Despite the constant demands formassive cuts in public spendingUNISON’s new Budget for Growthshows that we can afford to con-tinue to invest in public services. Infact cuts in public spending riskextending and deepening the re-cession. We must invest to help theeconomyrecover.The Toriestalk as ifpublic debtcaused thecrisis. It’sprivate cor-porate debtat almost300% ofnationalincome thatpushed thiscountry tothe brink of depression. Britainmust tackle falling incomes andrising unemployment. ProfessorDavid Blanchflowers, former Bankof England economist, has warnedthat cuts in public spending couldpush unemployment to 5million.The current public debt levels arefar from unprecedented. It is man-ageable.

Cuts are a false economyOn average every redundancy cre-ates £16,000 in extra costs to thepublic sector92% of the cost of employing apublic sector worker is recoupedby the state through increased taxrevenue and reduced benefit pay-

ments.

UNISON’s budget

UNISON believes that everyoneincluding the super rich should paytheir fair share.£4.7bn could be raised every yearby introducing a 50% tax rate onincomes over £100,000.

£14.9bn could be raised everyyear by introducing minimum taxrates to stop reliefs being used todisproportionally subsidise in-comes over £100,000.

Banks must pay back tax payers forthe bailouts. Estimates for the bail-out costs vary from £20bn to 120bn.

Public sector productivity contin-ues to improve. UNISON believesthat the following are ways to fur-ther increase productivity.£1bn could be saved by eradicat-ing healthcare acquired infectionsform the NHS. Extra cleaners wouldcost half this.£3bn would be saved in user feesand interest charges by replacingPFI with conventional public pro-curement.£2.8bn could be saved by endingcentral government use of privateconsultants.And of course the £76bn that couldbe saved over 40 years by cancel-ling trident.

The Budget for Growth can bedownloaded from http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/18887.pdf

revitaliseA briefing on UNISONScotland’s public services campaignIssue no 11 Spring 2010

Budget for Growth

An IMF report has warned that it istoo soon to cut public spending. Thereport warns that the economy is stillvery fragile and that “fiscal andmonetary stimulus may need to bemaintained well into 2010.”The Tories’ promised emergencybudget to rush in cuts in publicspending could, as happened in thepast, push the economy into adeeper crisis. The report puts the

UK’s budget deficit into context: 70%of countries are now running deficitshigher than 3% of GDP. The ratio ofdebt to GDP in so-called advanceeconomies was projected to risefrom 73% in 2007 to 109% in 2014.While this is the highest since the1950s it reflects the enormity of thedamage done to the economy by theunfettered greed of bankers. TheIMF warn that “unwinding the vastweb of domestic and internationalcrisis financial measures should be

done gradually and cautiously andmay take a considerable period oftime” band that “an early with-drawal of policy stimulus can bevery costly…. the risks associatedwith an early withdrawal …seem tooutweigh the risks of maintaining itfor longer that possible needed.”If even a famously “privatisation atany cost” organisation like the IMF iswarning against cuts in publicspending then it really must be abad idea.

IMF says no to cuts

Hospital cleaners are worth moreto society than bankers. In thewake of the financial crisis wheregreedy bankers brought the worldeconomy to the brink of collapsethe New Economics Foundationreport: A Bit Rich compares sixprofessions. The report uses“Social Return on InvestmentAnalysis” to quantify the socialenvironmentaland economicvalues of hospitalcleaners, recy-cling plant andchildcare work-ers and com-pares that to acity banker, anadvertising ex-ecutive and a taxaccountant. At atime when thereare constant callsfor job cuts in thepublic sector it’sa timely re-minder of thereal value of thework done bythese low paidworkers and theharm done by so-called wealthcreators.City bankersearn between £500,000 and £10million but destroy £7 of socialvalue for every pound in valuethey generate.For every pound a childcareworker earns they generate be-tween £7 and £9.50 worth ofbenefits to society.Advertising executives earn be-tween £50,000 and £12million butdestroy £11 of value for everypound in value they generate.Hospital cleaners generate £10in value for every pound theyare paid.

Recently calls for a fairer tax re-gime in the UK have been shouteddown by those who claim that weneed the rich and taxing them willmake us all poorer as they flee.The report rubbishes this andother myths about the super rich.

Rich Myth BustersThe City of London is essentialfor the UK economy: best esti-mates are that in contributes 3 percent a year in added value, manu-facturing’s contribution is 12.5 percent

We need to pay high salaries toattract and retain talent in the

UK: The reportshows that highsalaries don’tnecessarily re-flect talent. Peo-ple generallywant to live instable countrieswith a good in-frastructure,quality publicservices and therule of law.More equalcountries man-age to retainplenty of clevertalented peo-ple.

Workers inhighly paidjobs workharder: Peopleon low incomescan’t pay others

to take on their domestic and car-ing responsibilities. They are alsomore likely to have more than onejob. People on low incomes workas hard if not harder than highearners.

The rich contribute more to soci-ety: the rich pay a much smallerproportion of their earnings in taxthan the poor. VAT is highly re-gressive. The rich even give lessrelatively to charity than those onlower incomes.

This report provides valuable in-formation to support our cam-paigns for improved wages forlow paid workers and the need totackle high pay as well as low pay.The full report can be downloadedfrom: http://www.neweconomics.org

revitalise

Cleaners beat bankers Bits and Pieces

.

UNISON publicationsUNISON has produced a newbranch guide to supportbranches when faced with priva-tisation. It aims to help counterthe lazy assumptions made bythose who think that private ismore efficient than public par-ticularly round procurement. Asemployers increasingly look tooutsourcing in the mistaken be-lieve that it will save moneybranches need to be able tomake the argument for in houseservices. UNISON new branchguide The Case for In-house Ser-vices can be downloaded from.http://www.unison.org.uk/file/The%20case%20for%20in-house%20services%20-%20a%20branch%20guide.pdf

UNISON has also produced aguide to political devolution andheath services across the UK.The useful guide covers theemerging differences and simi-larities in health across the UK.The report is available from:http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/18890.pdf

A report by the New Local Gov-ernment Network ((NLGN) WeCan Work It Out: Local em-ployment and skills for eco-nomic recovery lays out ways inwhich local government can leadthe way out of recession. In par-ticular the report suggests thatfocusing on skills training wouldbe the best way to benefit longterm employment and economicgrowth locally.NLGN report argues that for whatit calls a “place-based” ap-proach for employment andskills, with greater local eco-nomic activism by councils tosteer funding towards particularsectors to stimulate new jobs”.It recommends that councilsshould ensure that the trainingavailable suits the economicneeds of the area. http://www.nlgn.org.uk/public/2010/we-can-work-it-out-local-employment-and-skills-for-economic-recovery/

In the constant steam of attacks onoverpaid public sector staff the realhard work they do to improve ser-vices is overlooked. Staff led initia-tives have though been achievingreal improvement in public services.A new book (by John Seddon) givingexamples of the use of “systemsthinking” in the public sector givesexamples of improved services to thepublic and real cost savings. The the-ory of systems thinking is that youimprove services through listening tousers and staff. His first book calledforScrapping the myth of choice: peopledon’t want to choose a hospital theyjust want a good oneScrap targets: they don’t work andpeople spend time trying to massagethe targetsScrap the obsession with sharing ad-ministrative and back office services inhuge call centres: because they don’twork half as well as letting workerstalk to the public.

Edinburgh Council: and GlasgowHousing Association (GHA) amongstothers have had real success withthese methods. GHA has allowedstaff to take the lead in designingprocesses and monitoring of servicesThey have now reduced rent arrearsby 2.4m and halved the time to lethouses .The book is available from TriarchyPress. http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/Systems_Thinking_Case_Studies.htm

revitaliseHealth Board Pilots UnderwaySystems thinking

A joint report for Audit Scotland andthe Accounts Commission for Scot-land indicate that the public sectorin Scotland has exceeded the effi-ciency targets set by the ScottishGovernment by more than half.

In 2008/09 the public sector in Scot-land reported £839million savingsagainst a target of £534m. The reportImproving Public sector Efficiencywarns that making 2 per cent savingwill not be enough to deal with ex-

pected future budget cuts and callsfor new approaches to increase effi-ciency and reduce spending. An-other report by the Accounts Com-mission into local authorities alsoshows that services are improving.

The report also calls for radical ac-tion because of what it calls of theimpact of the recession, stating“Councils need to develop a freshapproach to the way in which theyprepare budgets and plan servicesso they are best placed to generatethe efficiencies and savings re-quired.” Despite the calls for fresh

thinking the report suggest moreshared services, improved work-force planning, better asset manage-ment and procurement. Sound famil-iar?

The reports can be downloadedfrom Audit Scotland.http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/docs/central/2010/nr_100225_improving_efficiency.pdf

http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/docs/local/2010/nr_100218_local_authority_overview.pdf

Real Efficiency

The NHS Fife and NHS Dumfries and Galloway pilot direct elections tohealth boards are now underway. The ballot will close on June 9th. Theelection will take place by postal ballot and for the first time 16 and 17 yearolds will be able to vote. UNISON has long supported direct elections as ameans to increasing democracy and accountability in the health service.

The new boards will then have threetypes of members: elected ,appointedand local authority councillor. Whenadded together the directly electedmembers and councillors will make upthe majority of health board members.The pilot is a victory for a UNISON cam-paign. The boards will last a minimum totwo years and the pilots are being inde-pendently evaluated. UNISON hopes thiswill lead quickly to direct elections to allhealth boards. As the pilot also allowspeople aged 16 and 17 to take part thiswill hopefully boost campaigns to ex-tend the franchise to this age group forall elections.

Despite support in the Parliament for direct elections many are sceptical ofmoving away from appointed members. Two alternative non-statutory pi-lots are therefore also taking place in NHS Grampian and Lothian. The aimof these pilots is to improve diversity of board members by enhancing thecurrent appointment system. Members will be appointed to boards fromPublic Partnership Forums and other methods to improve diversity. UNI-SON is encouraging members to support the direct elections pilots so thehealth branches in the areas involved are meeting to discuss how they willencourage members to participate in this exciting development.

Details and deadlines are now available on the two health board websites.The details on the Dumfries and Galloway website show a pilot healthboard elections timetable of

15 / 22 April 2010: Nominations for Candidates open.

Candidate nomination form should be completed along with a 250word Candidate Profile Statement.

Nominations close on 6 May 2010.A similar timetable is available on the Fife website their elections.Branches are encouraged to support this exiting opportunity in enhancelocal democracy.

Well it is clear who the TaxDodgers Alliance see as their mainopponent in their campaign toattack services for the people ofthe UK – they have been burningthe midnight oil over at their plushoffices in the right-wing enclave inTufton Street to cut and paste theirlists of so-called ‘non-jobs’ ontoUNISON’s video attacking publicspending cuts - http://www.unison.org.uk/million/ .Utilising the Telegraph blog ofTory MEP Daniel Hannan - theman who recently rubbished theNHS as a ’60-year mistake’ inAmerica (on Fox news - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiSPRkq28iU ) – they have putthis video out in the media toclaim (as they always do) thatthere are loads of non-jobs in thepublic sector.Their lists of so-called non-jobsare also instructive. Many of them(for all the fancy names) are aboutdealing with the media. Are theysuggesting that the public sectordoesn’t have to deal with themisinformation that they andothers pump out on a daily basis?Indeed, I notice they themselveshave just appointed a ‘New Media

Co-ordinator’. I assume that issomeone to co-ordinate, ‘newmedia’ rather than a ‘new’ co-ordinator of all media. So,assuming that someone deals withthe ‘old’ media, that means thatthey have at least two. Well what issauce for the goose …!Drama therapists? – I think most

clinicians know the value oftherapy in healthcare – obviouslythe TPA neither knows nor cares.Green jobs – doesn’t surprise me.What are the TPA’s policies onclimate change? Do they acceptthat carbon emissions areincreasing global warming or not?Do they think that the polluters aregoing to reform themselveswithout regulation? Most peopleactually think that the public sectorshould lead the way in reducingcarbon emissions and carry outthe function of protecting theenvironment – who do they thinkshould do it? Exxon?But the one I am most surprised tonotice is the ‘Street Football Co-ordinator’. Maybe they thinkpeople have forgotten their mostwidely dropped clanger – but wehaven’t. This post was created byMoray Council in 2006 and – two

years later - the TPA whipped upits usual froth of righteousindignation about it. HoweverMoray Council’s press office (yesthat non-job) had other ideas andput the true story out.The job was in fact part-time, andtherefore the cost was half whatthe TPA – who had only noticed thetop-line salary – claimed. It wasonly part-funded by the council,the rest being paid by the police,by other agencies and by theprivate sector – the TPA’s chums –who were delighted that the workwas taking kids away fromvandalism and other anti socialbehaviour. So much so in fact thatthe council has been able tosecure funding until later this year–from all the original partners.So now we know – if you wantincreased vandalism,environmental damage, poorerhealthcare and authorities who areunable to put their views into themedia – lets thank the TPA!Chris Bartter on the UNISONBlog: http://unison-scotland.blogspot.com/

revitaliseBig business group rattled by UNISON video

If you are facing any particular challenges from issues highlighted in the bulletin, or if you have good examples of public servicessucceeding by following the Revitalise principles, please contact Kay Sillars in the P&I team. 0845 355 0845

Councils are increasingly bringingservices back in-house. Many ofthese councils (in England) are con-trolled by the Tories or “no overallcontrol”. This trend is therefore notdriven by ideology but by what anAPSE report calls “ “pragmatic andsound business reasons”

APSE identify four core reasons forthis trend.Poor performanceDrive for quality and value formoneyStrategic governance and local pol-icy driveWorkforceThe key benefits identified are

Improved performance andgovernance

Cost efficiency

Community wellbeing andsatisfaction

Local economy

Flexibility and added value

Service integration

Employment considerations

Quality of services.

Sustainability.

The APSE guide shows clearly thatsubstantial cost savings and in im-provements in service delivery canbe achieved through insourcing. It

gives many examples which can beused by branches fighting privatisa-tion . This report a useful tool whendrawing up alternative plans andcampaigning locally.It is also an excellent time to fight tobring previously outsourced servicesback in house. Insourcing: A guideto bringing local authority servicesback in-house is available fromAPSE. http://www.apse.org.uk/

Insourcing:best way to improve services!