Council Jobs to Go -10% Staff Saving Needed

macaque_2

Poppy9

"Public sector expenditure has grown as the population ages and has more needs aside from all the other expectations we have of public services. Among the services you LA provide are:"

• Social Services for children, elderly disabled, mentally ill and learning disabled. It is the job of parents to look after children, the councils main interest in the elderly is to get their hands on their houses, the mentally ill are not looked after well in this country.
• Education and lifelong learning which includes adult education classes and libraries. Education is the job of schools and colleges, not councils
• Enviromental services which include:
  Abandoned Vehicles Abandoned cars are disposed of by private companies.
  Animals What does this mean?
  Building Control What building controls?
  Cleaning and Litter A worthwhile and necessary job of the council
  Commercial Waste Commercial waste is disposed of by private companies
  Commons Registration What is this?
  Composting What on earth has composting to do with councils
  Food - cafe, pubs, restaurants etc. What has this got to do with Councils?
  Health and Safety Inspections public premises i.e. shops Why do we need safety inspections of public
  Local Land Charges Stop making land charges
  Pest Control A minor service that is already in decline
  Planning A necessary job
  Pollution This is duplicating the work of the EA.
  Problem Hedges This is hardly a major job
• Recycling The UK has the worst record in recycling in Europe
  Rubbish Collection A service which declines each year
  Trading Standards A weak and toothless service
  Tree Preservation Orders How many people does this need
  Waste Services What's the difference between this and rubbi
• Culture and Recreation (this includes parks, theatres, leisure centres). A declining service
• Highways. - Road building and maintenance. Public highway lighting Road quality is declining
• Burials and cremations Which they charge for

Local authorities do far too many things and neglect the essentials.

greenwheels007

Woah lots of angry red writing there, bad karma dude!

I think you will find that the LA fund schools, regulate the services which are sometimes out sourced but generally keep things ticking along for us all.

Not an LA employee yourself methinks?

MrsE_2

macaque wrote: »

Poppy9

"Public sector expenditure has grown as the population ages and has more needs aside from all the other expectations we have of public services. Among the services you LA provide are:"

• Social Services for children, elderly disabled, mentally ill and learning disabled. It is the job of parents to look after children, the councils main interest in the elderly is to get their hands on their houses, the mentally ill are not looked after well in this country.
• Education and lifelong learning which includes adult education classes and libraries. Education is the job of schools and colleges, not council.

If ALL parents looked after their children properly there would be no baby Ps, but some don't & we need social services to try & protect children from these types of awful childhoods.
Councils DO have an interest in education. Excluded pupils (& pupils off for medical reasons) are educated by the council. SEN is dealt with by the council & much more.

Old_Slaphead

MrsE wrote: »

[/list]If ALL parents looked after their children properly there would be no baby Ps, but some don't & we need social services to try & protect children from these types of awful childhoods.
Councils DO have an interest in education. Excluded pupils (& pupils off for medical reasons) are educated by the council. SEN is dealt with by the council & much more.

It's about time the Gov't started sorting these bad parents out and stopped giving encouragement, via handouts, to young single girls to get pregnant as an escape route. What hope is there for the next generation if this one can't face up to their problems?

Discipline and responsibility are what is required - the imposition of which this Government is sadly lacking.

Spend spend spend and leave the mess for someone else to sort out - that's the Labour Gov'ts mantra.

MrsE_2

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

It's about time the Gov't started sorting these bad parents out and stopped giving encouragement, via handouts, to young single girls to get pregnant as an escape route. What hope is there for the next generation if this one can't face up to their problems?

Discipline and responsibility are what is required - the imposition of which this Government is sadly lacking.

Spend spend spend and leave the mess for someone else to sort out - that's the Labour Gov'ts mantra.

I agree totally & I've heard the same words said by social workers.

Not all of them are stereotype raving lefties who are out of touch with the real world, most of them just want to make a difference.

beingjdc

I don't know why I'm bothering, but;

macaque wrote: »

the councils main interest in the elderly is to get their hands on their houses

Hardly. The pressure on Local Authority targets from Government is to provide the support elderly people need to carry on living in their own homes for as long as possible. After that, the Council takes the cost of care if they go through the council care route, but I can assure you it doesn't make a profit on them, quite the opposite.

Education is the job of schools and colleges, not councils

Who do you think funds schools and colleges, trains and recruits school governors, provides school buses, informs people what adult education courses are available where, and sorts out the situation where every parent in a town wants to send their kids to the one good school?

Abandoned cars are disposed of by private companies

No they aren't. Maybe if you leave your Rolls parked on the street and forget about it, a private company would 'dispose of it', but not a burned-out Ford Escort that's been joyridden onto the playing fields and torched.

What building controls?

Making sure bars have the amount of soundproofing from the neighbours that they promised, that clubs have fire escapes, that buildings open to the public are accessible in wheelchairs, etc.

Commercial waste is disposed of by private companies

Not round here or anywhere else I've lived it isn't, except insofar as those private companies are subcontractors of the Council - and even the stuff that's recyclable will increasingly not get picked up, given falling commodity prices.

Commons Registration What is this?

Village greens, and providing the local searches required when someone buys land to make sure that there aren't any public rights of way over it, historic grazing rights, and so on. A bigger deal in, say, The New Forest, than Lambeth, admittedly.

What on earth has composting to do with councils

Councils are taxed heavily by the European Union for every tonne of rubbish they send to landfill. Since 30% of the average household's waste can be composted, if a Council can encourage people to compost their waste, a lot of money can be saved.

Food - cafe, pubs, restaurants etc. What has this got to do with Councils?

Who do you think checks that the restaurant kitchen isn't covered in rat droppings, that the pub's serving you a full measure and not serving 15 year olds, that it closes at roughly the right time of night, has an actual alcohol licence in the first place, and so on? Yep, that pesky Council again!

Health and Safety Inspections public premises i.e. shops Why do we need safety inspections of public

To reduce incidences of food poisoning.

Local Land Charges Stop making land charges

You're quite funny, you don't actually know what a land charge is, do you?

Pollution This is duplicating the work of the EA.

Sort of. The Environment Agency deals with serious pollution incidents and setting overall standards and safety limits, but most local enforcement, for example a company setting fire to their rubbish to avoid paying to have it taken away, is done by the Council.

Waste Services What's the difference between this and rubbish

Collection and disposal are separate in a lot of areas, for reasons both good and bad.

olly300

Animals means dog fouling, strays and animal welfare

greenwheels007

Actually I have just realised how the good old LA staff keep the country afloat.
Let's hear it for us LA employees.
Maybe we can get a big pay rise - we're due one!
:T:T:T:T:T:beer::T:T:T:T:T:beer::T:T:T:T:T

olly300

greenwheels007 wrote: »

Actually I have just realised how the good old LA staff keep the country afloat.
Let's hear it for us LA employees.
Maybe we can get a big pay rise - we're due one!
:T:T:T:T:T:beer::T:T:T:T:T:beer::T:T:T:T:T

Ah no.........

Poppy9

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

If you read my posting it says that the AVERAGE pay in public sector is higher than in private - presumably you understand the meaning of average (it's one number divided into another and is meant to iron out all the ups and downs to show an overall picture).

That's mean:D not mode or median:rotfl:

Old_Slaphead wrote:

Anyway, I didn't do the calcs - they're from the Office for National Statistics (and they wouldn't lie would they ???). See paragraph 10 in Times article - apparently average pay public £27000 private £24000. Nice work if you can get it.

I fill in stat returns for one area of the LA. I compile them according to my interpretation of the notes of guidance. Believe it or not sometimes the notes of guidance are ambigious:rolleyes: so I ring the help number and ask them what do you mean by X in para. 6.... etc. a bit of discussion takes places about why I'm not clear what figures they want etc. and they then decide to take advice and ring me back. Sometimes they don't know the answer! I'm sure there are many you don't pay much attention to the NoG and just fill in what they think is wanted.

Unless everyone compiles their stats in exactly the same way they are meaningless.

Old_Slaphead wrote:

There are other stories in Mail and Telegraph but I assumed you'd think that was Tory propaganda.

so because I'm a public servant I must be a loony leftie?:rotfl:

Old_Slaphead wrote:

ps love the gear - is that your LA uniform

No silly, if that was my LA uniform it would have the council logo and motto on:D

Old_Slaphead wrote:

(not sure why a straw would be needed ???) Wish I'd now made more effort with my job app! I'll deffo see "public service" in a different light now.

That's why you didn't get the public sector job, no common sense. If you are wearing a straight jacket i.e. arms tied behind your back, how would you pick up your milky drink to drink it. A public sector worker would know that the most efficent and safest (thank God for H&S training) way would be to use a straw:rotfl:

Old_Slaphead wrote:

Oh, one other thing, it can't be that enticing in private sector or how come whenever any public sector department get's "threatened" with being transferred to private sector there's howls of protest, strike threats etc etc from unions & staff ?? I think you appreciate which side your bread's buttered on.

there are howls of protest as experience has shown when a service is outsourced to the private sector the service declines. Public servants want to provide a top class public service not a service that is motivated by profit.

Is it right that your council tax pays for a private company to make a profit?
Shouldn't services be run on a non profit making basis to provide the best value for council tax payers?

Old_Slaphead wrote:

Ok, some employees from a few big companies get decent T&Cs (mostly ex nationalised utilities which still have the old CS mentality and banks) but the vast majority of SMEs get nothing like the decent deals that many in the public sector get. Don't believe the papers when you see all this stuff about big bonuses etc - it's only a tiny, tiny minority mostly in London that get them. The rest of us get the semi-permanent threat of short-time working or redundancy to look forward to.

So don't believe them when it doesn't support your case but believe them when it does i.e.

Old_Slaphead wrote:

There are other stories in Mail and Telegraph but I assumed you'd think that was Tory propaganda.