COUNCILLORS will tonight (Monday) decide behind closed doors whether to finally shed Swindon Council of the services of failing benefits contractor Atkins.

In a meeting called to debate the options for the future of the revenues and benefits service, the special committee has been advised to transfer the contract to another private firm, Liberata.

But leading public service union, Unison, has warned of a mass exodus of staff if that happens.

And Liberata has had problems with benefits claims backlogs at other councils, including Sheffield and Taunton Deane.

The meeting is private, but the Advertiser today learned of the recommendations being made by the council's finance director Ian Thompson. Mr Thompson believes transferring the service to Liberata would be most cost-effective.

It would end nearly three years of poor service from Atkins, which has struggled with huge backlogs of benefits claims and uncollected council tax.

In a report, Mr Thompson claims the council does not have the management capacity or expertise to run the service in-house.

Moving the service to Liberata would mean potential job losses for Atkins staff, as the new firm would move the service to a call centre in Sheffield.

The council's Unison representatives have opposed Mr Thompson's recommendations in a letter and have urged councillors to take the service back in-house.

Secretary Bob Cretchley said: "Unison members in council tax and benefits are absolutely appalled at the prospect of being shunted over to a further private company when privatisation has failed over the past couple of years to deliver an effective service."

He claimed moving the service to Sheffield would remove the "personal touch" for local people.

He said there were fears that administration work would also be removed from Swindon at a later date. The proposed introduction of a separate PO Box to redirect incoming post to Sheffield compounded those fears, he said.

He also claimed current staff have the expertise to perform the service in-house, and the appointment of one extra senior officer is all that is needed.

Mr Cretchley said: "The existing staff are largely local government trained personnel who wish to provide a courteous, dedicated and effective in-house service.

"There are real fears that if the service is outsourced a second time, there will be a mass exodus of staff. Staff are tired of being used as pawns in an ever-failing game of chess."

www.liberata.com

www.wsatkins.com