The union has written to the authority accusing the management of putting their “spin” on the impact of job losses and service delivery.
The council recently confirmed that 96 full-time posts – almost a third of the total – will be cut from its children’s centres as part of a restructure in a bid to save £3.3m from its early intervention service. It said that 50 positions currently filled by agency staff will be phased out and that 15 frontline posts will be open to voluntary redundancy, while 31 management roles will go.
However, Gary Garner, Unison branch secretary, rejected the council’s figures and claimed that a presentation given to staff in February revealed that up to 133.75 full time-equivalents could be made redundant under the plans.
In his letter to the council, he wrote: “Unison’s position is that this has been a farce from day one.
“Unison believes that the figures are being massaged as we believe that as many as 12 members of staff have chosen to leave Leicester City Council and others have just got fed up or are simply not prepared to put up with the recruitment process.
“Your other reasons given for mitigation against compulsory redundancy are the deletion of vacant posts and voluntary redundancy, many of which have been covered by agency staff in order for Leicester City Council to meet their statutory obligations.”
A council spokeswoman denied Garner’s claims.
She said: “We don’t expect job losses to reach more than 100. In fact, more people have expressed interest in voluntary redundancy than posts to go.
“Although we can’t say for definite at this stage, this means it is likely there will be no compulsory redundancies for frontline staff."
Under the plans, all 23 children’s centres will be kept open as “delivery sites”, where parents and children will be able to access a range of support services.
They will form a network of six clusters, with centres in each working together to deliver services that the council says will still meet the needs of families living in communities.
But Garner said that plans to change the opening times of children’s centres following the restructure will lead to 73 half-day closures.
The spokeswoman added: “One centre in each of the six clusters will be open all day, every day and some will be open for the majority of the time.
“At other children’s centre buildings, opening hours will be co-ordinated to ensure activities are available for local families.”
