Showing posts with label profit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label profit. Show all posts

Tuesday 1 November 2016

Brent Council takes another step towards becoming a business



 Brent residents have got used to being called ‘customers’ by our council but a new report on 'Income generation' going before Scrutiny Commitee LINK shows how Brent Council is becoming a business as a way to generate income to counteract government cuts to its funding.

The market advertised below  is just one of its initiatives. The annual Brent Fireworks Display has this year been  moved from Roundwood Park in the south of the borough.  The report makes clear that this is partly because of the income generation opportunity offered by a move to Wembley Park:


We aim to use our facilities in the Civic Centre on Event Days to generate income for the Council. This could be from holding corporate hospitality to having market stalls in the foyer. There is also an opportunity to partner with Quintain to have markets on their land on some kind of profit share basis. We would seek to charge stall holders a fee and there is an option to receive a percentage of any income generated. 

For example, the Civic Enterprise Team are currently implementing ways to generate income at the Council’s annual fireworks celebration, to be held on 6 November 2016. The event is moving from Roundwood Park to the Wembley Park area and the event is expecting up to 25k people to attend. We will be holding a Christmas market in the Civic Centre, with stall holders selling food, drink and crafts in the Grand Hall and Boardrooms. There will also be cultural and children’s activities.
The council also has its eye on generating income through letting out our parks  and open spaces for income generating events:
We are also exploring the potential to hold large scale events in parks aiming for audiences at a minimum level of 2000 people. Brent have a lot of beautiful parks and the most appropriate park to the type of event would be chosen. For example Roundwood and Gladstone parks have capacity to hold events and good transportation links. Income would be generated from selling of tickets, sponsorship of goods, advertising and stall holder fees. Corporate hospitality packages would also be offered to appeal to different markets and offer differential pricing. 

These events should also attract visitors from outside of Brent enabling us to showcase our vibrant mix of cultures and enhance our promotion of community cohesion. Should we be able to generate income from initiatives such as green gyms and exercise classes in parks we will also help to deliver improved health outcomes by keeping residents fit, healthy and active. This will contribute towards lowering the pressure on demand-led budgets. A key priority for Brent 2020. 

An additional plan is to hire out Brent parks for weddings and the report notes:
There is a lucrative market in weddings. There is a great opportunity to offer weddings in parks and there are no competitors offering this in West London. We will also offer packages including wedding planning services and registration.
Most of our primary schools come under Brent Council oversight and currently they ‘buy into’ council services.  Now it is not just a matter of the income paying for the service but also perhaps making a profit from them:
As part of income generating activity and adding value to Brent schools we are working closely with schools to develop a new product portfolio based on their needs and requirements. This project will enable us to contribute to raising educational standards in Brent and generate income at the same time. 

The council is also keen to sell advertising space on its building and other assets.  Extending advertising on 7 new sites could make a significant aesthetic impact on the borough.
The council’s plan to turn itself into a lender for small business is likely to raise a few eyebrows, not least because of the interest rates it envisages:
This idea is for the Council to provide financial investment to support Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The model proposed provides a safe way to receive return on investment and seek to develop one of Brent 2020 priorities for business growth. This initiative supports the economy and employment opportunities in Brent by lending SMEs finance through a crowdfunding organisation on a fixed interest rate (currently at 7.2%) return to Brent Council. The model provides a guaranteed return which covers the risk of bad debt. An approximate fee of 3% is incurred annually to the Council with the model. Initially the proposal is to have up to £200k available for business to apply for an amount. A benefit of this initiative is that the Council would receive a better rate of interest than a saving account but also by supporting business growth we can support regeneration of the borough by seeking to increase employment opportunities thereby helping to reduce the number of businesses failing, reducing unemployment rates and a reliance  on benefits.
There are a host of other proposals in the document that includes raising the cost of  parking in the Civic Centre's underground car park and letting out more office space within the building to other bodies as well as hiring out space in the library and foyer.

The Council is already committed to setting up a Housing Management Agency and its own Bailiff  force now it appears it will be an advertising agency, events organiser, markets organiser and bank!



Thursday 16 June 2016

'I have been put up for sale by NHS England' - Amazing Grace petitions David Cameron

Grace demonstrates outside Monitor/NHS Improvement

Grace Balogun is seeking support for her petition LINK to save her Sudbury (Vale Farm) GP Practice from the market. She tells David Cameron why he should intervene below.


Let me introduce myself .My name is Grace and I need urgent help. I am a National Health Service patient and, along with my fellow patients of the fantastic Sudbury GP surgery in Wembley. I have been put up for sale by NHS England. The same NHS England that loves to talk about "patient choice" but all NHS England really care about is "the market in healthcare". BUT I TALK - AND CARE - ABOUT MY FAMILY DOCTORS WHO KEEP ME WELL AND GIVE ME THE CARE MY COUNTRY PROMISED ME FOR WORKING AND LIVING IN THIS COUNTRY - FOR LIFE, CRADLE TO GRAVE.

I live in the London Borough of Brent, an area where we already have a shortage of GPs, more GPs retiring , and a largely deprived population which is expected to expand over the next 5 years by about 80,000 people. I suffer from a range of major health issues which means that I live my life in a wheelchair. Don't get me wrong. I have a good and happy life – or I did until NHS England decided – without asking me – that it would be a good idea to take away from me the Family Doctors who have cared for me for the last 14 years. GP's who I would follow ,if they moved halfway across the country – but my wheelchair bound status makes that pretty tricky. To add insult to injury, I have already had one fight - alongside my fellow patients - lasting 9 years, and including threatened legal action against the NHS, to keep my Doctors from being tendered out for sale before. That fight - I thought - ended in 2013. 

 
Patients make a stand against marketisation
So WHY is Sudbury Surgery Patient List again "up for sale", and my fragile care threatened?

NOT TO SAVE MONEY. THE NEW CONTRACT WILL COST NHS ENGLAND £70,0000 A YEAR MORE. NOT BECAUSE OUR GPS AND THEIR TEAM ARE NO GOOD – although senior officials in NHS England London region (including the Boss) wrote telling my MP, my local councillors and a Brent patient group that they were not "performing" - ridiculous allegations they have since had to withdraw.

 NOT BECAUSE IT IS HARD FOR ME TO GET AN APPOINTMENT WITH MY GP – no, we are known in Brent for having fantastic service from our surgery.

NOT BECAUSE OF INADEQUATE SERVICES -We have EXTRA SERVICES, like in-house professional counselling sessions every week, a GP specially trained in mental health services, a specialist diabetic clinic and diabetic nurse, methadone prescribing service, minor surgery, acupuncture and were just about to start the practice as a GP training practice. Our practice also hosts a walk-in blood testing clinic, and the out of hours "overflow" GP appointments for our locality. Sudbury Surgery does a fantastic service for the community, IN the community. It is run by a not for profit social enterprise.

NO, I have been put up for sale because MY DOCTORS ARE JUST TOO GOOD. Since their social enterprise got the contract 3 short years ago, the patient list has grown from 5000 to 8600, and is still growing. How I wish it had stayed at less than 6000! Why, you ask me? Because, at less than 6000 patients, apparently, according to NHSE England, a "patient list" is "unattractive to the market" . Market, what market ? The market to which my surgery and the 15 other practices in "Tranche 4 London GP practices" NHS England gleefully advertised as the "greatest number of opportunities to potential providers yet" -when it held a "market engagement event" helpfully timed when our GPs were serving their patients in surgery. Bulk sale opportunity! Does it sound as though NHS England is interested in keeping the practice with our ordinary, caring, hardworking GPs?

Those companies who attended the "event" included (off-shore) Virgin Healthcare (who wanted us last time), Care UK, and The Practice Group (who have just "bulk" handed back 5 GP practices in Sussex to the NHS (meaning of course the patients in their patient lists) after taking them over, when their funding was cut - there's a reassuring precedent).

When we realised what was happening, Sudbury Surgery's patients got together, had meetings, wrote many long letters to NHSE, and to NHS (so-called) Improvement who is supposed to regulate "competition" in the NHS, demonstrated outside the Department of Health, NHS England, attracted newspaper attention and explained to and collected the signatures of over 3700 INDIVIDUAL PATIENTS to a petition saying "NHS ENGLAND PLEASE GO AWAY AND LEAVE US WITH THE GPS WHO HAVE CARED FOR US FOR OVER 14 YEARS".

We have struggled for 9 months using every avenue open to us. HAS IT MADE ANY DIFFERENCE? NO. So now I am calling on David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt and The Queen to intervene and ask NHS England to take my Doctors 'practice out of the tender NOW. I was promised cradle to grave care in the NHS - not to be a commodity patient - attractive to a "market". Not that I think a patient like me with complex health needs will be very attractive to a "provider" interested in "markets" PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME AND MY FELLOW SUDBURY SURGERY PATIENTS KEEP THE DOCTORS THEY LOVE, and save the NHS £70,000 a year .

Sign Grace's petition HERE

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Hands off Copland School - Public Meeting Thursday

The Copland Action Committee, supported by ATL, GMB, NASUWT and NUT have organised the public meeting below as Copland faces forced academisation. This will leave NO local authority secondary schools in the London Borough of Brent.

STOP GOVE'S PRIVATISATION OF
 SCHOOLS FOR PROFIT

HANDS OFF COPLAND SCHOOL

 THURSDAY NOVEMBER 28TH 7PM

 Holiday Inn, Empire Way, Wembley, HA9 8DS

Map LINK

A public meeting for staff, parents, pupils and the community