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Worthing woes continue 14/01/2008

As reported in Opportunities magazine - the public sector recruitment weekly, this week.

In August two West Sussex councils pioneered the country’s first exercise in ‘total shared services’. David Smith called up to see how it’s going
The furious row over the first exercise in total shared services between two councils shows no signs of abating down in West Sussex.

Opportunities reported back in August last year that councillors were at loggerheads over the cost-cutting merger of workforce and officer structures at Adur District Council and Worthing Borough Council. Now the publication of a new council report has increased the bad feeling on all sides.

Lib-Dem opposition leader Bob Smytherman said the report to the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Joint Strategic Committee, proved the venture was "an ill-thought out option scrambled together on a fag packet".

He said: "The report makes it clear that the first year savings of £500,000 that the Tories promised by merging staff will not now be achieved, the current likely estimate being just £100,000.

"Both Adur and Worthing Council’s have not yet revealed the actual costs of fully implementing a combined single pay spine. The few figures show full costs will run way over a million pounds.

"This ill-conceived venture now looks to have gone belly up and council tax payers will be forced to pay the price."

He added: "Instead of coming clean and admitting their failures, the two Tory-run Councils have embarked on a ludicrous plan to phase the implementation of the staff’s single pay spine by putting staff onto six different pay spines.

"Worthing staff are very angry and morale is at rock bottom. There is suspicion, resentment and anger."

Councillor Smytherman’s criticisms were backed up by Unison’s South East representative Vic Willis, who said: "We are deeply disappointed that the councils have failed to honour their commitment to implement a long-awaited pay and grading review for hardworking staff."

But the Tory leader of Worthing council, Keith Mercer, hit back. "Councillor Smytherman is shooting for the goal without a ball," he told Opportunities. "He is twisting the story. Our original savings figure was a guestimate, not a promise and there was some underestimation of the costs of voluntary redundancy.

"These are scaremongering tactics by councillor Smytherman and they are upsetting staff when we are doing our best not to upset them. The drivel he puts out is making them twitchy. I’ve challenged Smytherman for six months to come up with a system for substantial savings and he’s not done it.

"The truth is we’re on track to save millions in the coming years. We now have one CEO, we have reduced service officers by two, we now have only three strategic directors and third-level management has been reduced from 17 to 10. All these represent considerable savings."

"We are sorry for the pain caused in the meantime," he added, "but authorities all over the country have to find solutions because of the Government’s tough financial settlement. Ours is a bold step and we think we are ahead of the game."

Councillor Smytherman was also severely critical of the decision to make Adur Council the new employer of Worthing staff.

"Staff are very uncomfortable because they feel it is a loss of identity," he said. "Worthing is a much more established council with borough status and a town hall. Adur has only existed since the early seventies. Staff feel it is like a takeover. Adur CEO Ian Lowrie was appointed in 2005 as interim CEO at Worthing. Since then we’ve been transferred over to Adur and he has been voted a pay rise above market rates. Meanwhile, some Worthing staff are still getting the minimum wage."

But Ian Lowrie denied talk of an Adur takeover. "Staff are not going over to Adur," he told us. "The office facilities will simply be used in each locality in a logical way.

"Adur will be the default employer because it makes no sense to have two payroll systems. But there is no real loss of identity, just a name on a payslip. And some workers, such as Worthing’s Leisure and Crematorium staff, have no need to transfer over because those services don’t exist in Adur."

Councillor Lowrie claimed the radical scheme had attracted great interest and he had already given 12 talks about it.

Councillor Smytherman remained unimpressed. "I’d rather see Worthing making its own political decisions rather than following the CEO’s agenda. The local museum, for example, is a colossal financial burden, as are the three local theatres."

But Mr Lowrie rejected the argument: "Councillor Smytherman is putting out so much mis-information that it’s intensely annoying, demoralising and pathetic," he said. "The truth is we shall save £5m over 10 years minus the initial costs of £350,000.

"We can’t do a pay and grading review in five minutes. Service reviews will reduce staff gradually over time as departments merge. Everything will be completed by March 2010. I wish I could ask Bob to wave his magic wand to save enough money sooner."

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Your Views

17/01/2008 - This seems to be a balanced argument. WF were told of savings in the region of £500,000 in the first year also. But it's a long term game and the savings certainly add up. Jim C

17/01/2008 - The quality of the publication is also dubious, they don't even know where Worthing is. Jim C