Meanwhile, down at Mill Hill Depot...

I'm indebted to Mr Mustard for including in a recent blogpost a list of Nick Walkley's 'Meet the chief*' sessions for the next few weeks, while he still IS chief of Barnet Council.

I notice with interest that Mr Walkley is due this afternoon to visit Mill Hill Depot.

'Meet the chief' sessions are a chance for staff to talk to the CEO about what's going on in the Council. I imagine that it is rather a one-way conversation, usually, with him imparting the latest management thinking, and not looking for much actual input from the plebs, sorry, staff.

This afternoon's meeting could be livelier than usual though. Staff at the depot will have heard - through their unions, probably, not from their employer - that their jobs are included in the next tranche of One Barnet outsourcing, which is, it turns out, a joint outsourcing with Brent Council.

Waste, recycling and street cleaning services will be included in this next big outsourcing contract. Once those staff are added to the 70% of staff to be transferred to the private sector under the NSCSO and DRS contracts, about 90% of Barnet Council staff will be private employed (those of them that don't lose their jobs in the shakeout).

We know all about this outsourcing because we read about it on Brent Council's website. I wonder when Barnet were going to get around to telling residents or, more to the point, staff.

* When I was in my early adulthood 'chief' was a term of abuse meaning 'fool'.