A little bleary this morning as I had dinner last night with Paul Streets of the Lloyds Bank Foundation. Eating at Roast, the marvellous restaurant in the Borough Market (which is a charity as well as the place to buy your organic and fresh produce!). Paul is doing a great job there and he's an ACEVO member obviously. He used to run Diabetes UK before joining the DH! He is now back in our sector where he should be.
whilst his organisation busies itself spending lots of MoJ money drumming-up bidders for our work. The following is an observation made by an attender at one of these events, representing a potential tier 2/3 bidder:-
An Alice in Wonderland meeting
I recently went to a meeting as a Tier 2/3 provider on negotiation skills run by ACEVO, very exciting. So the meeting opens, lots of questions about fairly basic information about the process. Any answers? No, lots of “don’t know”, “we will raise that with the MOJ” etc etc, Took a long time to go through all the questions they could not answer.
I recently went to a meeting as a Tier 2/3 provider on negotiation skills run by ACEVO, very exciting. So the meeting opens, lots of questions about fairly basic information about the process. Any answers? No, lots of “don’t know”, “we will raise that with the MOJ” etc etc, Took a long time to go through all the questions they could not answer.
PbR
Some interesting answers, summarised below
Tier One
|
Paid Y/N
|
Tier Two\ Three
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Paid Y/N
| ||
Achieve result
|
Y
|
Y
|
Achieve result
|
Y
|
Y
|
Achieve result
|
Y
|
Y
|
Achieve result
|
N
|
N
|
Achieve result
|
N
|
N
|
Achieve result
|
Y
|
N
|
Achieve result
|
N
|
N
|
Achieve result
|
N
|
N
|
Tier Two and Threes will only get paid if the Tier One achieves their outcomes. So as a Tier Two or Three you can achieve the agreed outcomes but not get paid! There was also an additional sting in the tail, Tier 2/3 providers results have to be “statistically significant!" Head they win, tails you lose.
Employment Issues
Interesting the employment model they were using in terms of Unit costs, the slide stated
Unit costs
| |||
Volume of Clients
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1,000
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Maximum case load for an adviser
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100
|
therefore
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10 advisers
|
Number of advisers per manager
|
10
|
therefore
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1 manager
|
There was a further discussion on wages for advisers with the average figure being £20,000 per annum. When some providers discussed higher salaries they were told “higher salaries” were unlikely to gain contracts.
The day was a strange day of no answers and a total lack of understanding in terms of what the probation service does and who they deal with. From my perspective as a potential tier 2/3 provider, today was the end of our involvement in this process. It looks and feels like a shambles and my organisation will, on my recommendation, have nothing more to do with it.
They clearly feel they had a lucky escape. But don't worry all you other potential tier 2/3 bidders out there, for help is at hand! Lots more MoJ money is being spent on this new venture:-
They clearly feel they had a lucky escape. But don't worry all you other potential tier 2/3 bidders out there, for help is at hand! Lots more MoJ money is being spent on this new venture:-
Clinks Newsflash | TR Helpline goes live tomorrow!
Our Transforming Rehabilitation Helpline goes live at 10am tomorrow! The Helpline will support voluntary sector organisations who are thinking about, or working towards, a subcontract under the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) programme.
Clinks, in collaboration with Russell-Cooke Solicitors, is opening the Helpline to provide information and advice about the subcontracting process and issues to consider when subcontracting. The Helpline will also be able to refer small and medium sized organisation entering contract negotiations for free legal advice with our partner legal firms.
Details
Open 10am – 4pm, Monday - Friday
Telephone - 020 3637 0155
Email - TRHelpline@clinks.org
Additional supportThe Helpline is part of the Clinks TR Legal Support Project, funded by the Ministry of Justice. Additional support from this project includes:
GUIDANCE | Subcontracting: a guide to the legal implications
Our guide to subcontracting under the TR programme covers areas such as entering negotiations, analysing risk, HR and TUPE, data protection, collaborative working, and disputes and termination. There is an introduction to TR and 10 modules which can be downloaded individually. Video introductions to these modules will be available towards the end of March. The guide is available here
WORKSHOPS | Subcontracting: the legal implications
These workshops are being run with our legal partners around the country in March. They aim to explain the legal implications of the Industry Standard Partnering Agreement (ISPA). Check the dates and locations and book your place here
TRAINING | Negotiation skills, unit costing and impact measurement
We are offering Negotiation skills training; an extension of the ACEVO programme which ran throughout February. The training will be run by ACEVO and Candour Collaborations. Negotiation skills training will be run alongside our TR Subcontracting workshops, which will be at the same venue in the morning. You can book for one or both sessions; lunch will be provided for anyone booking on both sessions. We will also be running a course on Unit Costings and Impact Measurement with ACEVO.
The training programmes are free, book your place here
RESOURCE | stay up to date with TR
And don't forget our dedicated Transforming Rehabilitation web page; regularly updated by our Policy Team here
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Not much training or workshops that give a mention to the client I see. Maybe they're all to money blind to even consider that the client (or their stock!) could be quite a significant issue for them.
ReplyDeleteI think it's all just Bubbollocks really.
Maybe some of the primes wont like the idea of having a 'government minder' appointed to watch over them.
ReplyDeleteI find it very concerning how the arm of government can reach into and have so much direct influence on the prive sector.
Winston Smith, Telespeak and room 101.
The government has appointed a senior “minder” from the business world to oversee G4S, the distressed outsourcing company, as it seeks to satisfy ministers it is fit to take on further government contracts.
DeleteThe Financial Times has learnt that Ian Tyler, former chief executive of Balfour Beatty, will be appointed crown representative for G4S, assigned to work with the company as part of a Whitehall scheme intended to inject more commercial nous into public procurement. Bill Crothers, Whitehall chief procurement officer, said the aim was “to improve commercial performance and save money”. Six other business leaders, all known as “crown representatives”, will be announced on Tuesday, bringing the total number of external advisers to 21. However, it is highly unusual for a crown representative to look after a single company; most work with two or three.Mr Tyler, who will be paid £500 a day by the Cabinet Office, had already served on an oversight panel that concluded Serco, a rival outsourcing company that had been under government investigation, should be allowed to bid for fresh work.
Mr Crothers made clear that G4S had yet to satisfy the government it had undertaken the “corporate renewal” necessary to restore its reputation in Whitehall.G4S is at the centre of an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office over whether it overbilled the taxpayer by £24m for electronic tagging and prison escort contracts. However, not only the company’s conduct but also the ability of civil servants to manage relationships with the outsourcer has come under scrutiny in recent months. The Cabinet Office has acknowledged the need to urgently improve commissioning skills, but credits measures such as the appointment of the crown representatives and more centralised procurement for the £3.8bn in efficiency savings it secured last year.
Mr Tyler’s experience as chief executive of “a public company with diverse business interests working across different countries” would give him insights into G4S as the company sought to improve its performance, Mr Crothers suggested.“If you are the person representing government and having a conversation with that supplier you need to have gravitas, stature and, most importantly, experience. The more you can show empathy with the challenges the suppliers are going through, the better,” he added.
While the company had yet to satisfy ministers it should win more work, “it is in the government’s interests to have as broad a supplier base and as competitive a market as possible. We are working to achieve that goal and we know that G4S’s senior leadership is working to achieve it too,” he added. Mr Tyler left Balfour Beatty last January following a profit warning the previous November. The company was forced to issue a second profit warning in April, blaming poor management in its UK division.He is also chairman of the housebuilder Bovis Homes, which is benefiting from government schemes to boost mortgage take-up such as Help to Buy. Mr Tyler is also executive director on the boards of BAE Systems, Cable & Wireless Communications and Cairn Energy. G4S declined to comment on Mr Tyler’s appointment.
By mistake I first put what follows in a previous blog - I will leave it there as it does also directly refer to some material there as well.
ReplyDelete"The more this goes on against all reason as far as cost, public safety and increasing rehabilitation are concerned, the more I am becoming convinced it is about something much more sinister, which can be the outcome of a the 'smaller state' where the intellectuals and organised supporters of the vulnerable are emaciated.
http://www.napo2.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=545 "
http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/finance/news/content/17052/grayling_charities_put_too_much_emphasis_on_campaigning#.UxXaoLsRf5Y
ReplyDeleteThe charity sector is putting too much emphasis on campaigning and not enough on service delivery, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling told an audience of charity leaders last night.
DeleteSpeaking at a social welfare debate in London, organised by the Lord Mayor’s Charity Leadership Programme, Grayling said there was currently discussion about how much weight should be given to three issues – contracting, fundraising and campaigning.
“I disagree strongly with the campaigning side,” he said. “People talk about the amount MPs are lobbied by big business. But I would say that there is 20 to 30 times as much lobbying from the charitable sector, perhaps even more.
“I see there are big national organisations with active, well-funded campaigning groups at the centre, but with cash-strapped branches trying to provide services on the ground in communities, and I think 'are you sure you've got the balance right?'
“From the point of view of a constituency MP it doesn't feel right at all.” 'The sector must behave in a commercial way'
Grayling also said that the sector had to adapt in order to contract with government.
“The sector itself has to behave a reasonably commercial way,” he said. “If you want to win a government contract, you’ve got to be able to do a genuine business deal. We try to facilitate opportunities for the sector but we can't provide it on a plate.”
He said the lesson he had taken from the Work Programme and Transforming Rehabilitation was that the sector needed to build more commercial skills, and that he had explained this lesson to Acevo, the NCVO and to contracting organisations.
He said that change was inevitable for charities, because previous government methods of engaging with the sector had been too inefficient.
“In both of these programmes the social sector is enormously important, both for big organisations like Tomorrow's People and the Shaw Trust, and smaller niche organisations,” he said. “We've tried to create a level playing field.”
But he said the sector also had to change to meet government’s needs.
“Before the Work Programme the Department for Work and Pensions contracted with 1,200 charities,” he said. “With the best will in the world that's not really terribly viable. It's much more difficult to manage large numbers of charities.”
Grayling said he did not agree with criticism from members of the audience who said they could not afford to become involved in payment-by-results programmes which took a long time before they paid out to contractors.
“I don’t believe payment-by-results puts any constraints on the sector,” he said.
He said that charities should be able to get funding from prime contractors who had the balance sheet to fund smaller organisations during delivery, or they should be able to attract social investment to fund a payment-by-results contract.
He said it was a concern that charities might be used as “bid candy” but that protections such as the Merlin Standard had been introduced to prevent this happening. He said he had been prepared to take action to protect charities but they had not approached him with the evidence needed to do so.
“It would have made my life much easier if I had been able to sack a prime contractor just to make the point I was willing to,” he said.
'We will win prime contracts and do it better'
Roy O'Shaughnessy, chief executive of the Shaw Trust, speaking at the same event, echoed many of Grayling’s comments and that there were more and more charities which could compete for government prime contracts.
Delete“There are a number of organisations which have been building infrastructure in the last 30 years,” he said. “If there was ever a time we could win business from the Sercos of this world, it's now.
“It's not easy having a charitable heart and a commercial brain, but it has advantages. Last year we invested £7.2m in the community which in another company would have been given to shareholders.
“I would encourage any charity which wants to be a prime contractor. We will win these contracts and do it better.”
Yet more funnelling of public money to corporate behemoths. I'm somewhat heartened to read that there are sensible people realising what a pup they are being sold (or offered for sale) and turning it down - but that is quickly followed by stomach-churning thoughts of who will be left: those who are incompetent and haven't realised how bad this is, or those who simply don't care because there's money to be made.
ReplyDeleteFile on 4 pulls more rabbits out of hats 8pm tonight - accountants who rule the country
ReplyDeleteWhen is a charity a charity and therefore deserving of special status and tax breaks? When is a charity a business that should stand on it's own feet as a fully commercial enterprise? LINES ARE BEING CROSSED.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly!
DeleteGrayling is really duplicitous using Charities when it suits to give some altruistic smoke screen to all of this crap. He has really fooled charities whose reputations will be damaged and their volunteers be placed at risk. The charities are also being used to denude an honourable profession... OURS.
DeleteSHAME ON THEM!
My advice to companies wanting a piece of this cake would be to only decide on whether to bid after you have see the MoJs own risk register on TR. Only decid eto bid if:
ReplyDeletea) you can get sight of it, and
b) you look like you can make money and keep your reputation in tact.
best of luck on both!!
I think the truth (if anyone is allowed to see it) is that this whole shambles is designed only for Mr Grayling's own political expedience, and no-one else will profit.....in any sense of the word.
It's disgusting. Every aspect of it. I have loved my job and the challenge of working with chaotic clients but do not want to be part of this and hate the thought of losing clients I have been working hard with for years. . . All for the sake of "profit" . . . Its all about outcomes. . . . Whats going to be drastically different to significantly improve reoffending rates??! What about the ridiculous benefit system, lack of housing etc. . . Its the wider structural problems Grayling needs to look at! If it was THAT easy we'd already be doing it! Rant over.
ReplyDeleteSorry I know this as been covered in depth but I run a Attendance Centre and will be thrown to wolves aka CRC in June. When do they get flogged off ?
ReplyDeleteNewsnight tonight Cameron pledging 'I want this government to be one of the most transparent in the world'. Let the country see the TR risk register then
ReplyDeleteHas anyone seen the new risk assessment form? Does it cover SFOs at the point of first appearance in custody or refer to a separate procedure for notification of SFO? What offences will be covered under the process - if such process will exist?
Delete