"The Hon. Gentleman takes a somewhat simplistic view. His approach appears to be that he wants all probation services to be nationalised and every offender intervention to be done by the public sector. I think there is an opportunity to make use of both the private sector and the voluntary sector. If he takes the approach he appears to advocate of closing off any activity performed by anybody other than the public sector, we will not get the best probation service we could have."
The Civil Service Project and Programme Management Award winners 2015
Transforming Rehabilitation, Ministry of Justice
The Transforming Rehabilitation Programme was one of the most ambitious and complex sets of reforms introduced by the Coalition Government. Focussing on a group of offenders with often deep-rooted and intractable needs in a period of fiscal restraint, the programme needed to find ways to meet those needs for less. As a result, the programme aimed to introduce wholesale structural changes to the way probation and prisons work, to bring together the best of the public, voluntary and private sectors, and facilitate greater innovation in service provision. In a little over two years, the programme designed and delivered a completely new operating model for probation – navigating a challenging policy environment to innovate and allow rehabilitation to be extended to the most prolific offenders. This involved: new primary legislation; new organisational models; new processes spanning courts, prisons and probation; and a complex commercial strategy to build a diverse market for rehabilitation services. Collaborative project and programme management were key for delivery and close working relationships, coupled with strong and transparent governance, were significant to the success of the programme.
National Audit Office 2019
"The Ministry of Justice set itself up to fail in how it approached probation reforms. Its rushed roll-out created significant risks that it was unable to manage."
--oo00oo--
From Civil Society website:-
Government plans to 'level the playing field' for charities bidding for contracts
The Cabinet Office has said it wants to “level the playing field” for charities bidding for central government contracts.
Yesterday, the government opened a 12-week consultation on measures that would see the introduction of an “evaluation model” to test whether social value is being adequately incorporated into central government procurement. The evaluation model includes a suggestion that procurement professionals consider “ensuring supply chains are accessible to all types of businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs)”.
According to the consultation document, the model will provide a way for procurement professionals to evaluate social value policies. It says: “All bidders should benefit from the new approach since they will be able to demonstrate their added social value when bidding, which will level the playing field for SMEs and VCSEs in particular.” However, it only proposes that government departments put a minimum 10 per cent weighting on evaluating social value in bidding processes and describes the latest proposals as “light touch”.
It also says that “the overarching objective for the government’s commercial activities will remain achieving the best commercial outcome”.
‘Tick box exercise’
Speaking at the consultation’s launch in London yesterday, Oliver Dowden, parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office, said commissioners had not given enough consideration to the Social Value Act, which requires them to consider the wider value added to society by each bidder.
Strengthened Act
The government previously announced its intention to strengthen the Social Value Act, and it has now confirmed that this has come into effect without legislative change. As of Monday, all major procurements will be required to “explicitly evaluate” social value rather than to “just consider it". This will apply to central government and arm’s length bodies such as the Environment Agency but not NHS or local government.
Probation services pilot
Dowden said the government was piloting its social value framework in its current redesign of procurement services, which have previously been criticised for not making best use of voluntary organisations. He said:
“Right now, we are working closely with the Ministry of Justice to bring these principles to probation services. We have a real opportunity in the ongoing redesign of probation services, we want to expand the role of the voluntary and social enterprise sector, increase community involvement, support staff and service users with protected characteristics and positive environmental impact.”
Postscript
The text of last week's follow up letter:-
5th March 2019
The Cabinet Office has said it wants to “level the playing field” for charities bidding for central government contracts.
Yesterday, the government opened a 12-week consultation on measures that would see the introduction of an “evaluation model” to test whether social value is being adequately incorporated into central government procurement. The evaluation model includes a suggestion that procurement professionals consider “ensuring supply chains are accessible to all types of businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSEs)”.
According to the consultation document, the model will provide a way for procurement professionals to evaluate social value policies. It says: “All bidders should benefit from the new approach since they will be able to demonstrate their added social value when bidding, which will level the playing field for SMEs and VCSEs in particular.” However, it only proposes that government departments put a minimum 10 per cent weighting on evaluating social value in bidding processes and describes the latest proposals as “light touch”.
It also says that “the overarching objective for the government’s commercial activities will remain achieving the best commercial outcome”.
‘Tick box exercise’
Speaking at the consultation’s launch in London yesterday, Oliver Dowden, parliamentary secretary at the Cabinet Office, said commissioners had not given enough consideration to the Social Value Act, which requires them to consider the wider value added to society by each bidder.
He said: “Too often the Act has been treated as a tick-box exercise rather than a purposeful consideration of social value. Alternatively, if designed badly, social value requirements can act as a barrier to entry for civil society organisations.” He added: “This government will ensure that contracts are awarded on the basis of more than just value for money but companies’ values too.”
Strengthened Act
The government previously announced its intention to strengthen the Social Value Act, and it has now confirmed that this has come into effect without legislative change. As of Monday, all major procurements will be required to “explicitly evaluate” social value rather than to “just consider it". This will apply to central government and arm’s length bodies such as the Environment Agency but not NHS or local government.
Probation services pilot
Dowden said the government was piloting its social value framework in its current redesign of procurement services, which have previously been criticised for not making best use of voluntary organisations. He said:
“Right now, we are working closely with the Ministry of Justice to bring these principles to probation services. We have a real opportunity in the ongoing redesign of probation services, we want to expand the role of the voluntary and social enterprise sector, increase community involvement, support staff and service users with protected characteristics and positive environmental impact.”
Postscript
The text of last week's follow up letter:-
5th March 2019
The Rt Hon David Gauke MP
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Ministry of Justice
102 Petty France
London SW1H 9AJ
Dear Secretary of State,
PROBATION REFORM
Further to our letter of 11th January and your response of 8th February, the undersigned organisations took the opportunity to meet together last week, to share our respective views on the future of Probation. This was a very constructive exchange of ideas and arising from this we are developing a series of agreed principles that we would be pleased to share with you shortly.
Meanwhile the NAO report has now been published and to quote “With limited time to procure the new contracts, the Ministry should pause and reflect on whether its proposed approach is both deliverable and consistent with its strategic aims for the probation system, and in doing so it should consider how it will respond to the risks set out in this report. ….”. Our organisations and we are sure many others with whom we work closely, now urge – on grounds of public safety, value for money, and the integrity of a professional probation service - that you should pause to reconsider the “proposed approach” for re-letting the contracts. We strongly agree that the focus on professional development of the workforce and in operating models is critical, as is the requirement to raise both public confidence and the confidence of sentencers. We note with renewed concern the disappointing impact of the current arrangements on short term prisoners released under the new licence arrangements and suggest that this can be addressed by the abolition of short-term sentences together with rebuilding a well-resourced probation service.
As in our earlier representation to you, we are keen to offer solutions in respect of what is an increasingly unsatisfactory situation. We welcome the proposal by NAO for “a cross-government strategy ……..to reduce reoffending”. Our concerns, together with our breadth of knowledge and experience across the sector might serve to assist and inform your thinking in respect of future plans for Probation and reducing reoffending. We will write again shortly but equally we would be very pleased to meet with you and share our thoughts with you.
Helen Schofield – Acting Chief Executive – Probation Institute, on behalf of
Ian Lawrence – General Secretary - Napo
Ben Priestley – National Officer for Police and Justice UNISON
Frances Crook – Chief Executive – Howard League
Phil Bowen – Director – Centre for Justice Innovation
Richard Garside – Director – Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
Maris Stratulis - National Director - BASW England
and John McGovern - General Secretary - SWU/BASW.
Meanwhile, the next great disaster for probation is slowly taking shape!
ReplyDeleteOMiC is a catastrophe waiting to happen. I know it, you know it and they know it.
They are taking staff out of the community just as the government are signalling the return of community based sentencing and have devised another two tier system where the contracted out estate and ‘ hard to reach,’ prisons are being given different staffing ratios to establishments near to cosmopolitan areas.
Are these people incapable of learning?
OMIC accelerates the demise of the NPS. It is only now a matter of time before probation as an independent entity is wound down and Probation Practitioners become directly employed by prisons, courts and police. It's why there's a push for 'preofssionalising' probation and the long sought professional register is suddenly gaining traction.
DeleteAttention! Attention!
ReplyDeleteTRAIN CRRRRAAAASSSSSHHHH
I would be surprised if Labour were advocating that Probation Services in their entirety should be public sector. I think what they are advocating is that the core functions should be for the benefit of coherence within Probation and the wider Criminal Justice System. There are many functions that the Private Sector and Voluntary sector can the provide in partnership with the Public Sector.
ReplyDeleteLike what?
DeleteFrom Hardeep Matharu on ByLine Times website:-
ReplyDeleteGovernment Committed to Private Companies Running Probation – As Largest Provider Teeters on Collapse on Friday
Justice Secretary David Gauke says he will not bring supervision of offenders back into the public sector, despite widely condemned reforms of the probation service.
The Government is committed to using private companies to deliver probation, it has said, despite the largest provider of the service being on the brink of collapse on Friday.
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Justice Secretary David Gauke said “there is a place for the private sector” in delivering probation – the service charged with monitoring offenders released from prison and those serving community sentences.
The service was controversially split by Chris Grayling in 2014 so that low and medium-risk offenders are now managed by private community rehabilitation companies (CRCs), while high-risk individuals continue to be monitored by probation workers in the public sector. The reforms have been widely condemned.
Interserve currently runs CRCs that supervise 40,000 offenders in England and Wales. If its shareholders fail to reach a resolution on Friday, it is likely that the company’s lenders will begin administration proceedings. It would be the second private provider of probation services to fall this year – the first was Working Links.
Although a Government review of the future of probation is underway, Mr Gauke’s comments suggest that the private sector is here to stay. “It is important that this continues to be a mixed market,” he said. “There is a place for the private sector and the voluntary sector, as well as for the public sector, in probation. “The debate can sometimes be a little simplistic, whether it is ‘public sector good, private sector bad’ or vice versa. A lot of this is about integration and making services hang together.”
Replying to Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon’s calls for the entire probation service to be brought back into public sector, Mr Gauke said this approach “will not get the best probation service we could have”.
Private companies were originally handed probation contracts with the aim of driving innovation and efficiency in the service, working to reduce reoffending through ‘payment by results’. In reality, this has not been the case.
Since Chris Grayling’s reforms were introduced, the number of serious further offences (SFOs) – crimes such as rape and murder – committed by those being supervised by probation have been on the rise. In 2017-18, 242 offenders were charged with a SFO – a 39% increase since 2013-14 and the highest figure in the past nine years, according to the latest official figures.
Earlier this month, a report by the National Audit Office said that the Ministry of Justice had “set itself up to fail” with the reforms.
Most service users that walk through the doors of their local probation office aren't concerned whether they're there to see someone working for the private sector or working for the State.
DeleteThey're concerned about housing, healthcare, addiction services, and a plethora of other issues. They want to see someone that can give them some time and support in achieving solutions to their problems, help them move on. Even help in achieving things that most people take for granted like opening a bank account can be life changing.
Some form of support validates the probation period for the service user and increases a desire to engage, whilst just being asked about contact with the police since the last visit makes engagement feel pretty pointless.
They also want to be able to discuss their issues honestly, without fear of incurring sanction.
I see probation as a service of provision and facilitation, a service that enables.
In private enterprise those qualities are seen as expensive commodities that hinder and reduce profit margins. Outsourcing understands quantity only. Quality it's expensive enemy.
If the MoJ is intent with carrying on with its already failed privatised probation experiment, it needs to look hard at what is actually being delivered to the service user. If it's very little, then they need to seriously consider just how much very little is costing to deliver.
Social value makes great rethoric, but I want to see it in practice.
'Getafix
They do care private sector don't give a toss and just want profit. Public service will do what it can for the end user.
DeleteI agree with your comments Getafix but I would add that probation clients also want to have confidence in the PO supervising them They need to know that their PO is a qualified professional who will support them I have seen too many clients let down by supervisors who don’t seem to realise that this is someone’s life and liberty they are dealing with
DeleteNo they don't care about that they just need the right help at the right time there are too many rubbish qualified officers these days who know little but preach a lot of tosh.
DeleteI know the script! Challange it and there could be consequences for you.
DeleteWhat are you on. No one in any NPS or CRC need probation officers. That old chestnut of po closed shop collusion more delusion. We just need good public services free of profit distractions.
DeleteI’m sure many probation clients would prefer not to be but as they have to be then it is in their interest to have someone who cares when having to make decisions about their lives not just anyone off the street who can follow a recall process I’m confident that the majority of my clients have very much appreciated having me in their corner
DeleteAgreed for sure at 09:15
Deletehttps://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/gangs-postcode-rivalries-force-probation-workers-to-provide-duplicate-services-a4091721.html
ReplyDeleteYouth workers are running duplicate services in the same London borough to reach young people too scared to enter “rival” territory, it has been revealed today.
DeleteChief Inspector of Probation, Dame Glenys Stacey, said staff trying to divert young offenders from crime in Wandsworth “must take account of territorialism when arranging appointments” because some “will not go into certain areas”.
She praises staff for making provision to meet where juveniles “feel safe”, adding: “On occasion, provision is duplicated in different areas, so all children and young people can access it.”
No details were given about the specific appointments provided in duplicate, but youth offending teams’ work includes supervisory meetings, as well as specific projects, from jobs with the homeless to working on allotments, to give young people a new focus.
Dame Glenys’s disclosure comes in a largely positive report on the effectiveness of the youth offending team in Wandsworth. It is the capital’s biggest inner London borough and contains about 60,000 under-18s, of whom 22 per cent are classed as living in poverty.
But the report will reinforce concerns about the way “postcode” gang conflicts continue to blight London and the prospects of some of its young people. It also reveals that efforts are made to keep potential gang rivals apart at court and at other places where they might encounter each other.
The report praises the focus on maintaining effective working relationships with the children concerned and the use of schemes, from working with the homeless, arts and crafts, and working at a football club, to help turn young offenders’s lives around.
Dame Glenys expresses concern about the varying approaches taken when young people bring knives to school, with some choosing not to call the police, while others do.
She says this “can result in a discriminatory process” for some young people and fails to “take account of the wider vulnerabilities” some might suffer.
Youth offending teams deal with children aged 10 to 18 who have been prosecuted or referred after coming into contact with police.
Some of the chief rats are leaving the sinking ship because they can see the disaster unravelling. Oblivious Managers in Crisis is coming to a probation area near you. Be afraid, be very afraid!
ReplyDeleteToday's voting in HoC seems to mirror the process of the demise of Probation in that... a fundamental & valued institution is undermined, devalued & dismantled based upon the deceptions of ideologues. There are many who see this for what it is BUT will not stand up against it because they don't want to lose their jobs, their impending honours & their considerable income - so they push everyone else under the bus in the hope of salvaging something for themselves.
ReplyDelete'Interserve, the government contractor racing to stave off collapse, is encouraging its 69,000 staff to share “positive thoughts” about their employer on social media ahead of a crucial vote that will decide the company’s future on Friday.
ReplyDeleteThe power point presentation — seen by the Financial Times — suggests that employees share on Facebook or tweet “what a great place Interserve is to work and why,” or how we “continue to win bids and contracts and deliver an excellent service to our customers”.
The presentation also encourages staff to reassure customers and suppliers over the future of the business.
The desperate plea is part of a last-ditch campaign, which includes targeted Google advertising, aimed at shoring up confidence in the company and persuading scores of smaller investors to vote for a debt-for-equity swap on Friday.
“Value is being lost every day in Interserve,” said one person close to the board. “If we go through a pre-pack there is more noise around the business and it could take months for suppliers to understand.”
Although Interserve has been under pressure this week to improve its offer to shareholders, sources close to Coltrane said on Thursday that the fund had not “seen anything from the company that materially changes matters”.
Gail Cartmail, which represents Interserve workers in the Unite union, said the company’s message to employees was “grossly insensitive”. “Thousands of Interserve workers are worrying about their futures and management thinks not only is it a good idea but that workers would actually want to promote their workplace on social media.
“Unite sought meetings with Interserve when the original deleveraging plan was first revealed late last year, due to members’ concerns about their future but we were rebuffed and told that everything in the garden was rosy, which is clearly not the case.”
https://www.ft.com/content/0be957a6-4663-11e9-a965-23d669740bfb
We had the same " Don't panic Mr Mannering " message from Ian Mulholland in Cheshire and Greater Manchester CRC - all was going well , the board were confident and if you had shares don't forget to vote !!!! and not to believe all those lying media stories as everything in Interserve's garden was Rosey - more bullshit propaganda from the snake himself
ReplyDeleteSir Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative MP who chairs the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, in a letter to the Financial Times.
ReplyDeleteHe writes: "The readiness of Interserve to undergo pre-pack administration, at the expense of shareholders and directors’ share interests, shows a marked improvement in the capability of the system to manage the legacy of excessive risk.
Lenders should be praised for taking on much greater responsibility. The government is no doubt ready to facilitate these discussions. It is to be hoped that shareholders will also choose not to hold the business to ransom, but rather recognise that vital public services cannot depend on a high risk-return business model.
"In the long term, shareholders in such companies need to learn that this market must be a lower-risk sector, with subsequently lower rewards."
Er, no-one should be praised for this calamitous & parlous state of affairs, Sir Bernard Charlatan-Jenkin.
Why not just forget the nonsense of privatising 'vital public services' & concentrate on reaping the higher-rewards from elsewhere? Leave the 'vital public services' to those who are committed to the provision of 'vital public services', i.e. the vocationally-motivated professions such as Probation, Social Services, Mental Health.
"A source close to the public outsourcer told City A.M. it is now expected to fall into the hands of administrators after investors voted on the firm's future.
ReplyDeleteUnder Interserve's deal's terms, £485m of debt would be converted into equity by lenders, with current shareholders being left with five per cent of the company and the right to buy new shares up to a maximum of 33.3 per cent.
Interserve needed 50 per cent of shareholders to back the deal to avoid going into administration, but early indications suggest it has fallen short of this.
The official voting results should come out around 1.30pm.
Chris Baldock, a private shareholder, told City A.M. he had voted in favour of Interserve's deleveraging plan, but added: "The handling of this has been very disappointing for the small shareholder, that a once great company has fallen into such a poor financial state in such a short space of time."
If the company goes bust, there is a significant chance Coltrane would seek to buy parts of the business to seize control. It is unclear how civil servants at the Cabinet Office, which played a key role in drawing up the rescue deal, would feel about a US hedge fund overseeing British public services."
Let's look at that last bit again:
"It is unclear how civil servants at the Cabinet Office, which played a key role in drawing up the rescue deal, would feel about a US hedge fund overseeing British public services."
The demarcation between public & private interests continues to be compromised as the privatisation unicorn MUST be saved at all costs.
Interserve shares at 12 noon = 7.2pence
DeleteInterserve fail in rescue bid. Administration later today.
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/mar/15/interserve-to-go-into-administration-after-shareholders-reject-deal
'Getafix
Sky News:
DeleteA Cabinet Office spokesman said of the development: "This announcement will not affect jobs or the provision of public services delivered by Interserve.
"We are in close contact with the company and we are confident a positive way forward will be found."
While ministers will be relieved about no repeat of the Carillion chaos, the GMB union said it was disgraceful that public services were still being put at risk through outsourcing to the private sector.
National officer Kevin Brandstatter said : "Ministers have learnt absolutely nothing from the Carillion fiasco and are hell-bent on outsourcing public-sector contracts.
"Shambolic mismanagement is putting jobs on the line and services in jeopardy. Our public services can't go on like this."
Sorry to disappoint you, Kevin, but nothing is going to change.
PAC, 13 march 2019
ReplyDeleteCaroline Flint: Okay. Let’s get on to Transforming Rehabilitation. That hasn’t happened as promised, has it?
Sir Richard Heaton: As I say, there are lots of things that have not gone as were originally imagined.
http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/public-accounts-committee/transforming-rehabilitation-progress-review/oral/98065.html
DeleteRead it & weep - with laughter, with frustration & with deep sadness. It is a record of our revisionist civil service in action, rewriting history for their own benefit.
They are shameless liars who simply applaud themselves for their own pleasure; or who pleasure themselves to sycophantic applause - not sure which is the more appropriate. Probably both.
The Metaphoric Pause
DeleteShabana Mahmood: That is a very helpful clarification, because the approach you take moving forward does matter; you are going to re-procure these contracts. In figure 15 on page 40 of the NAO Report, one of the first points raised is about the 15-month timescale that you have for the re-procurement going live. That is another very challenging procurement timetable. What is your assessment of whether that timetable can be met?
Sir Richard Heaton: There are some pretty tough dates in there. I’m going to slightly dry up at this stage, but only to this extent: I don’t want to describe our future state, because that will be for Ministers to describe. There was a very compelling recommendation, although I think we would have got there by ourselves, in the NAO Report, which said we should pause to reflect on what the correct model is for delivering these services. We can’t afford to pause, in time terms, for the reasons you have just mentioned, but we will certainly metaphorically pause, and you will not see from us a blind re-procurement along lines that you would recognise from this experience. It will be better and different.
Q100 Shabana Mahmood: I apologise, Sir Richard: I have literally no idea what “metaphorically pause” means. Please could you tell us?
Chair: You have momentarily flummoxed the Public Accounts Committee.
Sir Richard Heaton: The recommendation was pause before you press ahead, and I am saying we don’t have time to pause, but we certainly won’t press ahead unthinkingly. That’s all I meant.
Shabana Mahmood: Well—let the record show my scepticism once again.
Chair: And laughter around the room.
We'll be covering the PAC grilling of Spurr and Heaton in detail shortly.
DeleteCan't wait! Good stuff, JB.
Delete10 short months ago:
ReplyDeleteInterserve boss earns £525,900 in four months
Interserve chief executive Debbie White pocketed £525,900 in salary and benefits in the four months since joining the company at the start of September to the end of 2017.
Her package included a salary of £216,670 and a bonus of £270,000 – the maximum offered under the senior executive bonus scheme which can pay out up to 125% of salary.
The rest of her pay packet covered pension contributions and other benefits.
Mark Whiteling, who joined as finance director a month later on 1 October, earned £101,250 and a maximum bonus payout of £126,562 taking his total package including total taxable benefits and pension payments to £246,430 over three months.
White’s salary in 2018 will be £680,000, while Whiteling’s will be £405,000.
The latest annual report also reveals that former chief executive Adrian Ringrose was paid £459,173 in the year to the end of August.
White’s personal bonus targets for the last part of 2017 included delivering a recovery plan involving reorganisation of the business, showing leadership and cementing relationships with key stakeholders.
The final and third target included assessing the present leadership team, identifying skills gaps and starting recruitment with a view to strengthening and rebuilding a top team.
On all three measures she met all targets in full. The targets were underpinned by a requirement to achieve a threshold level of performance including no breach of the group’s committed banking facilities.
The Remuneration Committee report said its general view was that the chief executive officer and chief financial officer’s performance had been exceptional in challenging circumstances for the period of 2017 that they were employed, bonuses were payable at 100% of the pro-rata maximum for the chief executive officer and chief financial officer respectively (42% and 31% of salary).
https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2018/05/11/interserve-boss-earns-526000-in-four-months/
Interserve....as expected ... gone into Administration. Sympathies go out to all affected colleagues at this stressful time.
ReplyDeleteNapo Press Release:-
DeleteUnion anger as yet another probation provider goes into administration
Whilst this news was not completely unexpected it creates more uncertainty for our members across England who work for the Purple Future CRCs owned by Interserve. Just weeks after three CRCs owned by Working Links had to be rescued by another private provide, we now see that Interserve, the second biggest probation provider has also gone into administration.
Napo General Secretary Ian Lawrence said: “How much more evidence does this government need to recognise that their failed probation experiment is no longer sustainable? Our members working in CRCs have suffered job cuts, unreasonable workloads, stress and poor working environments because of the failure by probation providers to effectively understand the work that they do. I am calling on David Gauke to act decisively now and to halt the plans by the MoJ to retender probation contracts. We need a publically owned and reunified probation service that works on a local level for the benefits of communities and service users.”
The immediate fate of the Interserve CRCs is not yet known but Napo has received Ministerial assurances that jobs and wages will be secured irrespective of the outcomes and the union will be immediately working with the government and members to get the best possible outcome for the public, staff and service users. Ian went on to say: “It is clear there is no market for probation and no place for large corporations stripping one of the biggest assets to our justice system.
Typos in Press Releases is not good...
DeleteI've come to expect nothing else from napo; letters, blogs, etc are all full of poor grammar, typos or demonstrable ignorance of language.
DeleteTheir trouble with grammar is nothing compared to their ignorance of Probation work related issues
DeleteI hope the stupid enabling model and the high caseloads of 80 plus are designed to the bin with Interserve. There are people on new orders with knife crime on immediate monthly reporting, the pile em high and sell em cheap attitude was never fit to run such a vital public service. In all my time with them they've never put their hand in their pocket for a temp but exploited staff still there to carry the extra load. I'm glad to see the back of them.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, any public sector contracts being delivered by Interserve will now enevitabley be renegotiated unless they are brought back in house.
DeleteThe spin may be that everything will carry on as normal, but I have little doubt that Interserves demise will prove extremely expensive for Government.
https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2019/03/public-sector-likely-suffer-collapse-interserve
'Getafix
Interserve, one of Britain’s biggest government contractors, was due to file for administration this evening.
DeleteThis was after just under 60% of the company’s shareholders voted against a rescue plan earlier today.
The business holds thousands of public sector contracts, including for local government, cleaning schools and hospitals. It also runs catering and probation services as well as managing construction projects.
John Tizard told PF that public sector clients will need to “spring into action either to bring the services back into public management or to broker the contracts to other contractors”.
The firm’s collapse will likely be “costly and disruptive” for public services, he added.
The ‘deleveraging plan’, proposed on Friday, would have seen creditors take control in a ‘debt-for-equity’ swap. It was rejected 59% to 41% by shareholders.
The rescue plan would have meant lenders being given the greater number of shares in the business with the shareholders’ stake being reduced to 5%, the BBC has reported.
A US hedge fund Coltrane, which owns 27% of the company, voted to reject the proposals.
Tizard told PF: “It’s another question mark over the appropriateness of outsourcing particularly on this scale - to companies that have business models which are risky and fragile and where ownership changes.
“They are likely to go into administration because Coltrane has said they won't vote for the deal, but can we really afford to have key public services decided by US hedge funds?” he queried.
Unfortunately 16:49 we remain stuck with the feckless management team who completely believe in their feckless ideologies " enabling model " for example , the same management teams that haven't given a rat's arse about the welfare of staff with large caseloads or the impact on service users when passed from pillar to post because some idiot thought introducing this so called " new model " would save money and drag their sorry arses through to the end of the contract.
DeleteFinally found it. Grayling's lying words heard on Danny Shaw's FileOnFour (couldn't remember which programme, so its been a long trawl):
ReplyDeleteGRAYLING: They (CRCs) will have to demonstrate they’re going to have the right skills in the organisation. We’re not saying you must have x number of people. And of course what we’re not doing is we’re not sacking everybody one day to replace them with another team of people the next, so it’s designed to be evolution rather than revolution, and the people who will be looking after offenders the day after the reforms come fully into effect and the day before will be the same. This is not meant to be a big bang change
So £80m of taxpayer funds given away to private enterprise to cover the planned, agreed cost of making hundreds of staff redundant is not a big bang? Maybe he's right after all. Its not a 'big bang', its a 'Big Bung'.
DeleteCarillion, Working Links, Interserve, HS2, Seaborne Fraight with no ferries!
ReplyDeleteIt's being reported tonight that if Brexit is delayed past the 29th, then Graylings contract with other ferry companies will cost the taxpayer another £56m to cancel.
https://m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/graylings-no-deal-brexit-ferries-could-still-run-on-march-29-even-if-britain-is-still-in-the-eu_uk_5c8bdf45e4b03e83bdc095a2
News this morning. Interserve saved and brought back from the brink. Foe how long?
ReplyDeleteBBCnews regurgitating the PR tossers' spin that its all okay, nothing to worry your pretty little empty heads about, 68,000 jobs, no disruption, fundamentally strong, best-in-class, good value public services...
ReplyDelete"The lenders who are now in control of Interserve Group include banks RBS and HSBC, and investors Emerald Asset Management and Davidson Kempner Capital.
In a statement, EY administrator Hunter Kelly said: "This transaction secured the jobs of 68,000 employees, the majority of whom work in the UK, as well as ensuring there was no disruption to the vital public services that Interserve provides to the UK Government."
Debbie White, chief executive of Interserve Group, said: "Interserve is fundamentally a strong business and with a competitive financial platform in place we see significant opportunities ahead as a best-in-class partner to the public and private sector."
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office said: "We welcome this announcement. It brings the company the stability required for it to compete for future business and continue to deliver good value public services for the taxpayer."
Oh, and the chocolate fireguard surrounding the unicorns was still intact when I went out to clear up the rocking-horse shit...
IRV shares April'14 = 500p
DeleteIRV shares March'19 = 3p
Debbie White, chief executive of Interserve Group, said: "Interserve is fundamentally a strong business and with a competitive financial platform in place we see significant opportunities ahead as a best-in-class partner to the public and private sector."
*** I'll have whatever she's having***
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2019/03/outsourcing-giant-interserve-65000-employees-collapses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeletehttps://probationmatters.blogspot.com/2019/03/london-nps-respect.html?m=1
Since this post, the recent NPS London newsletter has reduced to about 8 pages and sent out in a more restricted format! The boss knows she’s been exposed and her botty has been publicly Jim-smacked. Haha
Well that certainly brought a smile to my face this morning - but it serves to confirm how important it is that we share information and call out bullshit and hypocrisy wherever we find it!
DeleteFROM ELSEWHERE: -
DeleteKilvinder Vigurs: “I am not an expert in this [equality] but I am an expert in moving things. I can shift things and I can change cultures because that comes from leading from the front. Real change comes from feeling thing, not from reading things. When you feel the pain and hurt that people suffer, that’s how you are able to make change.”
https://www.napomagazine.org.uk/2018/11/09/lessons-from-lammy/
Maybe KV should consider buying a van & starting a removals company?
DeleteWasn't TR about feelings Grayling had in his stomach?
DeleteInterserve PLC (in administration) has announced the successful completion of the sale of the group. This alternative deleveraging transaction will restore the Group’s balance sheet and provide additional liquidity. The administrators have immediately sold Interserve’s business and assets to a new company, to be controlled by Interserve’s lenders.
ReplyDeleteAll companies in the Group other than the parent company will remain solvent, providing continuity of service for customers and suppliers.
The alternative transaction involves the equitisation of approximately £485 million of existing debt and the injection of £110 million of new money into the Group.
Completion of the transaction is anticipated to occur on or before Monday 18 March.
The Group believes this is the best remaining option to preserve value, protect the jobs of employees and ensure the Group can carry on as normal with minimal disruption.
If you are an Interserve Employee, Customer or Supplier and you have a question, you can contact us on our dedicated hotline 0333 207 4180 which is open from 0700 – 1900 until Monday 18 March.
This all sounds like some corporate slight of hand trickery to me that needs some high level scrutiny.
DeleteAll groups involved, except the 'parent company' are solvent? Where does liability lay then when things fall apart? Nothing to recover from the parent company because they're broke!
I'm also sure that the hedge funds, HSBC and RBS, will not want to be responsible or even associated with probation services.
So where does liability lay, whose responsible for the delivery of public service contracts originally won by Interserve, and what realistic expectation have government got of recovering anything if it all ends up on the shit tip?
There was little transparency before, this just puts a brick wall up.
The 'parent' company is nothing more now then a holding company, another freight company with no ships, its totally wrong, immoral and irresponsible to trust public services to such arrangements.
'Getafix
The sharks are already circling for Interserves business.
Deletehttps://news-sky-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/mitie-targets-interserve-lenders-with-support-services-raid-11667201?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.sky.com%2Fstory%2Fmitie-targets-interserve-lenders-with-support-services-raid-11667201
Correct apparently working links are in tne running.
Deletehttps://leftfootforward.org/2019/03/privatisation-fail-8-out-of-20-probation-contracts-scuppered-in-just-a-month/#
ReplyDeleteI feel for CRC Probation staff, sold and soon to be sold again,some three times in this misadventure known as the Transforming Rehabilitation Revolution. What a revolution?! Their futures uncertain, devalued, left to the carelessness of fortune seekers masquerading as the golden uplands of market efficiency, innovation and deliverance from the so called ills of stodgy, bloated public sector provision. What a rotten affair for all this has been. They, the public, deserve better.
ReplyDeletehttps://www-dailymail-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-6817605/amp/Secret-plan-nationalise-Interserve.html?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymail.co.uk%2Fmoney%2Fnews%2Farticle-6817605%2FSecret-plan-nationalise-Interserve.html
DeleteMinisters drew up secret plans to nationalise parts of hospital cleaning and school dinner contractor Interserve before it was rescued from the brink of collapse last week, leaked documents reveal.
DeleteAn internal Whitehall strategy memo seen by The Mail on Sunday shows that the civil service last year put together a proposal to create a state-controlled company that would have been on standby in case struggling Interserve went into liquidation.
In that eventuality the Government was prepared to move staff into the new company to ensure vital public services were not disrupted.
The plans are one of the few instances of the Government being prepared to bail out a failed company since RBS and Halifax Bank of Scotland were controversially rescued using taxpayer cash in the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
The East Coast Main Line rail franchise was also brought back into public control when it failed last year.
But the documents raise fresh questions about the structure of the Government contracts system. The entire outsourcing sector is creaking under severe financial strain a year after the collapse of contractor Carillion.
By drafting a detailed emergency plan for one of its contractors, the Government has indicated that it has become so reliant on the services provided by firms such as Interserve, Kier and Capita that it now considers some of them too big and important to fail.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: ‘We do not comment on leaked documents. However, we would point out that it is sensible for central government and other public sector buyers to prepare for all eventualities – even ones we consider unlikely – and make sure that public services are protected.’
Interserve had to resort to a pre-pack administration on Friday after its shareholders voted against a rescue plan formed by management. Ownership of the company was passed to its lenders and it is no longer listed on the stock market.
As part of the deal, a consortium of banks, including HSBC and RBS, have written off close to £830million in gross debt. After the agreement with lenders on Friday night, Interserve said: ‘It is business as usual for employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.’
Interserve, which employs 45,000 people in the UK and 68,000 worldwide, said the restructuring safeguarded workers and allowed operations to continue with ‘minimal disruption’.
The Cabinet Office said the move ‘brings the company the stability required for it to compete for future business and continue to deliver good value public services for the taxpayer’.
Analysis by The Mail on Sunday found that Interserve had secured 45 Government contracts worth an estimated £414million since October 2017, when it issued its second profit warning and entered into crisis talks with lenders.
It derives two-thirds of its £2.9billion revenues from Government contracts. The most recent deal Interserve secured from Whitehall was a £600million contract for discharging patients from hospitals. Interserve was one of 16 suppliers named on the contract.
Interserve’s work with the hospitals started just over a week ago. The company had been charged with moving patients from acute care units into care homes or back into their own residences.
Other key wins included a £66.7million contract with the Crown Commercial Service, an executive agency of the Cabinet Office, awarded last July.
The outsourcer also secured a £31.4million contract with London’s Metropolitan Police. The contract, awarded in January 2018 and ending in April 2028, is for supplying equipment and engineering services.
These contracts were awarded despite chief executive Debbie White warning analysts in February that the company had lost out on £150 million worth of contracts in the final three months of the previous year because it was in financial difficulties.
Last week, Capita posted a 26 per cent fall in profits, which came after a string of profit warnings in 2017 and a £700million rights issue in 2018.
DeleteKier, which undertook a £250million rights issue at the end of last year, revealed last week that an accounting error had added £40million to its debt, sending its shares down by more than 10 per cent. The share prices of Capita and Kier have fallen by 26 per cent and 51 per cent respectively over the past year.
Construction giant Carillion went into liquidation in January 2018 after buckling under a huge debt pile. MPs described the failure as ‘a story of recklessness, hubris and greed, its business model was a relentless dash for cash’.
In the wake of the scandal, the Government asked outsourcers to document details of their public sector work to allow for the smooth transfer of the business in the case of insolvency.
There's clearly something wrong with me. I can neither understand nor imagine a (business/political/life) model that involves deception on this scale, the explicit co-operation of government or the enrichment & ennoblement of the key players. In EVERY sense the majority of taxpayers are the losers - poor or no service provision, poor T&Cs as employees, depressed wages, loss of public funds in numerous ways including (but not limited to) financial incentives, written-off debts, financial bail-outs... plus banks passing on their losses to customers (despite being rescued with public cash), government continuing to hand £bns in contracts to these crumbling monolithic facades.
DeleteI've worked fucking hard all my life: barely scrambled through periods of extreme poverty, gone hungry in order to feed the children, studied hard to achieve & now I don't owe a penny to anyone, the only debts I incurred were a mortgage, a brief period overdrawn & a £2k loan off my old man 30 years ago.
The economy has been increasingly designed around indebtedness. My "credit rating" is 'low' because I have no significant history of borrowing, no credit cards, no loans, no mortgage extension. So because I live within my means, am not prepared to sell my arse & won't gamble with my modest achievements I'm seen as more of a financial risk than a bunch of feckless, greedy, narcissistic psychopaths who stuff their pockets, live beyond their means & don't give a crap about the consequences.
How? Its a chain of events: Thatcher, Blair/Brown, Cameron, May.
*Interserve, G4S & Servo are on the tender list for new private prisons*
RBS bailed out by the taxpayer. 62% of RBS is owned (and subsidised by the Taxpayer). Some of the shares held by Government on behalf of the Taxpayer that were bought in the bailout have been sold back to RBS at less then half the original cost. Now, with the money already taken from the public purse and subsidised by the public purse, RBS can use that money to buy into public services and extract more money from the public purse.
DeleteJust greed and corruption of the highest order.
We have been advised within CGM that Chris Edwards is doing a Skype meeting for staff on Monday - that'll be interesting !! to see what positive slant he can put on the situation
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