by René Lavanchy
A new scheme to slash public spending by merging local services and making better use of resources, which the Government claims could save £20 billion, is in danger of being used as “a cleaver for cuts”, public sector union Unison has warned.
Communities and Local Government Secretary John Denham this week announced that 13 local pilots of the “Total Place” scheme promised “huge savings”.
But the union is concerned that the plans are untested and could be used to drive a political agenda for job losses in several public bodies as they cope with funding cuts. Councils in England and Wales have already announced a pay freeze for staff this year – a pay cut after inflation. Unison is calling in branch officials from the pilot areas this week to discuss the implications of Total Place.
In an unpublished newspaper article this week, Mr Denham wrote: “13 Total Place areas have now confirmed that big improvements and huge savings could be made by looking, not just at council services but all the local public services spending in the area.”
“Rather than services protecting their own territory and budgets, it means switching resources between different providers. This cuts out duplication, waste and bureaucracy, saving professionals’ time and services’ money”.
He insisted the scheme could improve services, for example by basing a school, library and childcare centre on one site. Public bodies could share staff and ring-fenced budgets could be abolished.
Mr Denham did not say if any organisations would be closed, but a report into Total Place published last month by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers said it “may call into question the viability of a number of agencies and bodies”.
Simon Watson, a national officer in Unison’s local government division, told Tribune this week that job cuts were not inevitable: “What they are looking to do is making services more efficient, and people can be retrained to take on new demand, for example in adult social care. We’re concerned that it’s going to be used to cut services. It doesn’t have to be like that.”
“There’s possibly some genuine savings that can be made there. It could be used to improve services or it could be used as a cleaver for cuts.”
But he added that the research on which savings claims were being based was unreliable. The PwC report, promising £11 billion of savings in London alone, offered “pretty flimsy evidence”, he said.
Alan Downey of consultants KPMG told BBC News this week that any significant cut in public spending would “inevitably” force down the public sector wage bill.
