Tomorrow, Tuesday 26th October, Salford City Council's Cabinet is set to discuss the Salford Volunteering Strategy… "To consider how the city wished to position itself in relation to the Government's Big Society initiative"
With a 14% cut in Government local authority funding, followed by a 7% cut the year after, Salford inevitably faces job losses, as John Merry himself states in his article in The Guardian (see here). But is Salford preparing to fill those roles with unpaid volunteers?
A Draft Action Plan on the Salford Volunteering Strategy, that's being discussed by the Cabinet tomorrow, lists an action to "increase the range of volunteering opportunities" and another action "To seek the commitment of partner organisations to include voluntary targets in annual service plans".
The outcome of all this would be a "Growth in volunteering opportunities" and "improved awareness of volunteering to delivery of public services".
It seems quite clear to us that the aim is to recruit unpaid people to deliver services that are currently being supplied by paid professionals.
If this is so, then John Merry's assertion in a national newspaper that "The council has been trying to offer a helping hand to those in trouble by ensuring that people are prepared for the job market and have the best opportunities" looks a bit tame...
What, by having them work for nothing? And delivering public services unpaid, while sacking those who might dare want a wage for doing the same skilled work?
We'd love to hear the trades unions reaction to this!
Stop Press: 26th October
Ray Walker of Unison has just sent us the trade union's response...
"It is indeed worrying that the City Council may be embarking on a project to replace council workers who could face the axe as a result of the ConDem Cuts with unpaid volunteers. There would be a myriad of issues not just the morality of this but the risks to the public of having inexperienced volunteers replacing vastly experienced council workers, depending on the types of work they would be given. It will do nothing to stimulate the local economy and do a great deal of harm within our communities. UNISON would welcome a discussion with the Council about this very soon."
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
