Public services

A question about : Public services

I'm not sure if this is in the right section? I work in local government and I know that a lot of my colleagues are worried that our jobs will go with the new government cutbacks to public services. I'm on maternity leave at the moment and so am not able to pick up much information.

Does anybody know which public services will be targeted? I'm currently taking 12 months maternity leave but am thinking I should return to work early to save up money if it's likely my job will go I fear mine will go as it was very much a Labour initiative that was about helping the most disadvantaged people and doubt there will be anything to replace it...?

Best answers:

• What is your Council redundancy policy? One thing Council's will be reluctant to do immediately is make lots of people redundant as they have to pay them off and this can be expensive.
  Generally they look for those willing to go, then see what vacancies there are, then offer redeployment to other staff affected by posts being removed.
• I think every area will face major cuts, both natural due to the recession and budget cuts, and less natural due to a changing of government and large spending cuts.
  That said I think your returning to work early would be rather pointless. Sector cuts could take years to hit the bottom level and I doubt you would have a remote chance of finding out before you return from Maternity leave anyway.
• Thanks guys - your posts have actually reassured me a little. I believe the redundancy policy at the moment is redeployment on full pay for around 6 months. I was just wondering with my maternity because staying off those extra months will eat into my savings and if there is no security I was thinking that I would be a fool to do so.
  We were already warned of 'restructures' and redundancies before this government got in but as they are probably going to shut down a lot of initiatives / grant programmes I wondered if there would be mass redundancies in my area of work and that of others.
• Job Centre Plus are losing 14,000 staff members by October, the one's they took on when the recession was starting. Our fixed term have already had their "little chats" telling them their contracts won't be extended.
  And if they go, it's no exaggeration to say benefit delivery & frontline Job Centre services are simply going to collapse. I'm regularly working over & above my hours and I'm simply treading water ... many other colleagues are too. I can't be the only person in DWP who'd welcome a premature end to my civil service career, with open arms, the pay's terrible, the responsibilities onerous, the working conditions dire.
• I'm also on maternity leave and work for a council. It's difficult but not impossible to make someone redundant whilst on leave.
  However - the cuts will only start really in the next financial year as the budgets have already been set. This financial year will be the consultation process - they will be sending you paperwork on the process, suggested structures, and give you the opportunity for feedback.
  Big cuts will be children's social services, education, and other front line services.
  I just got my initial consultation paperwork through. We were all asked to volunteer for early retirement or redundancy. I'm hanging on till the bitter end!
  But this all depends on how your post is funded. Are you funded by council tax revenue, central governemnt grant, outside grant, or self-funded? I don't want to give examples, as I don't know your council's revenue streams. And central government hasn't announced the specifics of fund allocations. I'm not pancking until DCSF posts some specific grant allocation for 11/12 as I'm grant funded.
  Your council will (assuming here) have already started months ago looking at restructing so this will all happen quickly. Before I went on leave, I was already working out financial plans on certain teams being cut.
  And it won't just be have a job, don't have a job. Your team could easilly just be sold off to an outside provider, and you be moved across (losing all your public sector benefits of course).
  I hope that helped. I would say really, don't panic. Don't make big decisions yet. If the restructure starts for you soon there will be timescales in it and decide when to return to work then.
• Thanks SVM. I think that the notice period is just 4 weeks and then the 6 months redeployment would be after that, if I understand correctly.
  TCR - the situation for you and your colleagues and jobseekers sounds like it will become even more dire.
  Quote:
• Me and around 100 other new starters at the passport office (started earlier this year) have just been given 5 weeks notice starting from tonight.
  It all comes down to the ID Cards being scrapped, and the people working on those will be moving back over to passports, therefore us "new starters" are first in the firing line, bummer.
• I'm so sorry to hear that u1bd2005. I hope everything works out. They are certainly not wasting time.
• its not as bad for me as some people, i'm still living with parents atm (im only 20) so don't have much to worry about money wise so I'll cope on jobseekers even if i don't manage to find another job in those 5 weeks.
  all i want money for right now is driving lessons which I can happily wait a few more month if needed.
  But some of the other people i know turned down jobs elsewhere to take this job with the hope of a permanent job out of it, now they've got nowt in 5 weeks, and 1 girl who works with me is getting married later in the year, so money troubles are the last thing she needs right now
• Well, been in town for past few hours asking everywhere and handing out loads of cv's, had a short informal chat with one guy, got to apply for that job online but i think i made a good impression in person, now just gotta keep trying lol...
• it's sounding positive for you getting a nibble so soon...!
  have to say i think it was a bit harsh that my post was deleted...
• Our LA has already started hacking away at the staff. Children & Young People's Services restructuring has taken a bit of a beating, dispensing with staff on the lower tiers. Those offered redeployment opportunities can either take them of leave.
• I'm another local government employee and, even before the Tories got in, major 'efficiencies' were being planned (and taking place) following on from the Gershon Review. Now it looks like the cuts are going to be even more severe. We went through one re-structure last year where I managed to keep my job but this year is when the cuts really start in earnest. My service is one of the first to be done and myself and all my (non-management) colleagues within my team have been told that our jobs are definitely going. In other teams within our service, about 50% of the jobs will remain so people will have to be interviewed to see who stays and who goes. I don't know if it will be the same at all Councils but at ours it is mainly the lower grade jobs* which are going with not so many cuts of jobs above Ј30,000. (*I'm not suggesting that anything up to Ј30,000 is a 'low grade' - just that it's below that level that the cuts are largely happening.)
  Different Councils will have different attitudes to compulsory redundancies - The one I work for is currently trying to re-train and redeploy anyone who has lost their job whereas other Councils have already started making compulsory redundancies. However, I think it will probably be inevitable for all Councils in the end. :-(
• I work for an NHS trust & we have been told this week we have to make just under double the planned 'efficiency savings' this year.
  We have to save 15% in 'managements cuts' this year - so all services are looking to make 15% cuts this year; 15% next year and by 2012/13 have shaved 51% in staffing costs ('management', but that basically means all non clinicians)
  Good news is that becqause it's evil managers and administrators, not clinicians or consultants (holding the service to ransom IMHO), no frontline services or quality of pt care will be affected.