Doom And Gloom At The Local Last Night

[Mal Volio]

Its a non job, privatised.

Like my local hospital using City Link for internal mail....I saw the manifests with my own eyes.

The insanity of running an internal market: it looks cheaper to pay someone else to do it. I once worked for a company which had different divisions competing for the same projects...

[pete.hpc]

My guess would be that there are requirements beyond just shredding for disposal of personal info on benefits & stuff by local councils; it's probably necessary to have a completely separate and audited disposal route.

I don't know that for sure, of course, but there seems little shortage of leaping to conclusions going on on this thread

A quick glance at a company that provides secure data disposal confirms that the process is, put paper into bin, paper goes through shredder.

Exactly the sort of service that would be immediately ditched at a private sector company that was looking to make savings, so no reason a council can't do exactly the same.

[Bloo Loo]

My guess would be that there are requirements beyond just shredding for disposal of personal info on benefits & stuff by local councils; it's probably necessary to have a completely separate and audited disposal route.

I don't know that for sure, of course, but there seems little shortage of leaping to conclusions going on on this thread

easy for LA management to have one point of reference. so it costs 3 times as much...but it means people in the council/LA/Civil Service are not accountable for loss.

same thing occurs in Private sector too...no-one was sacked because they bought IBM PCs was once often heard. Ass covering in weak organisations is abundant.

[Bloo Loo]

It is crazy!

The foaming at the mouth freaks on here should be careful what they wish for.

"Cut the public sector non-jobs" they scream.

The first ones to go will be the private sector jobs like the ones highlighted on this thread.

what..like this you mean?

[pete.hpc]

It is crazy!

The foaming at the mouth freaks on here should be careful what they wish for.

"Cut the public sector non-jobs" they scream.

The first ones to go will be the private sector jobs like the ones highlighted on this thread.

We're supposed to care if some public sector funded private sector non-job like this goes?

By the way, if you use the phrase "careful what you wish for", you automatically lose any argument you are currently engaged in

There's only one freak foaming at the mouth on this thread bucko

[Mal Volio]

Exactly the sort of service that would be immediately ditched at a private sector company that was looking to make savings, so no reason a council can't do exactly the same.

I suppose you may just be much cleverer than everyone who works in the public sector.

[Mal Volio]

There's only one freak foaming at the mouth on this thread bucko

Mmm

Seems to be you

[efdemin]

A quick glance at a company that provides secure data disposal confirms that the process is, put paper into bin, paper goes through shredder.

Exactly the sort of service that would be immediately ditched at a private sector company that was looking to make savings, so no reason a council can't do exactly the same.

Except, it isn't. The last company I worked at had exactly these secure bins that someone came around to take away. This was, shock horror, in the private sector!

It's exactly the sort of job that a private company outsources at the very first opportunity. Why pay for a person to do this task, possibly two to cover holidays, plus vehicle to transport the bins, admin for the paper trail, pensions, health benefits, etc, etc. Pay someone else to do it - they can do it cheaper by sharing their resources between multiple clients.

[Bloo Loo]

Except, it isn't. The last company I worked at had exactly these secure bins that someone came around to take away. This was, shock horror, in the private sector!

It's exactly the sort of job that a private company outsources at the very first opportunity. Why pay for a person to do this task, possibly two to cover holidays, plus vehicle to transport the bins, admin for the paper trail, pensions, health benefits, etc, etc. Pay someone else to do it - they can do it cheaper by sharing their resources between multiple clients.

exactly......like having leaflets delivered by subbies and finding 1000 of them in a bin.

control is what this is all about. And a LA is big enough to be able to employ 3 to do this very efficiently indeed.

[pete.hpc]

I suppose you may just be much cleverer than everyone who works in the public sector.

Not at all, why do you say that?

It's got nothing to do with intelligence, and everything to do with 13 years of public sector waste that can no longer be funded

I don't expect anyone reliant upon or employed within the state to agree, but I do expect them to wail and snipe on message boards as the pain begins to bite

[pete.hpc]

Except, it isn't. The last company I worked at had exactly these secure bins that someone came around to take away. This was, shock horror, in the private sector!

It's exactly the sort of job that a private company outsources at the very first opportunity. Why pay for a person to do this task, possibly two to cover holidays, plus vehicle to transport the bins, admin for the paper trail, pensions, health benefits, etc, etc. Pay someone else to do it - they can do it cheaper by sharing their resources between multiple clients.

I bet they won't be doing it if they are forced to slash costs because they are making losses

[Mal Volio]

control is what this is all about. And a LA is big enough to be able to employ 3 to do this very efficiently indeed.

Some undoubtedly are

Others employ 300 people - or fewer in some rural district councils.

[Mal Volio]

Not at all, why do you say that?

It's got nothing to do with intelligence, and everything to do with 13 years of public sector waste that can no longer be funded

I don't expect anyone reliant upon or employed within the state to agree, but I do expect them to wail and snipe on message boards as the pain begins to bite

ah, the old "you disagree with me therefore you must be an EA/VI/public sector employee" line

Pathetic.

[pete.hpc]

Don't be so paranoid

[LuckyOne]

Except, it isn't. The last company I worked at had exactly these secure bins that someone came around to take away. This was, shock horror, in the private sector!

It's exactly the sort of job that a private company outsources at the very first opportunity. Why pay for a person to do this task, possibly two to cover holidays, plus vehicle to transport the bins, admin for the paper trail, pensions, health benefits, etc, etc. Pay someone else to do it - they can do it cheaper by sharing their resources between multiple clients.

Agreed.

There are only three valid questions :

- Does the public sector negotiate at least as cost effective a deal as the private sector?

- Does the public sector generate an appropriate amount of confidential documentation relative to comparable private sector counterparts?

- Does the public sector spend no more than the private sector on administering these deals?

Taxpayers would feel a lot better about government spending (at all levels) if there were more transparency.

[Bloo Loo]

Some undoubtedly are

Others employ 300 people - or fewer in some rural district councils.

so they pay the county £50 to collect once a month. or they do it themselves.

I mean, things only need to be protected from prying eyes...shredding after the fact isnt any protection....but the whole security ethos should enable a team to decide itself if shredding is to be undertaken or not...I mean,,,decisions decisions..."do I put this file in the shredding bin or do I shred it myself"....tricky.

[Killer Bunny]

but perhaps the prices they charge will need to drop in order to compete and that their current lifestyle off the back of that will need to adjust to the new era of austerity measures.

In the 90s crash, trades' charges went down 80%

[OnionTerror]

I believe that most, if not all LA documentation is required to be scanned, well it was being introduced into the LA that I was working for over 7 years ago. All post is scanned in the post room by a handful of ppl being paid tuppence an hour...Do LAs have to keep documentation for a certain length of time?

I worked for a defence co a couple of years ago, and they had a private firm come on site, they picked up all the confidential waste, and they shredded it on site. Most of these sorts of companies also offer "media" shredding, such as shredding CDs and wotnot.

[peakoil]

Secure data disposal dontchaknow. Requirement under the Data Protection Act I'm sure. The (private) company I used to work for got rid of them as a cost-cutting measure so staff then just binned em. Tbh councils should have manual shredders. And get feral youths to operate them rather than taking them out on community service - i.e. spending two hours to paint a single bit of railing.

genius idea, get the young criminals into indentity theft instead of assault

[Mr 0.01%]

At my Local Authority workplace, they spent what must have been a good few 10s of thousands on outfitting several departments with some fairly expensive looking shredders that we would use to shred sensitive docs. The next year, when the Authority deemed these to be insecure (for some unknown reason) they replaced them all with a private firm to do the shredding.

I'm sure they'll have recouped some of the losses but not all.

The thing that irritates me most though is that there is zero accountability. No-one was fired/demoted/reprimanded for it.

Believe it or not, a lot of people within my department (myself included) are sick of the waste that goes on in the public sector.

What irritates us more is the absolute lack of accountability. Without accountability waste will continue.

[Snugglybear]

A quick glance at a company that provides secure data disposal confirms that the process is, put paper into bin, paper goes through shredder.

Exactly the sort of service that would be immediately ditched at a private sector company that was looking to make savings, so no reason a council can't do exactly the same.

We're a teeny tiny company of skilled people and don't employ low-grade admin people. We are obliged to shred documents with data on them related to our customers, and we prefer to shred those with details related to our company. We would waste so much time shredding instead of doing work that brings in money that it is many, many times cheaper to pay a company to do it. We pay per binful and believe me, we make sure it's full.

[Guest Noodle]

At my Local Authority workplace, they spent what must have been a good few 10s of thousands on outfitting several departments with some fairly expensive looking shredders that we would use to shred sensitive docs. The next year, when the Authority deemed these to be insecure (for some unknown reason) they replaced them all with a private firm to do the shredding.

I'm sure they'll have recouped some of the losses but not all.

The thing that irritates me most though is that there is zero accountability. No-one was fired/demoted/reprimanded for it.

Believe it or not, a lot of people within my department (myself included) are sick of the waste that goes on in the public sector.

What irritates us more is the absolute lack of accountability. Without accountability waste will continue.

[Bloo Loo]

lost me...should I be thinking inside, or outside the envelope?

[Guest Noodle]

lost me...should I be thinking inside, or outside the envelope?

Now put a load of cash in it.

Reckon it'll come out in the end quite how crooked a lot of these councils were/are. But you need to remove the money first to see.

[ken_ichikawa]

Now put a load of cash in it.

Reckon it'll come out in the end quite how crooked a lot of these councils were/are. But you need to remove the money first to see.

Yup, my local councilors are incredibly corrupt, I remember being in a pub with one and the barman, the councillor gave a thinly veiled threat. The landlord of the pub knew what was going on and reached for the most expensive bottle of champs in the place and put it on the bar.

The councilor said, I can't possibly accept that, however my mother might like it (gave the address).