Simply too little too late?
and the NHS, but the reception has been lukewarm after a decade of cuts and austerity, hears ALEX ROBERTS
Unison national officer for local
government. She says a lack of
funding means staff often first meet
families “at breaking point” because
of the lack of preventative work
being done.
“As demand for urgent child
protection services has increased
councils are forced to divert money
away from services that support
children and families earlier,” she
says. “These include the nonstatutory
and discretionary
budgets that fund valuable early
intervention and prevention
support that can stop children and
families reaching crisis point.”
Another key announcement
was a commitment of £750
million to recruit 20,000 additional
police officers next year. However,
many have pointed out this simply
reverses the cuts to the force
made by this government.
Sue Evans, director of Sevans
Refreshing People, and former
Spending Review News and analysis
head of HR and OD at Warwickshire
County Council, believes that there
are other ways to address crime –
ways that the government seems to
be ignoring.
“Local authorities are down to
the bone in some places,” she
explains. “And you will see a
withdrawal of some essential
services. Even given this spending
round, we’re still 23% down in
real-terms funding compared
to 2010. That’s got to have a
knock-on effect somewhere.
So now we are seeing increases
in neighbourhood violence, along
with a reduction in preventative
work that stops that, because
councils aren’t able to invest.”
More generally, Evans is
concerned about how a lack of
long-term funding commitments
will make it harder for local
authorities to retain staff, and
the consequences this will have
on services.
She says: “Before this year many
local authorities haven’t been able to
give their staff a pay rise for a while,
even in line with inflation. So you’ve
got people who are struggling to
survive on their salary and will start
to look elsewhere.”
Given the fast-moving events in
Westminster at the moment, and
parliament not even sitting at the
time of writing, it is perhaps
understandable that Javid was not
able to give public sector employers
the long-term mechanisms for
operating sustainably that they so
desperately crave.
But when the dust finally settles
on our current political situation,
whoever finds themselves in power
may have to go a lot further than the
measures announced here to satisfy
those who run vital public services
across the country. HR
Critics say the
money promised by
Sajid Javid only
reverses recent cuts to
public services
work in, the equipment we use and
the technology we have access to.
We’re 10 years behind where we
should be. While it’s welcome that
there’s a recognition that growth in
the value of budgets is needed,
we’ve got 10 years to recover from.”
One area that especially worries
Mortimer, and many others, is
social care. The £1.5 billion
promised does not go anywhere
near far enough, he believes.
“We desperately need a proper
settlement and plan for social care
in this country – particularly adult
social care. And this isn’t new; it’s
been a failing of several successive
governments,” Mortimer says.
“That’s an outstanding issue and it
does affect the work we do.
Ultimately it’s a political failing.”
Just as NHS employers are
fretting about social care provision,
the social workers tasked with
delivering it are also dangerously
stretched, according to Gill Archer,
Nine years of
austerity have
left parts of the
public sector
very stretched,
so a return
to spending
growth is a
positive step
Photography: Conservative Party Conference / OGL
hrmagazine.co.uk October 2019 HR 11
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