public service worries

natman

Hi.

I wanted to start a thread about the real situations with public service jobs following the government potential cuts.

I work in education and feel fine about the future,but my wife works for a large national childrens charity where the funding comes from government sources.
Her job is linked to childrens services & sure start. She supports very young girls who are pregnant and have little.

The charity she works for have said they cant plan what may happen in 2011 and redundancies may be on the cards. We have started to plan our finances better.we also have looked at the job market, but theres very little about.

My question is really to try and find out the reality of the cuts. Have you been made redundant? Have you been told what will happen next financial year? Is there any good news? Do you work for surestart and do you know whats on the horizon?
Thanks

diable

Most charities work on 12 month contracts so work is never guaranteed as it depends on what is flavour of the month, I hear the next big thing is helping Somalian goat herders downsize from a luxurious house in Notting Hill to a 3 bed in Brent.

natman

diable wrote: »

Most charities work on 12 month contracts so work is never guaranteed as it depends on what is flavour of the month, I hear the next big thing is helping Somalian goat herders downsize from a luxurious house in Notting Hill to a 3 bed in Brent.

Diable,

My wife has worked for charities for around 8 years and we understand the concept of the contracts being either short term or more concrete.
Some are for set periods and have to be renewed some are more permenant.

My question wasnt really about the charity work or what the next 'big thing is'. it was more about people working for public sector orginisations either directly or indirectly.
More specifically I was wondering about young people services and the effects of potential government cuts in that sector, not about goat herders.

Hope some people have other interesting points about the government cuts and potential loss of childrens services.

copperjar

I work for the public sector. Just found out today that my job is being "disestablished" as are 60% of the jobs at my level. This is the first part of the savings - then we will be on to cuts.

The (biggest) problem is that the Government has front loaded the cuts to local authorities. So the 28% cuts over 4 years actually means 14% in 2011-12, 7% 2012-13, 1% (bizarre!) 2013-14 and 6% in the final year. BIG savings need to be made in the next financial year.

My local council are looking at streamling big style - there is talk of somehow merging libraries and Sure Start centres on some of the services provided. They are also asking all charities to make 3% savings this year (until March 2011) and 10% 2011-12. So there will invariably be massive knock on effects.

It really is bleak.

dawyldthing

i think it all depends where you live - if you live in a small area with a large population the next few years will be a nightmare, but if its based on industry now a lot of companies are starting to reallocate back to Britain I believe (read about plusnet i think it was bringing 100 jobs back) then some areas will get more jobs

anoneemouse

Sorry to sound ignorant - but what does "disestablished" mean?

It is clear that the cuts are being front-loaded as regards Local Authorities (ie a large percentage of them in Year 1 - rather than being spread out evenly over the period). Does anyone know if the same thing is likely to happen as regards cuts elsewhere in the public sector (eg the Civil Service)?

copperjar

Disestablished = scrapped! Gone. Out of a job

natman

Thanks for the coments,
I was being nosey at work the other day and there was a local government seminar on.
it highlighted that 43million pound was being cut.

It highlighted that most of local government spending in this area was on childrens services and adult social service/social care.
If you took away these 2 factors in the spending cuts, what was left - i.e highway services, waste service, winter services, etc etc was actually less than 43 million....

so if basically adult and childrens social care/ services would be effected.
We live in the north west, and my partner works in a really deprived area trying to support very young teenage mums that have very little chance of supporting a baby without intense support.....
Its very scarey out there!!!!

eleanor73

I work for a local charity and we know we aren't being funded by the govenment next year. We are one of the labour government's initiatives so I think it is highly unlikely that the coalition will fund us. I think many charities are in the same boat and if my contract is not renewed I will be out of a job in March. What I'm really worried about is the clients i support. Vulnerable people will be the ones hit hardest by these cuts and I also feel crime levels will go up.
It's all very scary. I hope your wife's job will be safe as it sounds like she does a very worthwhile job.

paulwellerfan

i to work in the public sector
our team ( social service ) are being cut 1.5 million.
people are leaving our team due to cuts in the service for service users
we are not looking at replacing their positions.
its grim- and its gonna get grimmer

katkim

I don't work in children's services, but the public sector provides about half of the jobs in my profession, and provides about half the work for the private sector! The private sector has already been hit hard and hemorrhaging staff since that work has been drying up for the past couple of years. There is no way it can absorb job losses from the public sector too. It's so bleak and demoralizing.

I'm so fed up reading about the inflated public sector and how the cuts will just get rid of the 'useless' jobs. The cuts impacts on all services, and the private sector too.

I just hope the recovery is fast although my professional trade papers aren't predicting any type of recovery until 2014...I watch the news for any glimmer of good news on the economic front, but it just seems to be doom and gloom.