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News and Comment June 2013

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20 June (Part 5) - Toxic atmosphere

Today I had planned to provide a little insight into the sort of things that go on within Bexley council under one of the most expensive local authority management teams in the country, but there have been distractions.

From several independent sources extending back almost exactly two years I have been made aware of two employees who didn’t fit into Bexley’s cultures. Their names have popped up again in the context of BELL and Mrs. Baker’s death in April 2012. They were both brought in from other authorities to the CCTV/BELL operation, one report says one was via another Bexley department, and both left well before the BELL operator failed to answer their client’s emergency call. Some reports paint them as heroes and others as villains. I do not know the truth of it but drawing from my own work experience I would guess that they had high hopes of improving procedures but found themselves at loggerheads with the Luddites.

Neither can have contributed to Mrs. Baker’s death unless you consider failing to persuade their bosses to change tack makes them guilty so I am not going to name the innocent, but maybe some people will recognise the initials J. McL. and K.A.

According to several reports both were dismissed for their failure to adopt Bexley’s values, their criticism of the understaffing of BELL being specifically mentioned. K.A. in particular is said by the same people to have been told to pack his bags and was frog-marched to the door. No one seems to know why but he has done pretty well for himself since. When I Google his name it is found on page after page. He must thank his lucky stars that Bexley kicked him out of his job.

Another complaint that has come up more than once over a long period is that people scheduled to attend training courses are disciplined for not turning up for their day job, or being late on shift if it was a night job. As a one off mistake it might be understandable, but several times to different people? Are there no competent managers at Bexley council?

The bitchiness between staff exceeds anything I ever saw in my own working life. I have a written report that when one employee fell out with another, one lady, if that is a word that can be used here, was discovered defecating on the doorstep of the other and when disturbed ran away as best she could with her drawers around her knees. I cannot be sure if there are people at the Civic Centre prepared to do that but there is another one prepared to put the claim in writing. Either way Tuckley and Co. are running a pretty lousy ship.

There is more…

 

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