EPPING FOREST: Fears over privatisation of council services (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

EPPING FOREST: Fears over privatisation of council services

9:46am Friday 6th February 2009 in

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PRIVATISATION plans for public services including care homes and schools could have "dreadful consequences", the council has been warned.

Essex County Council has invited private companies to bid for multi-billion pound contract to provide "any and all council services".

The move has attracted stinging criticism from trade unions, politicians and service users.

Denise Yapp, 59, the Unison representative at the now-closed Sherrell House care home in Fencepiece Road, Chigwell, says its transfer from the public to the private sector led to a "catalogue of errors".

Sherrell House was one of 10 care homes taken over by private company in 2005, and one of four which was closed following disputes over employment terms.

Mrs Yapp said: "Staff were asked to sign contracts which cut pay to minimum wage, ended sick pay, increased the length of their shifts and cut holiday entitlement.

"That led to a lot of legally-challenged redundancies, and the positions were filled workers from overseas who worked hard but had limited English and struggled to care for patients with conditions such as Alzhiemer's.

"It was a total disaster, and I fear these plans for other services could also lead to some dreadful consequences."

Her sentiments were echoed by Graham Hayden, 44, of Ivy Chimneys, Epping, who recently led opposition to a private company's plans to close his local sports hall.

He said: "Ultimately a private company is concerned with making a service profitable, and that usually means bad news for communities who want services to be run as an investment in community, and not as an opportunity to make money."

Tom Smith-Hughes, the leader of the Liberal Democrats at Essex County Council, criticised a lack of consultation with councillors or staff over the scheme.

He added: "Many outsourcing exercises have been undertaken by both this council and others around the country, which have proved catastrophic failures. Indeed as we speak, Essex County Council is exiting from its partnership with BT and transferring all its IT service back to the council.”

The backlash follows an advert placed in the Official Journal of the European by the county council, which says: "It is our intention that following a contract award the partner will have the potential to provide any or all of the council's services, provided that a robust business case, benchmarking and best value test is passed.

"These services will include, but are not limited to corporate and back office functions, environmental services, social care and school-related services."

Lord Hanningfield, the leader of Essex County Council, said no decisions have been made, and added: "Our aim is to deliver £200m of savings to enable us to keep council tax at an absolute minimum as we have done this year.

"We will also act decisively when we judge that any contract is not delivering value for money and will take appropriate action."