Changes start again

The majority of us know and expect the cycle of reductions in public sector services to start soon and Lambeth shows no signs of wanting to keep out of that madness. I am attending a meeting today with members in areas that will be affected by a reorganisation that the Council calls 'Excellent Cash Management' project. The fancy title was given by some Chief Officer who wants to make a name for himself and simply means that the movement of people around will start again. This project affects some 70 staff and at its core is the 'centralisation' of parts of the Finance services around collecting revenue something that was already in place in the late 80's that was then decentralised, moved around and about and now its been centralised again. This could of course be OK but it involves changing some members job descriptions and there could even be some job loses. We will of course be fighting any proposal that could mean making any of our members redundant and we have a good record in the central areas of avoiding this but the fact remains that this is the start or the return of that mad cycle of reorganisation after reorganisation that Lambeth seemed to have been obsessed with in the past. We will do more to get ready for the fight!