Munich / London, February 5, 2019 – AURELIUS Equity Opportunities SE & Co. KGaA (ISIN DE000A0JK2A8) will sell the remaining parts of its public-sector business in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The homecare business in Northern Ireland was sold to the longtime minority shareholder, the Mackle family. The business of community rehabilitation services for the British public authorities (so-called CRCs, Community Rehabilitation Companies) will be transferred in accordance with them to services company Seetec, based in Hockley (Great Britain).
AURELIUS had already sold the homecare business in England, Scotland and Wales to the Health Care Resourcing Group (CRG), based in Prescot (Great Britain), at the end of 2018. With the current sale, AURELIUS has now withdrawn completely from the business of outsourced services for the public authorities in Great Britain. The further development of this market will largely depend on public budgetary conditions. Government savings constraints have already led to a substantial consolidation of this industry in the past few years.
After being acquired by AURELIUS, these activities were subjected to an extensive restructuring program, including the introduction of a much improved IT infrastructure, the enhancement of service quality, and cost reductions in the areas of personnel, overhead costs and rents.
--oo00oo--
It has been bought to our attention that Aurelius Group have today announced, via their Website, their intention to transfer the Working Links CRCs to Seetec, who currently own Kent, Surrey and Sussex CRC.
Napo believes that there are very good reasons to doubt the veracity of this statement and that any such transfer of interests is among a number of options that are being actively explored and which would still require the approval of the Secretary of State for Justice.
The Probation unions are in regular contact with senior HMPPS and MoJ management to press our case for reunification of the service. During these discussions we have constantly raised our concerns about the performance of Working Links and their parent company Aurelius. We have said that in our view these CRCs should be immediately reinstated to the status of Government Companies rather than inviting another CRC owner to step in and try to address the serious problems that have occurred since the start of the contracts.
Napo believes that the Aurelius statement today and the communication to CRC staff last week have caused unnecessary speculation and uncertainty.
Napo wanted to assure our members in the Working Links CRCs that we are aware of this development and that whatever future option comes to pass, we will be making urgent representations to ensure that terms and conditions as well as jobs are protected.
In this uncertain time we understand that this ill-judged communication from Aurelius will cause even more anxiety to our members. As soon as we have more details we will update you.
Ian Lawrence
General Secretary Napo
"Napo believes that there are very good reasons to doubt the veracity of this statement"
ReplyDeleteSeetec - Group Justice Director - "Nigel [Bennett] has over 25 years’ experience in community and custodial criminal justice, both in the UK and abroad. A former senior adviser in the Prime Minister’s delivery unit's home and foreign affairs team, Nigel has worked under Labour and coalition administrations.
In his first year and a half with Seetec Nigel led the newly acquired CRC in Kent, Surrey and Sussex before transferring to the wider role of Group Justice Director. His belief is that service users should be an integral part of our criminal justice solutions, taking responsibility both for their problems and their solutions, achieving goals with the help of a skilled and dedicated workforce. A vocal advocate of social work values and equality, his ambition is to lead Seetec Justice to become the provider of choice for both commissioners and staff."
We can rest assured that WL has been snapped up by Seetec - probably given away - not least because Aurelius has referenced that the services will be transferred "in accordance with them" i.e. the "British public authorities". Don't doubt Gauke will have already signed the transfer paperwork & all will happen before 29 March 2019.
Yes no doubt another fiddled fix so the tories save face on a disaster to justice and for all that is said on the Seetec guy hes a profiteer in crime for less to offenders and more cash to privatization. Nothing social about his ideology I am afraid to say. Privatization takes all the profits while the public services pick up all the debts and mess.
DeleteGood news as the failure is so obvious. Bad news it says Seetec who are probably just as crap but it does not replace Working links does it? It merely says the new owners of the failing non working links company happen to be Seetec. This means Failing Links might try and limp on yet again with another handler for the poorly old dog.
ReplyDeleteWorking Links was established in 2000 by the Shareholder Executive (the body formerly responsible for managing UK Government investments), Manpower and Ernst & Young, to provide welfare and employability services. In 2016 it was bought by Aurelius, a European asset management and investment firm.
ReplyDeleteAccording to its 2016 accounts, Seetec is majority owned and controlled by its managing director, Peter Cooper, who owns 75%+ of the shareholdings & received over £1.6 million in dividends in 2016.
Seetec is a welfare-to-work and probation services company based in Essex. It was a contractor for the government's controversial welfare-to-work Work Programme, and runs probation services through the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Community Rehabilitation Company.
Essex Life1 Nov 2015
DeletePeter Cooper
Construction, £52m
Founded in 1984, Hockley-based Seetec Business Technology Centre is one of the country’s top training companies, priding itself in offering high-quality training. In 2013-14 Seetec saw its profits fall to £7.6m on £70.5m sales. It should still easily be worth £60m on these figures. Peter Cooper, the MD, has an 80% stake worth £48m. Other assets should add £4m.
Obviously with the contracts soon to be put out to tender, Seetec must feel pretty secure and confident of winning one or more.
ReplyDeleteHave to wonder if the winning bidders have already been selected.
'Getafix
MEANWHILE - catching up with former folk featured in this blog -
ReplyDeleteWhere are they now? Mr Grayling -
NOT in Calais!
The Department for Transport seems to be failing in the public relations department!
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1082991/brexit-news-chris-grayling-banned-calais-Jean-Marc-Puissesseau-bypass-port-no-deal
MINISTRY OF JUSTICE REHABILITATION PROGRAMME
ReplyDeleteSale and Purchase Agreement and Articles of Association
– Summary
The provision of probation services is currently carried out by 35 Probation Trusts. These are to be reorganised into 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC), one per contract package area (CPA).
Initially the Secretary of State (Authority) will own the 21 CRCs; and following a procurement process the Authority will sell the 21 CRCs to the successful bidders.
1. Sale and Purchase Agreement
Parties
There will be a standard form Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) to purchase the ordinary share capital of each CRC in each CPA.
The Authority will be the seller under each SPA and the obligations of the purchaser under each SPA (the Purchaser) will be guaranteed by a Purchaser’s guarantor.
Structure
Each Purchaser will acquire the ordinary share capital of a CRC under each SPA.
The SPA provides for a timing gap between signing and completion.
At completion the Authority and each CRC will enter into a deed of amendment in the agreed form. The deed of amendment will amend the then existing services agreement between the Authority and the CRC to reflect the commercial agreement in respect of services to be provided in each CPA.
Warranties
Each CRC will trade between its date of incorporation and completion under the SPA.
The Authority will warrant at the date of signing the SPA that certain statements in relation to each CRC are true and accurate. The contents of the Data Room will be disclosed against these warranties and usual limitations will apply to any warranty claim.
2. Articles of Association Function
The Articles of Association set out the basic management and administrative structure of each CRC and regulate the internal affairs of each CRC (they are its constitution).
Special share
The share capital of each CRC will comprise ordinary share capital and a special share capital (sometimes referred to as a "Golden Share"). The Purchaser will acquire the ordinary share capital from the Authority under the SPA. The Authority will continue to hold the special share after completion of the SPA.
The Authority, through the special share, will retain certain rights of consent and controls over each CRC.
The rights of the special share are entrenched in the Articles of Association and cannot be amended without the consent of the Authority.
Employee council
Each CRC will have a council that represents employees and their interests. The Articles of Association set out the terms of the employee council.
The employee council may appoint its president as a director of the CRC.
http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/rehab-prog/sale-and-purchasing-agreement-summary.pdf
GOVERNANCE HANDBOOK
DeleteCOMMUNITY REHABILITATION COMPANIES
PUBLIC SECTOR OWNERSHIP MAY 2014
http://www.londoncrc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Governance-Handbook-CRC-final-version-May-2014.pdf
So Shitec strikes out to buy Working Links, they're a bunch of arrogant misogynistic arseholes. Nigel Bennett an ex probation officer produced a failing model that divided supervision into assessment and rehabilitation which failed miserably and he produced a package of services that was just a rehash of years of research from what works to desistance. Branding sub headings that mirrored Oasys into similar categories and producing worksheets not dissimilar to the targets for effective change developed by Northampton Probation. He is a fraud. Like most of the other parent companies Shitec are not unionised, deceitful and ruthless in their journey to exploit justice contracts for profit. These companies are profiting from crime, destroying a profession and have no scruples,its disgusting.
ReplyDeleteHere in Devon we have been aware, for some time of the many failings of Working Links and their refusal to acknowledge the under-funding that has made the job impossible, worthless and a mockery of justice, for all concerned. Unfortunately, this sale may not mean the end of WL, just a change of owner. Everyone in the DDC CRC hopes WL will depart as soon as possible but based on what's written above it looks like we may be jumping out of the fire and into the frying pan.What a sad indictment of what was once a noble and worthwhile profession.
ReplyDelete12 months ago, FT:
ReplyDeleteProbation company failings drive up UK reoffending -
Report on private groups’ record raises questions over ability to manage offenders
Robert Wright in London February 9, 2018
Over-stretched private probation companies in England and Wales are helping to drive up reoffending rates by failing to monitor offenders properly, according to a scathing official report on the troubled service.
The author, Dame Glenys Stacey, chief inspector of probation, said the service offered by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) was poor, the lowest possible rating.
However, she dismissed fears that CRCs were recalling offenders to prison unnecessarily, and said that most of the decisions she examined were good.
Dame Glenys’ findings are the latest in a series of critical reports on the CRCs, which have proved deeply controversial since they were set up three years ago.
Her report says that judges and magistrates are so concerned about the companies’ supervision record that they lack confidence that they can rigorously manage offenders.
Because fewer offenders are now being sentenced to probation, funding to CRCs has dropped, leading the Department of Justice to allocate extra money to offset lossmaking contracts.
A previous inspection report in December 2016 found that services provided by MTCnovo, a US company, in London were so poor they were putting people at risk.
Dame Glenys said that good enforcement relied on good quality probation supervision, but CRCs were “stretched beyond their capacity” and were focused on “contract compliance”.
“Not seeing people often enough, or not engaging meaningfully with them, [they] are inevitably behind the curve on enforcement,” she said.
Because of their lack of engagement, staff might not know when enforcement, such as a return to prison, was called for, or whether it was better to undertake “purposeful work” to re-engage the individual with the probation programme, according to Dame Glenys.
She added that poor supervision made it more likely offenders would commit more crimes and some would end up in prison as a result.
The CRCs took over management of low- to medium-risk offenders across England and Wales from February 2015, under a programme devised by Chris Grayling, now transport secretary, during his period as justice secretary.
Management of high-risk offenders passed to a new National Probation Service (NPS), which remained in the public sector.
In addition to MTCnovo, services are provided by Sodexo of France, Ingeus of Australia and Staffline, Interserve and Working Links of the UK.
The report shows their record contrasts unfavourably with that of the publicly-run NPS.
Only 37 per cent of CRC assessments were considered good, compared to 83 per cent of those carried out by the NPS.
Also, only 58 per cent of decisions made by CRCs about offenders’ management and behaviour were assessed as appropriate, against 85 per cent for the NPS.
However, the CRCs fared better when deciding whether offenders who had breached the terms of their release should be returned to prison. The report found that 89 per cent of their decisions were appropriate, against 92 per cent by the NPS.
“Often, the level of disengagement or deterioration in the person’s behaviour were such that they could not be safely managed in the community,” Dame Glenys said.
It recommends that the government ensure probation services are “sufficiently resourced” to effectively supervise individuals with complex needs. It also says that CRCs must “ensure effective assessment” and “planned and purposeful” levels of face-to-face contact with those under probation supervision.
The ministry of justice said it had already taken action by setting up a working group to drive improvement.
“We will continue to monitor CRCs’ performance and will work closely to ensure they meet the high standards of probation services we expect,” the department said.
Interserve have agreed a rescue deal .... again.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47141828
Interserve - one of the UK's largest providers of public services - has reached a deal with creditors to prevent its collapse. The rescue plan involves cutting its debts from over £600m to £275m by issuing new shares.
DeleteChief executive Debbie White said it was "a significant step forward in our plans to strengthen the balance sheet".
Interserve sells services, including probation, cleaning and healthcare, and is involved in construction projects.
"The board believes that this agreement will secure a strong future for Interserve," Ms White added.
The firm plans to issue £480m worth of new shares, which will be swapped with creditors for debt, leaving existing shareholders with virtually nothing.
Under the rescue deal, Interserve will also keep its most profitable division, its RMD Kwikform construction business, loading £350m of debt onto its balance sheet. The firm had considered spinning the unit off to its lenders to raise money.
This is the second rescue deal for Interserve, with the company refinancing its debt in March last year. Its troubles have been blamed on cancellations and delays in its construction contracts as well as struggling waste-to-energy projects in Derby and Glasgow.
The firm's shares have plunged over the past year, currently trading at around 13p each. Just over a year ago, the shares were worth 100p each.
Interserve's difficulties follow the collapse of Carillion in January 2018, which put thousands of jobs at risk and cost taxpayers £148m. Following that, the government launched a pilot of "living wills" for contractors, so that critical services can be taken over in the event of a crisis. Interserve is one of five suppliers taking part.
In a separate statement, shareholder Coltrane Master Fund, which holds over a 5% stake in Interserve, has asked the firm to remove eight directors.
F.T
DeleteInterserve, one of the biggest suppliers of services to the UK government, has unveiled an emergency rescue plan that hands control of the business to its banks.
The company, which employs 75,000 people worldwide, including 45,000 in the UK, said on Wednesday that lenders had agreed in principle to a deal that would see shareholders effectively wiped out and left with just 2.75 per cent of the company.
The group’s most profitable division — RMD Kwikform, a supplier to the construction industry — will be kept within the company after the Cabinet Office objected to a plan by banks to spin the business off.
But the lenders — which include RBS, HSBC and BNP Paribas, as well as Emerald Asset Management and Davidson Kempner Capital — will have £350m of debt secured against RMDK, meaning they could seize the division if the company ran into further difficulties.
The outline agreement follows months of fraught discussion on how to avert a Carillion-style collapse at Interserve, which generates 70 per cent of its turnover of £3.2bn from the British government.
The company has been on the Cabinet Office’s watch list since early last year following disastrous forays into areas in which it had little expertise, including energy-from-waste plants and probation services.
The rescue plan faces multiple obstacles — including final approval from banks and shareholders. In a sign of differences over the business strategy, its largest shareholder Coltrane, a New York-based hedge fund that owns 17 per cent of the company, accompanied today’s announcement with a call for a general meeting to replace the board with new directors, apart from Debbie White, the chief executive brought in to turn the ailing outsourcer around in September 2017.
Cont..
DeleteMs White said the agreement was a “significant step forward in our plans to strengthen the balance sheet . . . this proposal has been achieved following a long period of intensive negotiation and has the support of our financial stakeholders and government”.
Coltrane believes that the agreement was “rushed out in a panic”, according to one person close to the group, ahead of shareholders being consulted.
“The company is not facing collapse and yet shareholders have been totally ignored,” the person added.
Shares in Interserve rose 14 per cent after the news on Wednesday. But the company, which cleans the London Underground and maintains army bases, has a market value of just £17m, compared with £500m two years ago.
The agreement with lenders is the second rescue deal for the company in less than a year, after a refinancing was struck last March to help it cope with its mountain of debt.
Recommended
UK outsourcers at risk of financial contagion
The financial restructuring arrangement proposed on Tuesday would convert £480m of existing debt to new equity to reduce borrowings to around £275m, while the new equity would account for about 97.5 per cent of Interserve. The lenders will also offer an extra £75m through a new debt facility that matures in 2022.
Stephen Rawlinson, an analyst at Applied Value, said there were “many hurdles yet to cross” and there was “insufficient detail in the release today to properly form a view”.
The crisis is the latest to hit Britain’s troubled outsourcing sector, with Kier, Capita and Mitie also seeking to rebuild their balance sheets.
Kier, a rival construction and support services company, launched a £264m emergency rescue rights issue last year as it warned that lenders were seeking to reduce lending to the sector. Although Kier’s cash call was fully underwritten, it left banks and brokers nursing almost £7m in losses after shares in the business fell below the issue price.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/interserve-government-contractor-school-dinners-hospital-cleaning-rescue-debt-for-equity-sack-board-a8765571.html
DeleteThey can put the deck chairs wherever they want, but if the ships sinking?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/17409702.column-what-happened-to-the-principle-of-justice-for-all/
Michael Spurrs replacement has been announced by MoJ.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.gov.uk/government/news/chief-executive-of-hm-prison-and-probation-service-next-appointment
'Getafix
Our economic structures are broken, we have failing companies propped up with massive public funds even when they are shown to be untrustworthy and downright crooked yet this government insists on bailing them out. In the mean time our children can't get on the property ladder, crippled by loans and refused credit and end up paying extortionate rates yet this Government think its ok to continue to use public funds to line the pockets of greedy profiteers claiming they are running not for profit companies. When is not for profit really not for profit?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/28638/06-02-2019/the-socialist-inbox
Deletehttps://www.broadsheet.ie/2018/02/21/welfare-fraud-is-very-real/
ReplyDeleteEndless Spin Cheats Us All
Bodger at 3:49 pm February 21, 2018
From top: Independent TD Paul Murphy and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar
Earlier today During Leaders’ Questions in the Dail.
Solidarity–People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy recalled the “Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All” campaign previously launched by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. Readers will recall how at the launch of the campaign, Mr Varadkar – then Minister for Social Protection and not leader of Fine Gael – stated a range of anti-fraud and control measures in the Department of Social Protection saved taxpayers more than €500million in 2016. The campaign was later referred to as a ‘mistake’ by the Secretary General of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection John McKeon. Mr Murphy also spoke about JobPath. He said since the ’employment activation programme’ was introduced in July 2015, €84million has been paid to two companies Seetec and Turas Nua. Following on from this, Mr Varadkar spoke about welfare fraud and criticised the “hard left”, again. Paul Murphy: “‘Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All’ you said, Taoiseach, in a campaign now universally recognised as being based on false figures which your own department questioned. You cynically used public money to enhance your appeal to Fine Gael members. “That campaign may now be largely forgotten but the agenda behind it remains. It was more than just a dog whistle campaign for votes. It was part of an ideological assault on social welfare…” “140,000 unemployed people have been turned into opportunities for profit for private companies. In the process without significant debate the provision of social welfare has been partially privatised. I’ve spoken to a number of people who’ve been through JobPath, they say they’re not given any real training, they’re just supervised while looking for jobs on a computer meaning that it’s pointless travel for many, they describe it as demeaning, as patronising, as infantalising. “And what hangs over all of their interactions with private companies is the threat of having their social welfare cut by more than €40, leaving people to try to survive on €150, or less, a week.“Since JobPath has been introduced, the number of people who have had these so-called penalty rates applied has increased from 5,000 in 2015 to 16,000 last year. That is in one year alone. Some 6,500 JobPath participants have had their dole cut. “On the other hand, €84 million of public money has been paid to just two companies, SeeTec and Turas Nua. They get money each time someone signs a personal progression plan and they get paid job sustainment fees.
“Both SeeTec and Working Links, which is one of two companies behind Turas Nua, have been accused of fraud in the operation of similar schemes in Britain. Last October in the Dáil, Deputy Catherine Murphy raised a very serious case of fraud by SeeTec in Ireland. “All of that has been justified up until now on the false basis that the system works and gets people into employment. That has now been completely exposed by the Government’s own figures which came out three weeks ago. Only 18% of those who engage in JobPath end up in full-time employment.“Some €84 million has been given to these private companies to get people jobs which they would have got themselves. Will the Taoiseach now read the writing on the wall for JobPath? Will he agree that the scheme needs to be scrapped and that instead of handing money over to private companies, he should invest in proper education and training and in real jobs for unemployed people?” Leo Varadkar: “Welfare fraud is very real. And it is a real problem in this country and in every western society. Even if we take the lowest estimate of the scale of welfare fraud in this country, it is about €40 million a year. That is a lot of money in my view. Let us not forget that people who engage in welfare fraud are not the poor and vulnerable. They are people who are pretending to be poor and vulnerable. They are people who are working and claiming.
"Let us not forget that people who engage in welfare fraud are not the poor and vulnerable. They are people who are pretending to be poor and vulnerable. They are people who are working and claiming."
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like it could apply to any outsourcing company.
"Probation officers "failed to identify the previous domestic abuse of his ex-partner, or the risk of further abuse to future partners" "
ReplyDelete"Kathleen Griffin death: Torture killer 'could have been stopped'"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-46896273
This is so tragic - I was told by Priti Patel MP that Transforming Rehabilitation would be implemented safely in Essex and that she had checked with all the rtelevant authorities early in 2014
Of course this BBC report does not seem (to me) to make it clear that the disaster would not have heepened if Probation had remained a unified profession.
I have not read the full review
https://setdab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Tendring-DHR-2015-2.pdf