More Government Waste - A Twitter Marathon

How many of your family, friends, acquaintances or work colleagues use Twitter on a daily basis?  In my own circle I'm aware of only two and one is me. Most days I spend around ten minutes reading the links from my favourite bloggers.

If you use Twitter, how many of you follow your local council?  I don't.

However, that's of little importance to the financially hamstrung Scottish councils, all of whom are cutting back services because of cuts/efficiency savings imposed by the Scottish government.

From midday on next Tuesday 27 September, for 24 hours, almost all of Scotland's 32 local authorities will take part in a 24-hour Twitter event called What We Do. The aim is 'to give residents an insight into a day in the life of their council'.

Highland Council is among those taking part. Council budget leader David Alston said:

"Councils provide literally hundreds of services around the clock, 365 days a year, and this event will give service users a chance to see one day in the life of a council".  source

I can't speak for Highland Council but my own council severely restricted services from 24 December last year until 5 January. My local town was a death trap to shoppers and those of us who normally need travel by car found it impossible to park in any council car park (all of which make charges).  It's not so many years ago - in such snowy conditions - local farmers, complete with tractors fitted with snowploughs, would have appeared and had town roads and pavements cleared within hours. Not now. Health and safety I was told. Shopkeepers and home owners did their best to clear pavements although that resulted in ever increasing mounds of hard packed snow lying in gutters. Most older people was housebound, afraid they would slip and break a limb.

The 'event' has been organised by the National Communications (Advisory) Group - a taxpayer-funded quango - which has a membership of 74 and website activity of 23 member visits last month plus the excessive number of 3 contributions.  Obviously a highly active organisation which buzzes day and night with promoting their Communities of Practice.  The National Clommunications (sic) Advisory Group (Scotland)'s lead facilitator is Gill Kindness who is possibly responsible for this nonsensical Twitter marathon.

Should you considering registering with the NCAG, be aware of the terms and conditions regarding personal information. 'We collect personal information about you when you register to use the CoP Platform and as and when you use the CoP Platform. We have explained what this information is, what we do with it, and who we share it with and other related matters such as cookies in more detail in our Privacy Policy'.

My advice to NCAG would be, if they're so intent in using Twitter for this social experiment, call it 'What We Intend To Cut After The Budget'.  Maybe then a few council tax payers would read their tweets although I foresee some quite acerbic replies.

Of course, if councils decided to operate a Twitter marathon between this Christmas Eve and the 4 January next year, my opinion could alter, but that won't happen.  This event, I suggest, will be a series of pre-timed tweets. What a waste of money but we have to be grateful it won't be anything on this scale.

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A New Charity

Coldside Library, Dundee (pictured), with its long single storey curved frontage and elaborate ends - which still today remind me of bookends - is where I discovered my love for books.  To a young child it was an imposing building designed in 1904 by the City Architect of the time James Thomson.  He thought that neo-classicism was the correct style to maintain civic dignity and he had particularly idealistic views about leaving beautifully planned cities for future generations.  Such a shame his successors weren't of like minds, but that's another story.

I can recall my first visit in the 50s.  My father suggested I may like to go with him on his fortnightly visit and I jumped at the opportunity, because I was also told I just may be able to borrow a book if I behaved.  In those days children didn't have library tickets and books had to be borrowed on a parent's ticket.

En route my father must have told me several times that I should not say one word while we were in the building or we would be asked to leave.  The place sounded like something between a school classroom and prison but I was still anxious to see inside. The interior was breathtaking; what seemed miles of shelves decorated the walls with the exception of a corner which was equipped with what appeared to be back to back rows of school desks on stilts.  Running down the middle of the desks were lamps from which light arched precisely to the lower edges of the desks. Only later did I discover this was the 'reading section' where the public came to read newspapers and an international selection of professional journals.

For years I used this library and became a trusted book borrower; so much so that I was able to visit unaccompanied by a parent, although I had to produce one of their cards.

However, much as I treasure these nostalgic memories, there are changes afoot to libraries and other public buildings in Dundee. The city burghers are to set up a charity, to be named Leisure & Culture Dundee, to take them over.  The plan is to go before councillors next week and if the go-ahead is given, and I'm told it's already rubber stamped, the Office for the Scottish Charity (OSCR) will be asked to confirm the proposals.

Some of my Dundonian friends suspect this new charity is purely another quango and abuses the term charity, because all funding will come from public funds.  It would seem the main difference between it (the Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisations) and non-incorporate charities is that it is a legal form which offers some protection to charity trustees from personal liability.

My gripe is the use of the word 'charity' in connection with taxpayer-funded public services.  I consider charity to mean a particular type of voluntary organisation which has a distinctive legal form and a special tax status.  This new charity doesn't meet that definition so I expect it can be added to the list of Fake Charities. There must be some benefit to local authorities but I haven't found out what it is as yet. Only time will tell, but the burghers should be aware that Dundonians will be keeping a close eye on this development to ensure it involves no extra outlay.

Glasgow 'out sourced' their public services a few years ago.  It hasn't been much of a success.  I wish Dundee would explain why they're doing something similar but under a new label.


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A Preposterous Perk

Although I've been out of the employment market for a few years I shouldn't think procedures have changed too radically. Job descriptions continue to be the main source of information for those seeking work and these days many are available online as a download; a much faster system than writing to a personnel department requesting details.

Not only do job descriptions give the interested parties information about the position, but they provide details of working hours, salary and other benefits if any.

Local authority council leaders (chief executives) must be aware, prior to accepting the post, that very possibly they would be required to act as returning officers for national and local elections - including referenda - and the public would expect this particular duty to be covered by the very significant salary they receive.  Not so. They are paid bonuses for undertaking this part of their job: eye-watering sums of money can be claimed.

The Westminster government sets the 'additional payments' for national elections/referenda and the Scottish parliament determines the pay for Holyrood elections. This year returning officers could receive well over the average annual salary for supervising the AV referendum with Scottish CEOs receiving an additional fee for declaring regional Holyrood results.

Glasgow's CEO, who supervises nine constituencies, could earn around £44,000 on top of his £170,000 annual salary with Edinburgh's CEO, looking after five constituencies, not far behind at around £34,000 in addition to her £158,000 annual salary.

The government say that the fees are 'only maximum amounts and returning officers were not required to claim the full pay-out'.

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman said:

"The fee is paid for the returning officer's responsibility for organising the election in their area from start to finish, including setting up polling stations, making arrangements for ballot papers and organising the count. It is expected that returning officers are mindful of costs throughout all of these stages and keep costs to a minimum."  source

These fees/additional payments/bonuses are abhorrent.  Returning officer duties should be included in the CEOs' salaries and any overtime involved with the task should be rewarded exactly as it is for other public sector workers.

More and more senior public 'servants' are behaving like bankers yet the public say little.  There will be some who say without paying such salaries and perks local authorities would not attract the best people for the job.  I disagree.  Few council CEOs would achieve such pay outwith the public sector as most have gained their experience only within it and they certainly wouldn't receive the very handsome pensions and golden handshakes.

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Elderly Care Reform Or Balancing the Books?

The Scottish government is proposing moving approximately 38,000 council workers to the NHS under a radical plan to look after the elderly.

Under the government's plans Shona Robison, Health Minister, said older people could get better treatment with more integrated services.  The NHS would take charge of organising home care for patients who need support after leaving hospital.  It's also hoped the proposals, to be taken forward by a 'lead commissioning' group with £2m of backing, would save money and cut bed blocking.

"We want to see health and social care for adults delivered in an integrated way by NHS and council social work staff working together to give a seamless service.

"Evidence from partnerships in England shows more older people can get quicker care packages, cuts in delayed discharges, reduced length of stay in acute hospitals and fewer unplanned emergency admissions to hospital".

Let me get this right.  Currently some social workers are seconded from the local council to the relevant health board where they assist with problems, such as organising home care or care home places, concerning the hospitalised elderly. What is proposed is that these council staff will now be transferred onto the health board's books.  The council will then become 'lead commissioners'.

So all social work services for the elderly will no longer be provided by local authorities.  I presume local councils will continue to provide services for those who require home care or is this to be provided by the NHS?

Will the NHS be providing occupational therapy and such other services for those who have been discharged from hospital or will such services then be transferred back to local authorities?  As a means of saving money this sounds a non-starter if it is partly duplicating services currently provided by local councils.

It would appear to be an attempt to solve the problems created by handing the care of frail patients backwards and forwards between councils and the health service.  But will it? The NHS isn't any better than councils for making speedy decisions and I wonder if this change will improve the service for elderly patients.

The Herald also has some questions although welcomes the proposals in principle.  However, the affable Cosla president, Pat Watters, launched a strong attack on the plans, saying that during four years of debating the issue with the minister she had 'at no time raised this idea as the best way forward'.

The government do have Lord Sutherland, who reviewed Scotland's landmark free care for the elderly scheme, on side. "The time for talking is over.  It is now time just to get on with it."

I think the time for talking is only beginning.  The public need to understand the implications of this plan and I'm already confused.  Presently any frail person needing assistance with care contacts their local council. Will this change once these proposals are brought into practice in 2013? Is this proposal partly to redeploy local authority staff and save jobs?  I'm strongly in favour of jobs being saved but would be less happy if moving these workers to the already top-heavy administration of the NHS proved to be only a process to balance the books.

I suppose the devil will be in the detail of the proposal and once the Scottish government puts it online then we can all read what the future holds.

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