Harrow Borough Council's payments of £660,000 to suspended staff is "bad value for money" says Harrow East MP Bob Blackman

3:37pm Friday 8th March 2013 in Headlines By Jaber Mohamed

Harrow East MP Bob Blackman accused the council of being "bad value for money" Harrow East MP Bob Blackman accused the council of being "bad value for money"

Harrow East MP Bob Blackman says it is “utterly ridiculous” that Harrow Borough Council has spent more than £660,000 paying suspended staff not to work.

Figures obtained in a Freedom of Information request by Mr Blackman show the council has paid 97 suspended members of staff between April 2009 and February 2012.

The Conservative MP accused the council of being "bad value for money” despite cutting services and raising council tax.

He said: “It is utterly ridiculous that the council is taking, in some cases, nearly one year to process an individual case.”

A council employee who was accused of gross misconduct received £44,000 during an investigation lasting 284 days that resulted in the staff member’s dismissal.

Another employee who was also dismissed was paid £16,000 during a suspension which lasted 176 days.

It has cost the council £260,000 to cover the salaries of 25 members who were eventually dismissed after their suspension.

A further 14 investigations resulted in staff receiving final written warnings.

Mr Blackman said that during the 2009/10 financial year it cost the council £99,000 to pay 23 suspended staff members for an average length of 80 days.

During the current financial year 36 members of staff have been suspended and they have cost £233,000 today with the average suspension time being 88 days.

The Harrow East MP accused the council of having no control over the problem and added: “The problem is getting progressively worse rather than better.

“Suspensions are up by nearly a third; costs have more than doubled; and the length of time to handle them has increased.”

In January it was revealed that the authority had paid a suspended senior education officer who was under investigation by the police £137,000 over two and a half years.

The Harrow Times is awaiting a response from the council.

Comments(11)

SeaBee says...
9:19pm Fri 8 Mar 13

Not a peep from Gareth Thomas M.P. I wonder why not? He is usually so quick to condemn waste of taxpayers' money or has been since the Labour Government lost power.

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jackdaw says...
10:29am Sat 9 Mar 13

Wonder what you have to do to get a suspension?

Who is the Human Resources Manager responsible for employing these people?I would have thought given the country's employment situation the Civic Centre coud AFFORD to be fussy about whom they employ.

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jackdaw says...
11:36am Sat 9 Mar 13

Can the Harrow Times use its investigative powers to find out what kind of offence you have to commit to get a suspension as a Harrow Council employee?

Our Council Tax is flowing out like water to pay Councillors with criminal convictions and suspended Harrow Council employees. Meanwhile in the real world cuts are made to the following organisations: Harrow Citizens’ Advice Bureau, Harrow Equalities Centre and Harrow Home Start. I am sure readers can provide many more examples of cuts to groups that serve the residents of Harrow.

I thought the maxim in life was to reward good behaviour and punish the bad behaviour. I think Harrow Council must be a highly paid bunch of incompetents and unfortunately the rogue councillors tarnish the reputations of their colleagues.

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PaulCa says...
8:04pm Sat 9 Mar 13

Dear Bob Blackman MP. Google: "Wirral suspended senior officers no case to answer". Read it. And weep.

£811,000 paid out in hush money so far. Abuse not dealt with and will flare up elsewhere as a result.

As for money paid whilst suspended, that's not included and will take the figure way over £1 million - but don't forget, it's one of their employment rights to receive pay until proven guilty of misconduct.

As for the time taken to process, I agree. But did you ask yourself, "Why are people being suspended?" Very often it's mendacious, lead-swinging managers in cahoots with mendacious lead-swinging HR departments who are the source of the problem.

Check out the world of the whistleblower. Time for you to occupy the REAL world a little more often I'd say.

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jackdaw says...
10:37pm Sat 9 Mar 13

PaulCa

Yes .it would seem to be the HR department at the root of this problem because the figures for suspension and final warnings are high. Either their employee selection is rubbish or they are taking a frivolous attitude to staff discipline.

The salary for the person in charge of HR is paid for by Harrow residents through their Council Taxes and I think he/she has a case to answer. I am sure residents and the Harrow Times would be interested in the views of any Harrow Council whistle blower because we just need to know what is going on in Harrow Civic Centre.

It says at the end of the Harrow Times article that the Council has been asked to respond. Let us hope they come up with an explanation that residents find satisfactory.

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starbright says...
12:53pm Mon 11 Mar 13

This is extremely bad value for money. In view of the 'Wirral employees', which included their head of legal, it is obvious it is not just Harrow but other Councils who are wasteful as well! I would further question the relationship between Capita and Harrow Council? Why would you award an IT contract that is going to cost you millions more than the one Hillingdon implemented? Who awarded this and why? Could we perhaps have another Wirral on our hands? In answer to questions above the senior education officer was the deputy head at Weald school. He was suspended for accusations of historical abuse, Harrow Times covered the story. We have to question why it took so long in this one case to draw it to a conclusion,2 and a half years, but also other cases as well? Jackdaw I agree with your comments, there are indeed incompetents within Harrow Council, but to be fair there are other officers who want to do their jobs properly. I know from experience officers who have been threatened with their jobs if they continued to tell the truth to help a service user. The questionable people are the ones at the top of the tree. Michael Lockwood who will not hold an open surgery for residents or indeed meet with them even if they have serious issues about his own staff. Hugh Peart whose responsibility as head of legal is to bury anything and everything that could stain the reputation of the Council. Obviously the head HR as well who appears not to have a handle on this situation. What is also disgraceful is that 2 years ago Heather Clements then Director of schools, systematically stripped 6.3 million from other budgets within the Council. This was done supposedly without permission from more senior officers, and to finish off Whitmore high school which had gone seriously over budget. The punishment for Heather Clements, quietly seconded out the back door with a big fat pay off! This I know from people who work within the Council who did not like her!

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jackdaw says...
3:19pm Mon 11 Mar 13

Starbright

I hope the following fits the bill for you.
I paraphrase Marcellus words from Shakespeare's play "Hamlet ""something is rotten in borough of Harrow.” The fish is rotting from the head down—all is not well at the top of Harrow Civic hierarchy.
If as you say there is a culture of bullying the hardworking and good officers perhaps a whistle blower will reveal all or the Harrow Times investigative journalists will get to the bottom of the trouble.

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starbright says...
4:47pm Mon 11 Mar 13

Jackdaw I hope so something has to be done! There are definitely rotting fishes somewhere, they just need to be fished out! (excuse the pun!).
All I ask for as a tax paying Harrow resident is for a Council who listens, responds, and takes action where need be.
Sadly I know this currently is not the case, and a lot of things are swept under the carpet all to maintain the good name of the Council.
My wish would be for us to have a vote on whether we think the Chief exec and the directors are good value for money, and for them to be more transparent and honest! I can dream can't I?

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Harrow Rani says...
10:50am Fri 15 Mar 13

Harrow Council's HR department is clearly incompetent. There is no reason for the lenghty delays in processing suspended employees. It is merely a question of dealing with the disciplinary issue in the correct manner and in strict accordance with your employment contracts. Yes, all disciplinary policies allow for appeals and that is as it should be. In the private sector, I can guarantee you that appeals are tabled within a very short space of time and this is designed to help the employee to get a decision as quickly as possible. The reason Harrow Council appears to have so many suspensions will be because the Managers within the Council are not trained or empowered to deal with disciplinary issues. At best, poor peformance is ignored and dont even get me started on attendance and sickness records ! I understand it is a given that all staff use their paid sick days as part of their holiday allowance. If you dont believe it, then just ask Harrow Council what their average number of sick days is. Their staff benefits are incredibly generous and I do believe that hard working employees should be rewarded well. What rankles is the absue of public money to line the pockets of the idle,incompetent and disinterested. I have repeatedly stated that Harrow Council does not understand the basics of profit & loss, and perhaps a stint in the private sector might just open their eyes to what happens in the real world where you have to generate your own money and then spend it wisely to keep your business afloat. In Harrow Council's case, the fish absoultely smells from the head and the maggots are feeding off the corruption within.

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jackdaw says...
2:40pm Fri 15 Mar 13

It is called spending other people's money ie Council Tax. You are right Rani in the real world the business would have gone bust.

It is only because they have a steady source of income,Council Tax, that they can behave in such a lackadaisical way.

Perhaps the Harrow Times can investigate how many days off sick the Council staff are taking. Sick leave is for genuine illness not to be counted as additonal days to add to annual holiday leave.

I appreciate there are some Council staff who will do an honest day's work it is unfortunate that they get tarred with the same brush as tose that do not.

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Harrow Rani says...
3:15pm Fri 15 Mar 13

Jack, iharrow already covered this in January 2013 - see below an extract from the publication on 3rd jnaury 2013

" Harrow Council reports that over the last 12 months, its employees take, on average, almost nine sick days every single year. If you think that sounds bad, it’s an improvement from the ten and a half days that were being taken in 2007.

The Office for National Statistics suggest that in 2011, the UK average in the private sector was 4.5 days – Harrow Council employees took almost double that.

This chart, extracted from Harrow’s Strategic Performance Report Q2 July – Sept 2012 shows those last few years, but notes that it excludes school staff, and you’ll see that it has flattened out over the last couple of years. It’s also worth pointing out that NHS staff clock up around 15 sickness days per year."

If you fctor in that not everybody takes their paid sick leave, then it must mean that those that do take the mickey must be taking an awful lot more days but divided by total employees the average comes out at 9.5. Glad I'm paying for this priviledge. In my job I get 3 paid sick days a year, and then NOTHING unless I qualify for SSP. Most of my friends have similar sick pay terms so there is no secret to why the private sector averages 4.5 days.

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