New union attack on council

UNION chiefs have accused Warrington Borough Council of outsourcing a valuable service – with the decision taken at a behind-closed-doors meeting.
It was the second attack by the union on the Labour-controlled council in the run-up to Thursday’s borough elections.
Last week, Unison criticised the authority for allegedly spending on agency workers at the same time as making permanent staff redundant – a claim the council refuted.
Now Unison claims the council’s executive board ignored the union’s concerns and pressed ahead with a decision to outsource the Active Warrington service to leisure and lifestyle trust Livewire.
Jason Horan, Union’s joint branch secretary, said: “An email detailing specific concerns with the proposal and procurement process was sent to all the executive board members in advance of their meeting.
“However the executive board chose to ignore the content of the email and instead voted to proceed with officers’ recommendation to outsource the Active Warrington service to Livewire”
Mr Horan said the union had consistently raised issues about the proposal since October last year.
But it was clear it was the sole intention of what could only be described as an officer-led council was to outsource the service to Livewire.
He said the union was concerned at the absence of any tendering or procurement process which was a necessity when deciding who should run the services for the residents of Warrington – a process which also ensured value for money to council tax payers had been met.
The union believed the process had been far from open and transparent and that the organisations were hand-selected by officers to take part in a market testing exercise which would only produce one outcome.
Trade unions had been excluded from the process and only received a copy of the executive board report three hours before the decision was made.
Mr Horan added: “Unison will continue to challenge this proposal that sees yet another transfer of staff to a private organisation which is apparent was only ever going to be manufactured by an officer led council. This transfer of staff is just another signal that the Labour administration have no interest in keeping services under Local Authority control.”
A council spokesperson said: “The staff involved are keen to transfer to LiveWire. Since LiveWire came into existence it has grown its work force and now offers more services.
“We should also note that LiveWire is a not-for-profit community interest company, which means that any surplus it makes either goes back to be invested in services for the community or brings a reduction in LiveWire’s fee, which lessens the cost to the public.
“The decision to transfer the Active Warrington service to LiveWire was recommended following a market test exercise. This involved organisations which were already operating in Warrington and which could show a track record of delivering sports and activity development functions.
“LiveWire were able to strongly demonstrate synergy with their current service offer, a strong local focus and above all sustainability for the service going forward, along with protected employment conditions and future development opportunities for the four staff members involved.
“All unions including Unison were consulted about the proposals contained in the report and its recommendation prior to the executive board meeting.”