware that the party has been publicised in local, national and social media. This causes us to have serious concerns as to the management of the party and accordingly, we believe it is necessary for us to make our consent to the party conditional upon the following:

– No more than 15 people shall be permitted entry at any time to Newtown House for the purpose of celebrating Mr Robson’s birthday.
– The council consents to you inviting press to attend the party. However, please note that the restriction on numbers covers all attendees, whether press, family or other persons.
– The party will take place in a lounge to be designated by DCC staff.
– You are responsible for ensuring that no damage is caused to the property by the visitors.
– You are responsible for cleaning up after the party.

Please note that the council will be providing security personnel to protect its staff and property. Should these conditions not be complied with, the security personnel will be authorised to bring the party to an end.

For the avoidance of doubt, the council does not consent to your occupation of Newtown house beyond 24 September 2014 and reserves the right to deal with your unlawful occupation after the party if you don’t leave at that point.”

Well.

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September 21 – this occupation is still going on…

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Original post

So… while everyone is talking political upheaval and inclusive constitutions and disillusion with the left and the right and the Westminster elite – an 83-year-old Durham man called Don Robson is occupying the Newtown House carehome in rural Stanhope with his daughter-in-law Michelle. The two have decided to sit in to protest at a Durham county council decision to close Newtown House. They’ve been there since Thursday. They are still there today. Don is the last resident left at Newtown house.

Don has lived in Newtown house for about 21 months. He was supposed to leave on Thursday, but has not. Michelle and her husband received a letter from the council saying that they had to find Don another place to live by 18 September. Michelle says their plan is to stay at Newtown house until Wednesday next week at least, which is Don’s birthday, and for an occupation of Newtown house to continue after that. Don will celebrate his 84th birthday on Wednesday. Michelle told me that they’ll hold a party for Don at Newtown house: “we want to celebrate that big-style with the community and get people to come here and have a party for him. That’s the plan.”

The ultimate plan is for Don to move in with Michelle and her husband. They’ve prepared a room for him in their home. Michelle says that is their only option. The next-nearest and most appropriate carehome for Don is a 50-mile round-trip from her home. That’s no good: Michelle and her husband like to visit Don daily, but they won’t be able to if each visit involves a 50-mile round-trip. The council told local ITV news that it couldn’t afford to keep Newtown house open.

Michelle says that the council is going ahead with the closure, because it is a Labour council and wants to be in a position to blame cuts “on the coalition government.” She says “the majority of opinions voiced over the closure were in favour of keeping Newtown house,” but that local people were ignored.

I’ve heard that sentence an awful lot over the last few years from disgruntled people around the country: “local people were ignored.” So. This is where loathing of politicians comes from, people. This is how it starts. It starts when local people who are trying to hang onto a much-admired neighbourhood service are loftily informed by their local councillors that the service is surplus to requirements and that’s the end of the story. I suspect that the political class thought it would get away with dismissing locals of all political stripes in this way forever. I wonder if the political class feels a little differently about that after the scare its main parties had in Scotland. An elderly man sitting in at a carehome is an interesting event. In its way, it is as relevant as the independence debate in Scotland has been. People get tired of hearing that they don’t count. They really do. Continue reading →

This Sunday – #FocusE15 birthday celebration following by a top secret housing action…

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Kate B

The Focus E15 campaign invites you to join a day of fun and music on the almost-empty Carpenters Estate in Stratford….

I’m going to post some photos we took recently of parts of that empty estate. It’s disgusting that the estate lies empty when so many people desperately need homes.

Later in the afternoon on Sunday, partygoers will become activists as they will be led to a top secret housing action in the Newham area…

Join the women as they continue to fight for social housing for all.

Meet at:

Sunday 2pm
Carpenters Estate, Stratford, London, E15

Will post more on this soon. Wifi is a bit average where I am atm. Here’s a video to enjoy in the meantime, though – Newham Mayor Robin Wales running away from the Focus E15 women as they lobbied for social housing at a council meeting. I really like this video. That man is not good under pressure. Look at him run.

83-year-old resident occupies Newtown House carehome in Durham

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Kate B

As the BBC is reporting today:

An occupation of Durham County Council’s last remaining care home, Newtown House, Stanhope, is underway. The carehome is being occupied by the final remaining resident, Don Robson, who is 83, and his daughter in law, Michelle Robson. The occupation began today at 12pm. And they’re still there.

Michelle Robson said:
“Don and I are occupying Newtown House today because we feel we have been left with no choice and believe the wider public need to know how badly residents and their families have been treated by Durham County Council.

“We have campaigned tirelessly for over a year to stop the council from closing Newtown House and are absolutely appalled by the way the closure decision has been reached.

“We believe the removal of residential care is not only a gross dereliction of Durham County Council’s responsibilities, but also a massive kick in the teeth to the rural community of Weardale.

“Don and the other residents have been abandoned and it’s beyond disgraceful that elderly people are being forced out of their homes with no real alternative in place.

Our action today is not a publicity stunt and has a huge amount of support not only from the local community, but also on a national level, as others are also fighting similar closures.

“We will not allow Don to be treated in this way and ultimately it will mean that we will have to care for Don in our own home. We don’t know how we will manage but we will not put Don through any more distress. It’s unacceptable and he deserves better. Continue reading →

Your Choice Barnet careworkers: managers slaughter our wages and then just leave

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Kate B

Barnet and Doncaster careworkers on strike this week. Doncaster careworkers want to be returned to the NHS (their service was outsourced to Care UK). Barnet careworkers want to work for the council again (their service was outsourced to a trading company) Photo from Barnet Unison.

Update 14 September 2014:

Your Choice Barnet careworkers will be lobbying Barnet council outside Hendon town hall from 6pm to 7pm tomorrow, as councillors meet to discuss further privatisation of services. It is testimony to Barnet council’s joke status that it can discuss further outsourcing – apparently in all seriousness – at exactly the moment that the council’s already-outsourced Your Choice careworkers take strike action in protest at the the effects privatisation have had on services for disabled people and staff working conditions. Their fight is discussed in this post below.

The careworkers will also take tomorrow night’s lobby as a chance to make known their feelings about Your Choice Barnet chief executive Tracey Lees. Lees implied last week that the workers who took strike action last week were disloyal to service users, and not committed to their jobs – for all the world as though already-low-paid workers take strike action without a second thought. No matter that those careworkers are trying to protect staff-to-service-user-ratios and the whole service generally from the cuts that will put services for disabled adults in Barnet in the danger zone. No matter that they risk their own jobs and incomes to do that.

Your Choice Barnet careworkers’ lobby and strikes to defend careworkers and services for disabled adults this week:

Monday 15 September 2014 lobby outside Hendon Town Hall 6 – 7 pm

Wednesday 17 September 2014 Strike action, picket lines at Flower lane, Rosa Morrison, Community Space, start 7.30 am.

Thursday 18 September 2014 Strike action, picket lines at Flower lane, Rosa Morrison, Community Space, start 7.30 am.

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Original post – striking Your Choice Barnet careworkers speak:

By total coincidence, one of the people Your Choice Barnet careworkers met this week when they were in Mill Hill handing out leaflets about their strike action was an agency careworker. He was incensed about his own pay and working conditions, to say the very least. He stopped to take a leaflet and he really let fly.

He had trouble with his housing benefit, I think – it sounded like a miscalculation and overpayments problem.

Anyway – Nigel Farage will be the beneficiary of this man’s experience. “I’m going to vote UKIP,” this careworker said furiously. Everyone other politician was useless as far as this man was concerned. He had a point. Nobody would help him. His pay was so low and his costs were so high that he wasn’t sure he could stay in his home. “I earn £102 a week. It’s about 15 hours a week at £7 an hour. Barnet council say I’m earning too much for them to pay my £300 rent. They’ve given me £58 a week and they’ve stopped me £15 week on top of that, because they say that they’ve been overpaying me since March. So, I’m living on £42 a week. I went to spoke to my MP – the Conservative Finchley MP. He had a look at the letters and he said “there’s nothing I can do. That’s the rules. I’m living on £42 a week. ”

So.

The YCB strikers I was with had some sympathy for this bloke, as well they might. Their situation is dire too.

Two years ago, the support and day services they provide for disabled people were moved from the council into Your Choice Barnet, part of the Barnet Group trading company which the council seemed to think should and would make large profits (out of disabled people and their support funds).

This hope was built on sand, of course. The promised Your Choice profits never came to pass. About a year after its glorious launch, Your Choice Barnet management began to bleat about debt and to claim that the only way to make the business “competitive” was to cut careworkers’ wages and staff numbers.

The company duly set about a very unpopular restructure, with predictable results. Staff left, or were made redundant, and the rest are still fighting to hang onto their jobs and already-small wages. Barnet Unison says that about 145 full time equivalent staff were transferred from adult services to the trading company in 2012. After the “restructure” last year and cuts to shift allowance pay, only about 105 FTE staff are in place now – a 30% cut in staffing levels.

Now, careworkers are trying to make Your Choice Barnet management to overturn a 9.5% wage cut which was imposed on them (on the careworkers, that is) in April this year. Careworkers report wage cuts between £100 and £250 a month. That’s why they took two days’ strike action this and why next week, they’re taking more. They want the service to be taken back inhouse by the council. Meanwhile, Andrew Travers, Barnet council’s amazingly crass chief executive, has been turning out on twitter to brag about the opportunities the Barnet Group offer for growth – even as careworkers at the company prepared to strike. Brilliant. I guess was can expect that Travers will restore the careworkers’ lost wages and jobs if that growth transpires. Very big If there, of course.

Anyway. Here are two transcripts from interviews I did with Your Choice Barnet careworkers this week as they took their first two days of strike action in this round. They describe their worries about low staff-to-client ratios, the problems presented at places that are increasingly staffed with low-paid, inexperienced agency workers and how it feels to lose a couple of hundred quid a month when you’ve got a mortgage or rent to pay, and you’ve given more than ten years to a job and have acquired a great deal of experience. This is the world of care and support work. You’re on low pay and you know that it will just keep getting lower unless you fight hard.

And just btw – if Your Choice Barnet doesn’t like any of this – tough shit. That company can let me come in for a couple of weeks to see how things are working out in these services. Transparency around the issues raised by these struggling careworkers would be useful. The last time I saw members of that company’s board, they were running out of a meeting to avoid Your Choice Barnet service users and their families who were furious about YCB’s proposed staff and wage cuts. You can see that action here.

Celia* (name changed). Has been working as a Barnet careworker for 13 years. Now a support worker for adults with autism.

“Our service is for adults with autism. We have people who have one-to-one support and two-to-one support as well. We have a daycentre with inhouse activities and computer sessions, sensory activities, lots of activities in the community. I work 36 hours a week.

“The [9.5%] pay cut started off this year with a consultation period. But when we were moved from Barnet council to the Your Choice Barnet [company in 2012], we were told that [our wages and conditions] were going to be safe. A couple of years ago, we were told that we were going to be safe. Then a year later, they came back and said that they were running the business at a loss. They said they need to make cuts to make savings – 400k. That’s a lot of wages. Continue reading →

Prat CE boasts about “opportunities” for private care company – as that company’s careworkers prepare to strike against wage cuts

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Kate B

Update 9 September:

The Barnet careworkers continue their strike in protest at pay cuts today. There will be a rally outside Barnet House at 1pm: 1255 High Road, London N20 0EJ.

Update 7 September:

The Barnet careworkers who work for the private care company about which useless Barnet Council CE Andrew Travers boasts in the report below are on strike tomorrow. The careworkers’ jobs – all provide support services for disabled people – were outsourced to a now-famously-failed, profit-focused organisation called Your Choice Barnet in 2012. Over the next few weeks, the careworkers will take action in protest at a near-ten-percent pay cut, redundancies, Your Choice Barnet’s failed business model and management’s insistence that Your Choice Barnet will only become competitive if careworkers work for almost nothing in dangerously understaffed circumstances.

Details for the next two days’ pickets and strike action are:

Monday 8 September 2014 strike action, picket lines at Flower lane, Rosa Morrison, Community Space, start 7.30am onwards.

Tuesday 9 September 2014 strike action, picket lines at Flower lane, Rosa Morrison, Community Space, start 7.30 am onwards.

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Original post 3 September 2014:

Early days I know, but I’m calling it: Barnet Council chief executive Andrew Travers has sent September 2014’s twattiest and most disingenuous CE tweet.

Yesterday, Travers tweeted a picture of a group of people watching a Barnet worthy give a presentation.

Travers’ tweet: “Staff briefing to the Barnet Group sets out opportunities for growth.”

Staff briefing to the Barnet Group sets out opportunities for growth pic.twitter.com/M3cfzMwzRo

— Andrew Travers (@atravers60) September 2, 2014

That tweet implied very strongly that there were and are opportunities for growth at the Barnet Group. Unfortunately, Travers’ tweet neglected to mention a key part of the picture: that growth at this Group comes at the expense of careworkers and disabled people, and that the Group’s attacks on already low-paid careworkers’ wages and conditions have been so severe that careworkers will start strike action on Monday September 8. Travers’ timeline has been very quiet on that bit. I’ve been watching his feed for redress on this point, but so far – none.

The Barnet Group is parent company to Your Choice Barnet, a part of the profit-driven Group local authority trading company to which Barnet Council services for people with physical and learning difficulties were outsourced in 2012.

That outsourcing was presented to the public on a very big pile of marketing horseshit: the council claimed that the trading company would return mighty profits and that disabled people from all over would abandon their own local services and pay good money to travel absolute miles in the rain, etc, to participate in Barnet’s.

It was clear to anyone who thought about it for even two minutes that this “concept” was a complete non-starter. I’ve read a lot of council bollocks in my time, but the so-called business plan for Your Choice Barnet really took the biscuit. John Sullivan, the father of a Barnet woman who uses those services, described the whole notion to me as “mental masturbation.” It’s still hard to think of a better description.

The council business case was full of utterly unsubstantiated claims about profit opportunities and possible markets. In a report for Barnet Unison at the time, the academic and outsourcing expert Dexter Whitfield observed that there was “no assurance provided on the quality or reliability of data and assumptions used,” in the council’s business plan. He also noted that “ethical and moral issues concerning why adult services should be expected to have such high level of profitability are absent from the business case and the report to cabinet.” He wondered, in other words, why a company should be looking to make big money out of disabled people and why the council didn’t want to discuss that. It really is priceless stuff, this council business planning for the care sector. Basically, it involves sitting round in a boardroom and pulling random numbers out of your arse. Then you tell experienced careworkers that £7 an hour or whatever is reasonable money – for them, that is – and that they can live without weekend enhancement pay and decent sick leave. You do that sort of thing for a bit and then tweet about upcoming management triumphs. Brilliant.

Needless to say, the promised Your Choice profits never came to pass. Disabled people did not descend on Barnet in their masses to pay for and participate in Barnet services for disabled people. A year ago, the company resurfaced to bleat about debt and claim that the only way to claw money back was to cut careworkers’ wages and staff numbers. That has hit the services, all right. Barnet Unison says that about 145 full time equivalent staff were transferred from adult services to the trading company in 2012. After the “restructure” last year and cuts to shift allowance pay, only about 105 FTE staff are in place now – a 30% cut in staffing levels.

On Monday and Tuesday next week, those careworkers begin strike action against a 9.5% pay cut. They plan to meet up on Tuesday with the striking Doncaster careworkers too. This is an interesting and important point. The Doncaster careworkers, who were recently transferred from the NHS to the private company CareUK, have been striking for weeks in protest at CareUK’s cuts to their pay and conditions. They can’t live on that money and have already had to give up their homes. That fight has started to generate a lot of mainstream publicity. People are beginning to understand that careworkers are at the front of a battle for wages that people can actually live on. They are beginning to understand that these private companies make money by paying their workers almost nothing. If careworkers from different parts of the country are meeting up to join forces – well, that will give Andrew Travers something to tweet about all right. And if he can’t manage it, I certainly will. Monday and Tuesday next week, comrades. See you there.

Doncaster careworker: I had to leave my flat because #CareUK wage cuts made paying rent impossible

Posted on August 27, 2014 by Kate B

Update September 1: More careworkers to take strike action – workers at the Your Choice Barnet company on September 8 and 9:

Video I took last year: people with learning difficulties and their families yell at the Your Choice Barnet board as the board refuses to discuss attacks on careworkers’ wages and walks out of a meeting:

Unison careworkers who work for the outsourced Your Choice Barnet company will take strike action on September 8 and 9 with another four days of action to follow.

Your Choice Barnet careworkers are fighting a harsh 9.5% pay cut imposed by private sector management. Like the striking Doncaster careworkers in the video below, the Barnet Your Choice careworkers provide services to people with learning difficulties. Those services were transferred into a local authority trading company by Barnet council in 2012.

Last year, Alan White and I wrote a detailed story for the New Statesman about that failed Barnet privatisation of services for people learning difficulties.

Your Choice Barnet was originally set up by the council as part of the so-called Barnet Group – a trading company which would “provide” housing and services for adults with disabilities. The council had the wild, and entirely unsubstantiated, idea that the company could make a profit and that people with learning difficulties would pay to come from all over London to use this Barnet service.

John Sullivan, the father of Susan Sullivan, a woman with Down’s Syndrome who relied on Barnet services for people with learning difficulties, told us that the name Your Choice was very ironic indeed:

“There was no consultation. We expected letters and so forth: in fact we never got a single phone call to tell us what was going on… The first meeting for residents was a disaster. It was clear there was no structure – Susan would be dragged around a series of shops and garden centres [for something to do]. She needs two things – continuity, and her friends: the people she’s been friends with since they were kids.”

John described the company’s claims that it could make a profit as “mental masturbation.” He was absolutely right. The promised profits never materialised. Instead – true to private sector form – Your Choice Barnet presented staff with plans to slash their wages last year. Your Choice Barnet said the wages cuts were necessary to keep the company competitive.

The Doncaster careworkers below are hearing the same thing from Care UK, their private sector employer. The Fremantle careworkers, another group of Barnet careworkers who I wrote about in detail here, were told the same thing. They lost their weekend enhancement pay – the extra money that made carework possible to live on as a job – and had their sick leave reduced to the statutory minimum.

This is why carework is in such dire straits. Services are outsourced to the private sector, which sets about grabbing cash by slashing careworkers’ wages to amounts that are too small to live on. We live in an era where already-low-paid workers and people with learning difficulties are considered acceptable collateral in that cash grab.

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Orginal post with striking Doncaster careworkers 27 August 2014:

Have more to add to this, but here’s a short post for those who are wondering why it is becoming impossible to make a living at carework:

Today, I spoke with Doncaster careworkers, including Mags Dalton, 44, who were protesting outside Bridgepoint Capital about charming private firm Care UK’s massive cuts to Doncaster careworkers’ wages. The careworkers work with people who have learning difficulties. Bridgepoint is the private equity company that owns Care UK – Mags’ employer.

Mags has lost about £400 a month as a result of those wages cuts and has been on strike for days this year in protest. Now, she’s had to give up her flat because she couldn’t afford the rent any more. She will move back to Newcastle to live with her parents. She will start another job and try to save up to move into another flat of her own at some point.

Mags is one of a number of Doncaster careworkers who have (and are as we speak) taken lengthy strike action in protest at the pay cuts of up to 35% being forced through by Care UK. Careworkers were transferred from the NHS to Care UK when the service was recently outsourced.

True to private sector form, Care UK quickly turned its attention to careworkers’ wages and conditions – wages and conditions which were hardly generous in the first place. Sick leave has been cut to the statutory minimum (the first three sick days must be taken without pay) and weekend and night pay enhancements slashed. New starters begin on £7 an hour – which means, of course, that workers won’t stay if they can find work elsewhere that pays even a little bit better. The pay cuts have hit hard. Mags’ rent was £465 a month and her £400-a-month wage loss put the rent beyond her.

So now, at age 44, she’s got to head home and live with her parents while she tries to save for a new place. She has lived in Doncaster for years: “I made a life for myself in Doncaster with friends that I love and a job that I love. I only signed up for the house a year ago. I moved in on the 26th of June last year and the 25th of June this year, I moved out. How did that happen.”

This is exactly what happened to the outsourced careworkers at Fremantle in Barnet, who I talked with over the course of their months-long strike action several years ago. People who provide (as in work as careworkers) and use social care services are being destroyed by privatisation and it’s been going on for a very long while. Under governments of a variety of stripes, may I add.

Hope government loses this one as well: second court case on Independent Living Fund #SaveILF

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Kate B

From Disabled People Against Cuts:

A second court case against the DWP on the closure of the Independent Living Fund (ILF) will take place at the Royal Courts of Justice on 22 and 23 of October. The hearing is expected to last one and half days.

The ILF is the fund severely disabled people use to pay for the extra care hours they need to live independent lives. Last year, the court of appeal overturned a government decision to close the ILF. In spite of that, the government has announced again that the ILF will close. That’s why disabled people are taking the government back to court. Without the ILF, they will lose their hard-won independence.

There will be a vigil outside the courts from 12.30pm on 22 October to support the ILF users who are taking the case and disabled people’s right to independent living as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Article 19.

Article 19: “Living independently and being included in the community”, states that “disabled people have a right to live in the community; with the support they need and can make choices like other people do”.

Please join the vigil to show your support!

The closure of the ILF has obvious implications for the UK’s chances of meeting such obligations. Most importantly for those disabled people who will lose this financial support – they will lose any independence and choice in their lives.

Video: ILF recipient Kevin Caulfield on the role that the ILF plays in his life and independence:

Video: ILF recipient Gabriel Pepper, who has had three brain tumours, explains how he uses the ILF to pay for the carers who help him out of his house and to live independently.

Video: June 28 – Disabled people occupy Westminster Abbey grounds to protest at the closure of the Independent Living Fund.

Kate Belgrave

Talking with people dealing with public sector cuts.

Author Archives: Kate B