Older people's homes and day centres are facing mass closures as Haringey Council announces the largest funding cuts in its history.
Haringey has set out in stark detail the scale of closures facing the borough as £87 million is wiped from budgets over the next three years.
Four older people's homes providing residential care for pensioners will be closed across the borough and seven drop-in and day centres providing vital social contact and support for older people will also be shut, along with a mental health crisis unit and a mental health day care centre.
Jobs are set to go at libraries and Tottenham's Bruce Castle Museum and some council managers will be axed saving £2.5 million alone.
At the other end of the scale, free tea and coffee vending machines in council offices will be scrapped, saving £50,000 annually, and allotment fees will rise by £9 per plot.
The council released detailed plans for more than £28 million of savings between 2011 and 2014 on Friday (December 17).
But that is less than a third of the cuts needed to balance a £87 million black hole in the budget over the next three years. Further measures will be announced in the New Year.
The Government is making Haringey find more than half of the savings - £46 million - in the next year alone, with further cuts of around £20 million in each of the following two years.
Labour Councillor Joe Goldberg, cabinet member for finance and sustainability, said: "The overwhelming speed and scale of the Government’s cuts have left us with little room for manoeuvre – we have to make some incredibly tough decisions and we have to make them very quickly or they won’t have a great enough impact on next year’s spending.
The council's cabinet will consider the first wave of cuts at a meeting tonight (Tuesday, December 21) before they are put out for consultation.
The council says it will prioritise back office efficiency and explore sharing services to prioritise cash for those most in need, but services for older people are revealed as the hardest hit in the first wave of cuts.
* Cranwood Older People’s Home in Muswell Hill and Broadwater Lodge Older People’s Home in Tottenham will both be closed saving £1.1 million.
* Red House Residential Care Home in South Tottenham, which provides care for dementia patients and the frail, will close saving £714,000.
* Whitehall Residential Home in Tottenham, for people with learning difficulties, will close saving £237,000.
* Four drop-in centres for older people will close saving £234,000 - Abyssinia Court in Crouch End, Willoughby Road in Hornsey, The Drop-in Centre at The Irish Centre in Tottenham, and Woodside House in Wood Green.
* The Haven Day Centre in Tottenham, for people with physical disability and sensory impairment, to close, and The Grange Day Centre in White Hart Lane, Tottenham, to merge with The Haynes Day Centre in Crouch End, saving £234,000.
* Woodside Day Centre in Wood Green, used by 45 vulnerable older people, will close saving £149,000.
* Jacksons Lane Luncheon Club will lose £10,000 for a part time staff member, leaving its future unclear.
The closures will result in the complete loss of day care services for older people across the borough, except for dementia sufferers, and the council’s in-house home care service, offering personal care to vulnerable adults, will also cease saving £1.06 million.
Other services across the council facing cut backs include:
* Some council managers axed, saving £2.5 million.
* Connexions careers advice service for vulnerable young people reduced by 75 per cent saving £1.64 million.
* Staff cuts at libraries and Bruce Castle Museum saving £384,000.
* Reduced response to noise complaints, including stopping out-of-hours response service, saving £180,000.
* Cutbacks in mobile phone use by council staff saving £150,000.
* Review of translation services saving £124,000.
* No free tea and coffee in council vending machines saving £50,000.
* Allotment charges to rise by £9 a year, earning an extra £22,000.
More than 1,000 jobs are at risk and redunancy costs are likely to cost the council in the region of £10-20 million.
Consultation has begun with staff likely to be affected and a voluntary redundancy scheme has been set up.
Further savings plans are being drawn up and will be revealed in January and a balanced budget for 2011-2012 must be agreed by the Full Council in February.
Tags for Forum Posts: public spending cuts
Typical of this council to pick the sector of the community least able to fight for their rights. No doubt a ploy to get us focusing on the "evil coalition" instead of our wasteful council who could have cut other things. Like executives wages. Or cost of website. or Haringey People etc etc. And where exactly are they going to dump all these old, physically and/or mentally frail human beings? In the street? Many will no longer have their own homes - even if they were capable of caring for themselves, which they are not. Many will not have family willing or able to take them in and be full time carers. So what do the council propose doing with them? Perhaps they will come as part and parcel of the properties when they are sold to property developers, like sitting tenants?
The council will presumably have a statutory obligation to rehouse them all in expensive privately run care homes. This is an utter disgrace:kicking elderly people out of places where they will have made relationships and feel at home into the unknown.
Hugh: what is the source of this information? It doesn't quite match up with what's on the council's news page at the moment.
Regardless, it contains a mixture of some things that should have been cut long ago, some things that should not be cut before other cuts (not listed) have been made and other cuts that should never be made (care for the elderly).
What about the over-bloated salaries? The Director of "Urban" (?) Environment recently left Haringey's paltry pay of between £124,238 to £141,797 (salary scale COB3), to become chief executive at Sutton (c. £200 K?). What a lovely racket they've organised for themselves!
(The pension pots for these characters must be quite remarkable ... and the aggregate deficit in the local government pension fund was recently estimated at £100,000,000,000. How much longer can this go on?)
Where is the inflated public relations budget in the above list?
Where is Haranguingyou People magazine?
The council will now show in the clearest way possible where its priorities lie.
Absolutely apalling.
What is meant by 'put out for consultation'?
I guess it means that residents will have the chance to comment, but I'm not clear just what influence that consultation will have.
It's reassuring that the "free" tea and coffee is being scrapped, saving £50 K.
Meanwhile, there seems to be a big chunk of spending that looks to be untouchable. The public were never invited to select any cuts amongst that group. Below are my best estimates of annual cash for the Haringey Top 100, averages based on mid-points for up-to-date salary ranges (FoI data).
Is it really necessary to pay salaries of these sizes, or in some cases, at all?
Director of The Children & Young People | Special Scale | £210,000 |
Chief Executive | CEX | £192,000 |
Director of Corporate Resources | COB4 | £147,000 |
Director of Urban Environment | COB3 | £133,000 |
Director of Adult, Culture & Community | COB3 | £133,000 |
Deputy Director Children & Families | COB2 | £118,000 |
Assistant Chief Executive (People & OD) | SM7 | £104,000 |
Asst Director, Planning, Regen & Economy | SM7 | £104,000 |
Head of Legal Services | SM7 | £104,000 |
Head of Corporate Finance | SM6 | £94,000 |
Deputy Director | SM6 | £94,000 |
Assistant Director - S & CHS | SM6 | £94,000 |
Deputy Director Children's Networks | SM6 | £94,000 |
Asst Director - Adults & Older People | SM6 | £94,000 |
Assist.Director Commissioning & Strategy | SM6 | £94,000 |
Head of Communication & Consultation | SM5 | £87,000 |
Head of Information Technology | SM5 | £87,000 |
Head of Corporate Property Services | SM5 | £87,000 |
Transformation Stream Lead | SM5 | £87,000 |
Head of Safer & Stronger Communities | SM5 | £87,000 |
Assistant Director | SM5 | £87,000 |
Head of Procurement | SM4 | £80,000 |
Head of Haringey Forward | SM4 | £80,000 |
Assistant Head Social Care | SM4 | £80,000 |
Asst Director of Recreation | SM4 | £80,000 |
Interim Chief Information Officer | SM4 | £80,000 |
Head of Benefits & Local Taxation | SM4 | £80,000 |
Head of Op Com, Contracts & Bus Mgmt | SM4 | £80,000 |
Head of Audit & Risk Management | SM4 | £80,000 |
Prog. Director, CYPS Capital Prog. | SM4 | £80,000 |
AD - Adult Learning, Libraries & Culture | SM4 | £80,000 |
Programme Director | SM4 | £80,000 |
Head of Performance & Policy | SM4 | £80,000 |
Chief Technology Officer | SM4 | £80,000 |
Head of Human Resources | SM4 | £80,000 |
Assistant Head Litigation & Corporate | SM4 | £80,000 |
Assistant Head Commercial | SM4 | £80,000 |
Head of Parks & Bereavement Services | SM3 | £73,000 |
SEN Strategy Manager | SM3 | £73,000 |
Assistant Director | SM3 | £73,000 |
Head of Finance -Children's Services | SM3 | £73,000 |
Head of Finance - Accounting & Control | SM3 | £73,000 |
Head of Finance - UE | SM3 | £73,000 |
Head of Workforce Development | SM3 | £73,000 |
Head of Environmental Resources | SM3 | £73,000 |
Director of NLSA | SM3 | £73,000 |
Operations Manager | SM3 | £73,000 |
Head Of Sustainable Transport | SM3 | £73,000 |
Head of Primary & Special Standards | SM3 | £73,000 |
Super Project Manager | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Finance - Projects | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Workforce Development | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Children's Network (North) | SM2 | £66,000 |
Children's Bill Development Manager | SM2 | £66,000 |
Attendance & Welfare Manager | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Children's Network West | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of News | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Finance - ACCS | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Housing Strategy Dev&Part | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Finance-Cap, Budget & Fin Plan | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Learning Disabilities | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of ICT | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Supplies & Services Procurement | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Housing Needs & Lettings | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Service | SM2 | £66,000 |
Corporate Head of OD | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Finance - Central Services | SM2 | £66,000 |
LCE Change Manager-Energy Transformation | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Parking | SM2 | £66,000 |
Service Manager (Physical Disabilities) | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Finance | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Service | SM2 | £66,000 |
Project Delivery Manager | SM2 | £66,000 |
Applications Solution Group Manager | SM2 | £66,000 |
Group Manager - Strategy & Development | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Service | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Housing Support & Options | SM2 | £66,000 |
Service Manager | SM2 | £66,000 |
YOS Strategic Manager | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Provider Services | SM2 | £66,000 |
Head of Alternative Provision | IA | £61,000 |
Quality & Inclusion Team Manager | IA | £61,000 |
School Imp Mngr: Inclusion | IA | £61,000 |
School Imp Mngr: Teaching & Learning | IA | £61,000 |
SIP Manager | IA | £61,000 |
National Strategies Manager | IA | £61,000 |
Head of Pupil Support Centre | LEAD'SHP | £61,000 |
Principal Lawyer (Senior Legal Officer) | SM1 | £59,000 |
Corporate Landlord Manager | SM1 | £59,000 |
Management Information/Research Officer | SM1 | £59,000 |
Head of HR Shared Services | SM1 | £59,000 |
Head of Housing Finance | SM1 | £59,000 |
Commissioning & Contracts Manager | SM1 | £59,000 |
Corporate Applications Programme Manager | SM1 | £59,000 |
Head of Sports and Leisure Services | SM1 | £59,000 |
Highways Asset Group Manager | SM1 | £59,000 |
Transport Policy & Projects Grp Manager | SM1 | £59,000 |
Head of Schools Personnel | SM1 | £59,000 |
Deputy Director (Economic Development) | SM1 | £59,000 |
Head of Commissioning | SM1 | £59,000 |
Head of Local Democracy | SM1 | £59,000 |
Any idea how those salaries compare with other London boroughs, Clive? It's certainly tough for a borough like Haringey to attract talent if they can't match salaries.
does anyone know how much is lost each year by non-payment of council tax?
Think it's about 4 or 5 million pa TW.
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From Clive's list; I had to look up 'Head of Haringey Forward'
Head of News £66,000. Nice.
wow 4 or 5 million, that's a lot of old peoples homes, autism teams, teaching assistants, day centres, connexions advisers, noise officers, free teas,.............................................
Now there's a worthwhile job for Jules Pipe (Hackney Leader and Chair of London Councils): get the (?)32 London Council leaders together to agree "we're paying all these buggers far too much. No one on our payroll should be paid ten times the average Council Worker's wage."
Average Council Worker's Salary: in the range £15 - 22,000 pa.
eg (2008 figures):
Road Sweeper £14,430
Teaching Assistant £15,530
Care Worker £17,088
Sports Coach £21,411
Librarian £22,388
Building Control Off. £29,840
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Average: £20,114.50 (=OAE Pension x 2)
I am sure there are many Haringey Council Workers on £21,000 pa doing a much better and more honest day's work than quite a few of those 60+ officers on Clive's list.
The Director for Children & Young People is of course on a 'Special Scale' (viz. 'LBH Panic Scale') = Average Worker x 10.
If Jules Pipe and his mates are brave enough to lay down a less than savage 20% cut for all officer posts, I'm sure the Director will safeguard as many kids for £168,000 as at present, and Haringey will still be able to recruit a "Head of Local Democracy" for £47,200 pa. We could all apply for the latter post.
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