A Bit Political

[Nicola]

I agree ProudMum - the waste is shocking. My friend is in charge of cleaning services at a huge university hospital in our area. Before a recent inspection by the government, she was authorised to spend £34,000 getting the windows cleaned by a contractor in advance of the visit?!!!! We were stunned when she told us, and said we'd have happily done it ourselves for that price, but what it boiled down to was that there was no time to tender it, so they phoned up a local company, got a quote and went with it!!!!! There wasn't even a comparative quote?!?!

[proudmum]

I believe if the public sector were as stringent as a private company would be they could probably save millions without making massive job cuts.

Nicole that is exactly what im talking about my husband is self employed and I wouldnt dream of only getting one quote for anything he needed,I research on the internet for the lowest cost for the best product.

WM it is shamefull that our children should suffer but I dont think many will be safe from cuts in the comming years. I am glad my kids are already on the uni road as it would be parents like myself that will suffer more,earning too much for help but not wealthy enough for the pain of the the predicted costs My son is only a few weeks in but this year will cost £8000 and my daughters is £5000. I have to say I think some of the degree courses are just not worth getting into so much debt for but what would be the point of kids leaving school after A'levels if there are'nt any jobs out there!!

I wouldnt begin to say I understand how it all works but every day I see a waste of resources, however small they are I can only imagine how it all adds up.

[elena]

I wouldnt begin to say I understand how it all works but every day I see a waste of resources, however small they are I can only imagine how it all adds up.

Ditto!
Don`t we all see it?

[islandofsodor]

, but what it boiled down to was that there was no time to tender it, so they phoned up a local company, got a quote and went with it!!!!! There wasn't even a comparative quote?!?!

Happens a lot there!

[Trish2410]

I can only speak for my department and we are delivering a service with no and I mean no resources other than frontline staff. We have had an enormous impact on our local community and in a recent Ofsted were classed as Excellent. Any money we have we raise and in fact my staff & I have raised more money than our combined salaries this year. Let me tell you that we have even fund raised for our own uniforms. Of course there is wastage and of course there needs to be reviews but please do not throw the baby out with the bath water. Oh and we don't have conferences, we pay for our own tea & coffee, no jolly jaunts to weekend meetings and the other things we are accused of wasting money on. And the children's centres up here as far as I know are very well used by the local communities and youth groups. 27000 job cuts is totally unexceptable. I have heard that Greenwich council have agreed to a wage freeze over the next 4 years and will only recruit if unavoidable and essential and the staff there are proud to be part of that service.
It seems obvious that communities are fed up with what they see as indiscriminate spending so lets look carefully at what could be done to stop this.

As for £34000 cleaning windows!! That again is more than the combined salaries of me and my team so if you would like us to come and do the job we would be very grateful for the work

[Welsh Mum]

Iplease do not throw the baby out with the bath water.

That is my point. Cuts where they are needed are one thing but I think there are just across the board cuts going ahead without muc scrutiny.

And certainly in schools ther is no room for cuts - they will hapen anyway. We have fewer teachers, more pupils and more paperwork. Doersn't add up.

[proudmum]

It was said in the begining that health and education would be safe from cuts but it will filter down....it always does. A community nursery nurse I know told me they are closing one health centre and stopping breast feeding advice groups.

Trish on the whole our CC are very well attended but not by the people they were meant to help. We collated the registers and found many of the same names filling up their week by going to centre to centre (in their cars).
I am sure there are many departments that are run very well on limited budgets and what is needed is an examination by the individual councils to seek out the cuts in the right places!!
Some of the lowest paid staff are those working in nursery's,they work 9hr shifts in a demanding environment with only a 30 min break all day so unfair.