Ex-Executive Director of CQC paid more than the Prime Minister as Bristol’s Head of Health and Social Care

A freedom of information disclosure reveals ex-executive director of CQC (Care Quality Commission), responsible for regulating the private care sector, was paid more than the Prime Minister’s annual salary for just 10 months work as Bristol City Council’s director of Health and Social Care.  David Johnstone left Bristol City Council very suddenly in April. Unite claims his advice was ‘ignored’ by Council leaders. As interim strategic director of Health and Social Care, Johnstone was paid £159,250 for only ten months work between May 2010 and March 2011: equivalent to £191,100 per annum.[i]  David Cameron’s salary is £142,000. Johnstone’s fee was £89,874 more than he would have received if formally appointed to the role through the Council’s standard recruitment practice. Unite claims that because his advice about the future of homecare services for older people in the City has been ignored, the Council’s Homecare workers will lose their jobs and the service will close.

Unite’s Steve Preddy commented: ‘Unite had no idea Johnstone was paid so much.  The only possible explanation for his enormously inflated wage is the expertise he offered as a specialist in the management of care services.  Johnstone personally assured all Homecare staff that their jobs were safe.  He recommended savings be made through better commissioning and more effective use of staff time.  This advice has been ignored by a Lib Dem administration who are now hell-bent on privatising all homecare in Bristol instead of managing this precious service in a responsible fashion.’

Johnstone was not the only person concerned about staff being ‘under-utilised’.[ii]  The Executive Member for Health and Social Care Dr Jon Rodgers has previously admitted ‘we can save £1000’s by using services effectively.  At the moment we commission services we don’t currently use and there is waste in the Council.’[iii]  However, rather than turning these wasted care hours into productive time spent with service users as recommended by Johnstone, Unite claims Lib Dems quickly dispensed with Johnstone’s services because they were determined to maximise the proportion of the Council’s care budget spent privately.

Johnstone had a ‘strong and successful record in leading and developing adult social care services’[iv] and replaced the previous interim director of health and social care who had worked for the Council for nearly 20 years.  Johnstone himself has been further replaced by another ‘interim’ Director.  His advice to the Council confirmed that ‘services would not be changed, good practice would be put in place instead’.[v]  In early 2011 the Lib Dems approved his budget plans to find savings from the Council own homecare service by reducing the use of agency staff, reducing sickness levels, and reducing management overheads.[vi]  However, days after Johnstone’s unexpected departure, the Council sent homecare staff letters informing them that their jobs were to be scrapped.  Although the Council subsequently apologised and withdrew the letters when trade unions made clear that the Council’s actions were unlawful, the process of transferring service users from Council provision to private companies has continued unabated.

Unite’s Steve Preddy commented: ‘The Council continually claim that private sector care is cheaper than that provided by the Council’s own workers but it is a failure of leadership and management that is the most significant factor in the disparity of costs.  Bristol people will be astonished to learn that the recommendations of a man considered to be worth more than the Prime Minister have been so callously ignored.’

For further information contact: Steve Preddy, Regional Officer, Unite

Mobile: 0776 446 7443, email: steve.preddy@unitetheunion.org

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[i] http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/use_of_consultants#incoming-185355

[ii] http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Home-care-help-face-shake/story-11238940-detail/story.html

[iii] https://www.bristol.gov.uk/committee/2011/ua/ua000/0127_5.pdf p14

[iv] http://www.lgcplus.com/briefings/services/adult-services/johnstone-heads-to-bristol-from-cqc/5014731.article

[v] https://www.bristol.gov.uk/committee/2010/sc/sc030/1124_mins.pdf p3

[vi] https://www.bristol.gov.uk/committee/2011/ua/ua000/0127_5.pdf p8

RESULT! Labour take control of the City and commit to Keep Bristol Home Care

Describing Home Care as a 'Watershed issue' for the council in Bristol, Helen Holland the leader of the minority labour group, had the bottle to stand up and take leadership of the City. Plans to privatise Bristol's in house Home Care service are consigned to the dustbin!

Last night the Lib Dems wouldnt go far enough, they wouldnt reject privatisation . . . so the Labour and the Conservative and Greens wouldnt back them. They lost control of the City.
Labour came forward and took up the reigns! Committed to an inhouse service, the Labour group showed leadership and stuck by us.

It was a meeting full of energy. Our campaign has been successful, we have kept the inhouse service. It doesnt mean there wont be changes, of course there will. The significance of this victory is that we have established the need for a Council to commit to its inhouse service, for the leadership of the council to commit to deliver services directly and respect its own workforce and the unique contribution we make to the communities of this City.

Councillors come good . . . so far . . .

Last night, Councillors met to try and form a leadership group for Bristol City Council. The Lib Dems tried on three separate occasions to gather enough support for them to take control, but Labour, Tories and the Green Councillor came good and solidly opposed them.

It means the meeting was suspended for 7 days to give everyone time to talk. One thing is clear, the plan to privatise the Home Care service will have to be shelved.

Let's see what discussions with all political parties over the next few days will uncover. They need to take responsibilty for a high quality, well managed, accountable, responsive, secure, service user focused Home Care service which puts the quality of the relationships between Home Care workers and service users as a top priority - just like the older and disabled people of Bristol asked them to!

March for Home Care

Last Friday was a fabulous day. The sun shone on hundreds of Home Care workers as we marched brisky, peacefully, yet noisily through the inner city ward of Easton, Bristol. Songs and chants included: Vote vote vote for Feruk Choudhury, kick ol' Kiely out the door; if we had a super-gun we would shoot him up the bum and we wont deal with Kiely any more - out the door!

Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC launched the march with some carefully chosen words of support and encouragement. Later, at the Rally in Easton Community Centre, our senior steward Allison Fitton read out messages of support from Care workers in America. Other speakers were Busharat Ali (Labour Candidiate for Lawrence Hill), Feruk Choudhury (Labour Candidate for Easton), Paulette North (Respect Candidate for Easton) and Paul Smith (prospective Labour MP for Bristol West). However, Stephanie Weston left many of us with tears in our eyes as she gave this speech:

"To my fellow Home Care Assistants of Bristol city council who are here and are so brave to stand up and be counted.

Every one of us carries enormous responsibilities, with pride.

We never know what we are going to come across when we start each shift. Anything could happen, and it’s down to us to sort out the crises and stay calm when others are frightened.

The people we care for are society’s hidden people. They are not customers; they are individuals who need our care. We are proud to help them to live in their own homes and support them in maintaining their dignity, pride, beliefs and independence.

If our service users are worried about anything
They talk to us
They trust us
They confide in us
And they do that because we are the friendly familiar face they see day after day and they feel secure in the fact we are part of the council and can be trusted.

People don’t trust the private sector because they know they are in it for profit. Homecare is a critically important service. We know that it should not be sold off at public action to the cheapest bidder. It is absolutely wrong that the most vulnerable members of our society should be paying the price for the council's finance problems.

If they want to cut costs then the council should start by saving the £800,000 per year that private agencies overcharge them.

Many of our service users have paid their taxes and national insurance all their lives. Most pay towards the cost of their care. And yet the council failed to consult them about the proposals to privatize a service which is a lifeline to many.

Perhaps it was an oversight
or
Perhaps they just didn’t care

Well we care!
The Councils plans are:
Ethically wrong
Socially wrong
Politically wrong

Shame on you Bristol City Council!

We are a voice for our service users and we will be heard. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with them, their families and the people of Bristol’s communities, who know the difference between right and wrong.

Councillor Keily has grabbed the headlines in today’s Evening Post offering us the chance to bid for running the Homecare business ourselves. He says it means we Home Care workers can all share in the profits.

Councillor Keily, we don’t want profits, we want decent jobs and high quality care. No one should make a profit out of care!

The Council should not underestimate our commitment to our service users. We are going to fight this privatization.

We have our service user’s support
We have massive public support
We have press support.

To my fellow Home Care workers I say:
For us to win this
Means we all must hold our heads up high
for what we do
for who we are
And how special our service is.
Don’t lose sight of it . . .

We are the women who do a job most people are not cut out to do, we are the women that most service users trust. We are the women who will not be silenced, bullied or appeased. We must Stand together and take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the future of Home Care
Is not as a private service but a public service where the care comes before the profit.

Care is not about profit - not for us, not for anyone!

As we prepare to demonstrate on our March for Home Care at 2pm today, liberal democrat councillor Mr Keily (in charge of Adult and Community Care) has grabbed the front page of the City's paper with an offer to the workers that we bid to run the Home Care service ourselves as social enterprise.
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=144913&command=displayContent&sourceNode=231190&home=yes&more_nodeId1=144922&contentPK=17145244

He has offered us this as an opportunity to run a democratic business where all workers can share in the profits. Doesn't he get it? NO ONE SHOULD MAKE A PROFIT FROM HOME CARE!

We will continue our campaign for a publicly-owned service which is accountable to the people of Bristol and delivers high-quality care.

California's support for Keep Bristol Home Care

On behalf of the 200,000 California homecare workers represented by the United Long-Term Care Workers' Union and California United Homecare Workers, we say to our homecare brothers and sisters in Bristol, England "We're With You!!!"

We stand with you in your fight to preserve quality care for the elderly and people with disabilities. We stand with you in your fight to win recognition and respect for the selfless, hard work of homecare. Your quality care brings companionship, dignity and independence to the most vulnerable people in society. There is no more important work in your community and your jobs should not be privatized.

Here in California, we are winning broader support from both Democrats and Republicans in beating back proposed cuts to homecare funding. With persistence, our voices are being heard and homecare workers are winning better wages and benefits every day.

Know that we share in your commitment and struggle and that there are 200,000 California homecare workers supporting you as you work toward what is fair, just and decent.

In Solidarity,
Tyrone Freeman
President
Long-Term Care Workers' Union
California United Homecare Workers

Marching on Easton

The campaign committee met and we decided to hold a march and rally in Easton next Friday. We were pleased to welcome Faruk Choudhury to our meeting and talk about developing our links with the Muslim community in the City. Faruk is the labour canditate standing against Lib Dem Cllr Keily in the Easton ward of Bristol. It is Cllr Keily who has pushed through the Council's privatisation plans. Keily is the executive member for Adult and Community Care and he hangs by a thread in his job with Labour having already decided he needs to go and the Torys putting him 'on probation'.

We will protest on Keily's home turf and the campaign committee is tasked with organising a strong turn out from the Home care Assistants for our afternoon of demonstration.

Home care assistants met last week - we are determined to step up our campaign

Because we care about our service users we have been unwilling to call for industrial action, and prefer to ask the people of Bristol to support us, this should not be seen by the council as a weakness we won't be silenced or appeased and we will not go away. We will take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that the future of homecare is as a public not a private service where the care comes before the profit.



Steps we are taking:

We have formed a committee of 34 Home care assistants who will lead campaign organisation

1. We will get involved with local council elections and back candidates who back us


2. We will keep positive and recognise that we are making good progress, we are proud of who we are and the jobs we do, we are proud to serve the older and disabled people of Bristol


3. We will gather as many signatures as possible for our petition
   
   We need our service users, their families and all people in Bristol to support us. We are ordinary working women, we are not trouble makers, but we are not a push-over. We will not abandon our service users and we will not be bullied out of our jobs.
   
   Please back our campaign and sign our online petition on the Council's website: http://www.bristol.gov.uk/items/epetition.html Keep Bristol Home Care. Please talk to us in the street, we wear a mint green uniform and there are hundreds of us. We need to know you care too.
   
   

Steph speaks to Council on behalf of Home care Assistants and Service Users

Stephanie Weston, Homecare Assistant and Shop Steward, gives a TV interview before her address to Councillors at the last full council meeting of this financial year:

Her speech. I address this full Council meeting because the financial year has been a complete disaster for the Older vulnerable people of Bristol. On behalf of the Homecare Assistants of the City I offer you this message:

We are disgusted at how we have been treated
We know the public has been misled
We know that service users are at risk
We will not give up fighting for our service users’ right to high quality care.
We will not be bullied out of our decent, public sector jobs, and cast aside into the private sector

We have repeatedly told Cabinet that there are problems with private sector carers. We have given them case after case of workers not knowing how to use a hoist, not knowing what a catheter bag is or a dossett box, almost unbelievably not knowing how to use a microwave.

I list below recent instances when private agency workers have failed turn up in the very sheltered housing unit where I work.

Agency staff arrived over three hours late
Service users didn't get morning medication prompt or breakfast until Council Homecare was alerted at 11am by an angry service user who was still awaiting care. By the time the agency staff had arrived the majority of the work had been covered by your in-house team.

Agency staff failed to arrive for a morning shift
Resulting in the Council Homecare having to scrabble around to fit in the extra work load and an extra member of staff being drafted in on their day off.

Agency staff failed to arrive for an afternoon / evening shift
After the agency member of staff failed to arrive for the start of the shift at 3pm our line manager called the agency to be told that the member of staff was on the way but may be late because of the bus. Our manager phoned them again at 4pm because the agency staff had still not arrived and was told that they didn't know where she was but would send another member of staff within the hour.

Despite promises throughout the evening no agency worker arrived which again caused inconvenience to the service users, extra workload to the member of staff who was on duty and compromised their safety and resulted in a member of staff coming in on her night off.

On all of the above occasions Bristol city home care stepped into the breach, working extra hours, covering extra workload.

On all of the above occasions the agency could not account for the whereabouts of its staff.


We have provided information about the massive turnover in agency staff. CSCI reports repeatedly criticise private agencies for arriving late for service user appointments or even not at all. When one of my own service users became a victim of private agency incompetence the worker did not bother to try and coax her out of bed in the morning and did not encourage her to take her tablets. As a consequence I found her at lunchtime, soaked in urine and struggling to sit upright with no pain relief. The Council has a recruitment freeze on in Home care, to cover a colleague’s maternity leave we have welcomed with open arms 12 different agency workers in just over 8 weeks. Yes, 12 different people to cover the work of one regular, friendly, reliable well-known face. Remember we work with people with dementia, recovering from strokes, the terminally ill. Is it right that they constantly open the door to complete strangers who are often not even in uniform?

So to bring you bang up to date, just this weekend a private agency Homecare has caused an injury to a service user and an injury to a Council Homecare on the same day because they failed to follow the correct manual handling procedure when using a hoist. These workers are not trained adequately, they are not paid adequately, they are not screened adequately, they are not supervised adequately – is it any wonder they are cheaper?

Homecare is a critically important service it should not be sold off at public auction to the cheapest bidder. The Council should be able to manage its own in house service properly; it is your best chance of providing a service to be proud of. In matters of the protection of vulnerable adults, when things go wrong the Council is blamed for its failure to monitor and oversee contracts properly and a multi-agency approach is blamed for failure to communicate properly. When things go wrong people die.

We already have 50% of the service in the private agencies – why can’t we keep 50% in house?

The Officers of the Council admit that the private agencies are overcharging them by at least £800,000 per year.

Part of my role as a Council Homecare is to provide a link between the Adult and Community Care directorate and the service user. If we are farmed out this link will be lost forever and our service users left vulnerable. Strong communication is vital to protect vulnerable adults. In house Homecare provides a lifeline to service users, if they are worried about anything they talk to us and they confide in us and they do that because we are part of the Council and they know that we act on things. The bottom line is that people don’t trust the private sector because they know they are in it for profit. It is just plain wrong for the Council to put cost cutting before the care of Bristol’s most vulnerable people.

You are at your last Council meeting of the year, no doubt thinking about the upcoming local elections. We are thinking about the upcoming local elections too and we will not go away. We will fight for our jobs and our service users. Any one of you who sits quietly and does not speak out against this wrong-headed privatisation is as guilty as the cabinet and the senior officers of Adult Community Care.

Please support Bristol City Council’s Homecare Assistants; please stand up for older and vulnerable people in our City.

Trade Union Statement made to Bristol's ruling Lib Dem Cabinet

Statement to Cabinet 22nd March 2007

Alun Beynon on behalf of the Transport and General Workers Union

This new report is even more of a shambles than the last. We have moved from vagueness about TUPE and firmness about savings; to vagueness about savings and firmness about TUPE ++. However, the Cabinet remains in an untenable position. Given half decent management, the price of an hour of Homecare is dependent upon labour costs. Therefore it is disingenuous to argue that you can protect terms and conditions, including those of new staff, while promising savings which will be spent on more care.

The Homecare workers know that transfer to the private sector would put them in a perilous position. TUPE ++ offers no guarantee of security and when the Council no longer directly employs staff it carries no liability either for making sure TUPE++ prevails or for equal pay. The likelihood is that, if transferred, these loyal women workers, will either be driven out of their jobs or suffer detrimental changes to their pay and conditions.

The independent sector is full of bad employers. The Council’s own research has established that all those aspects of terms and conditions of employment which mark out a bad employer from a good one, are prevalent within this group. Poor pay, no sick pay, holidays fixed at the statutory minimum, no travelling time between service users, no pensions and minimal training. The contrast with the Council’s terms and conditions is stark and illuminating.

However, it’s not too late for the Cabinet to see sense and to acknowledge that the way forward for any socially responsible politician will be to engage with their employees and their representative trade unions. At long last, the Homecare Business Unit is now well managed but years of incompetence will take time to put right. We are making real progress with improvements. In good faith, hundreds of Homecare Assistants have changed their hours of work and modernised their work practises. This management are trying to regain the confidence of employees who have lost trust in the Council, because for many years they were treated an inconvenient burden rather than as dedicated Care professionals. It is vital that trust is rebuilt and, provided this report is rejected, the trade unions will commit themselves to working with the management to ensure that high quality, cost effective care becomes a hallmark of the trust between Bristol City Council and its in-house provision.