Centre to counter threat to Hub jobs (From Evesham Journal)
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Centre to counter threat to Hub jobs
2:00pm Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in News By Tom Edwards
Centre to counter threat to Hub jobs
A ‘centre of excellence’ could be created in Worcestershire to help safeguard the jobs of scores of council call centre workers, it has emerged.
Vic Allison, deputy managing director of Wychavon District Council, says he is determined no jobs will be lost as a result of a shake-up of the Worcestershire Hub.
As the Worcester News revealed yesterday, council chiefs are considering handing some aspects of the service over to a private operator.
Although no decision has been made yet, Mr Allison said he was likely to insist any operator keeps the jobs in Worcestershire.
About 50 staff work at the hub’s call centre, which handles queries from the public on everything from potholes to council tax.
Wychavon District Council wants to shake up its revenues and benefits department, which is a joint venture with Worcester and Malvern and operates its telephone response service at the hub.
Mr Allison said the hope was to create a centre of excellence at Wychavon’s Civic Centre, which would mean hub staff transferring over.
He said: “We’ve got 95 people working at the civic centre in revenues and benefits but come next year, the risk is that about 40 of those jobs could go.
“The Government is simplifying Universal Credit so aspects of assessing benefits get easier, and some work will transfer back to the Department for Work and Pensions.
“One way to safeguard all those jobs would be to hand it over to the private sector, so they can take on extra work and give the staff different things to do.
“If we don’t make this change it will be bad for the staff.
“As workers at the hub answer calls for the revenues and benefits service, they could transfer over too, so we would be protecting a lot of people.
“We want an open dialogue with the private sector but this is about saving jobs, not losing them.
“We want to get on the front foot and do something proactive.”
One option would be to keep the hub’s call centre at Perry Wood Walk, Worcester, open and transfer a certain number of workers to the new, private centre of excellence in Wychavon.
Another would be to close the Worcester base altogether and move everyone over to the civic centre, although those discussions are yet to start.
Comments(4)
More Tea Vicar
says...
3:32pm Tue 23 Oct 12
Scrap unnecessary services, by all means. I'd even suggest that a lot of Hub jobs could be saved by the Council pro-actively cleaning up litter, cutting back shrubbery, repairing potholes, WITHOUT WAITING FOR PEOPLE TO PHONE IN!!!
Any half-way decent company doesn't wait for its customers to complain. It does what it can to ensure that the product is right in the first place.
Anyway. What makes the Council think that the private sector would do this any better than the public sector does?
Keith B
says...
5:37pm Tue 23 Oct 12
OR .... you have to explain everything to the hub worker who puts you through and then you have to repeat it all again anyway.
Privatising the hubs won't improve the service - getting rid of the hubs and allowing the public to talk directly to the office they need will.
THE FACTS
says...
5:54pm Tue 23 Oct 12
1. FIX THE SERVICE SO THERE ARE NO COMPLAINTS.
2 OR PROVIDE THE CORRECT INFO ON THE WEBSITE SO THE PUNTER DOESNT HAVE TO PHONE TO FINE SOMETHING OUT.
uptonX says...
2:46pm Tue 23 Oct 12
Sheesh, no though about doing something to improve the service or save costs for the council tax payers then.
As always with local government staff the ONLY thing they ever care about is their own cushy jobs and benefits. Need to get someone with a business background in there with a big stick to sort them out !