Thus the Charted Institute of Personnel announces that profound job cuts will hit the public sector earlier this week. We are told that we can expect the deepest and most prolonged cuts in public expenditure in decades.
Loss of employment in the public sector means only one thing. - A loss of public services. National politicians are currently trading clichés about revitalising civic society. On the Tory side Cameron publicly lectures about the over-reaching state and the need to revitalise society, while labour politicians have floated the idea of the “John Lewis” model of public services. But politicians at local level seem to have no big philosophical idea.
The only policy they are pursing is based on the bottom line and how to reduce it. The recession is not the cause- only the excuse.
Public services are being sacrificed. Few politicians are willing to go on record and state unequivocally that universal public provision of services are the only guarantee of local standards of living- both in the contribution that they make to quality of life and the fact that local economies depend on the contribution of public sector earners. Both have been quietly damned.
Council services are more than a safety net for the most vulnerable in society. For the elderly, for all children and families, for the ill, they should be a guarantee of safety. Education both formal and informal for all ages should be their agenda. Protection of the environment and community safety should start at local level. Parks, gardens, leisure centres and libraries, museums and theatres should be the guarantee of quality of life.
Instead from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth, and beyond, services are being cut. Some are blatant, simple accounting exercises to cut the amount of money available. Some are labelled as efficiencies. Others talk about cutting “back room services” through shared service initiatives, or the Total Place agenda.
Within social services, the personalisation agenda is pursued without a thought as to the effect on the universal nature of services, whether direct payments are suitable for the individual or what standards are achieved. Other councils are realising the aim of becoming commissioning authorities.
Local UNISON branches should be at the heart of the fight back and the Million Voices campaign provides the tools to enable us to do it, working within the local community and with community groups to expose these threats. National campaigning can only be successful if built on local organisation and campaigning.
