Monday 11 August 2014

Bidding Special

Happily some of these blog posts write themselves - so thanks to everyone who contributed:-

As an avid reader of this blog and all things TR, I have tried to make a contribution that will possibly make a difference. There is lots to go at but little is happening at the moment. The caravan processes on slowly but surely and we seem unable to make any impact. I was drawn to this recent comment;
“In my view the best tactic for stopping TR is to help disgruntled unsuccessful bidders appeal the procurement process. Grayling’s weakness is that he has very little contingency in letting the new contracts. Delaying tactics – especially if they can slow down the letting of any contracts until Feb/March 2015, mean that he could run out of time before the next election.“ 
I think this is a particularly important focus of the campaign to stop TR. This is an area of real concern to all staff both CRC and NPS – presently the focus is on the omnishambles caused by the split, but this is not having a publicly recognised impact yet. 

Both Jim and Ian Lawrence have had further comment to make on the share sale plans. Here’s Ian Lawrence’s from his blog
“More good but predictable news that the so called bidding process is to have a further evaluation stage introduced, speaks volumes of the shambles it is in, and is clearly a sop to those bidders who have been complaining about the commercial and operational difficulties they faced in pulling a tender together. It also raises another embarrassing question which is: why is another assessment stage deemed necessary if everything is so hunky dory, and after the all the blatant spoon feeding and coaching of would be CRC contractors that the taxpayer has paid for?“
And as Jim has suggested
“We know that the MoJ is determined that the share sale will go ahead, whatever, before the end of the year, because there is a political imperative. But we know Chris Grayling is between a rock and a hard place because so many bidders have dropped out and those remaining are driving a hard bargain, precisely because they know the electoral clock is ticking. They are ditching all that PbR nonsense and wanting a premium for taking on a poisoned chalice full of pissed-off staff. Basically, an MoJ employee was being instructed to revisit the scoring of potential bidders because the scores were not high enough.” 
So, if the process is corrupt in the way that an additional stage been put in, scores been tampered with and bidders who quite frankly don’t cut the mustard are allowed to continue, then there must be a claim from those who have spent literally millions to ask for some transparency in the process? If I was a bidder who believed I was going to win some lucrative contracts very soon because of the money that I had invested in sending staff out and writing bids, I would be mighty pissed off if I believed others were having their scores improved to maintain the competition – this could both cost more money and inflate the ultimate share sale cost surely!

Now I am a simple person but I can see there is malpractice here, do they call it insider trading when stockbrokers gain an advantage through knowing what is coming up before others? What is it called in government, is it fraudulent to inflate a share sale price? Here is where there could be some linkage between the various parties in anti TR. We must try and stop the share sale as the first contributor suggested and this is how it could be accelerated. 

NAPO are aware of malpractice and they have also been in discussion with some of the bidders. Is there a chance they could raise the matter with them or am I been naïve to think that the organisations are too focused on the big prize to see what is going on? So perhaps Dean and Ian might want to take up the invitation that they have had to speak to bidders and highlight the dubious dealings of the MoJ and the cost to them, as well as us.

Jim, you have a role too in continuing to highlight the issues of poor procurement practice and not having a service that is fit to sell – remember the Sale of Goods Act? Surely anyone trying to sell what we have must be liable to prosecution on the grounds of “merchantable quality”!! 

Jointly we can all raise issue of government malpractice by talking/writing to our MP’s, PCC’s, Councillors to highlight that all may not be well in the TR house. Strong opponents of TR like Vera Baird will have something to tackle the ministers with. It is a quiet time in Government as the House is in recess and I am sure that is why we are seeing this happening now so the more noise made now may give the papers something to write about during this fallow month.

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If I were a bidder, I would also be furious if the requirements of the winning bid were different from those in the original specification because any changes would make a difference to the actual bid. More to the point, if I had pulled out because a financial package was unfavourable but it CHANGED before the bids were awarded, I would scream blue murder. Also, any horse trading over areas with no bids (Wales?) would compromise the whole process further. I will be more surprised if this debacle is NOT challenged that if it is.

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No bids for Wales?? first I've heard of this, anyone know any more?

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Now a man in the pub who is very knowledgeable about such things tells me that devious plans are underway to ban staff from speaking out against poor performance in their areas. This will be wrapped up in terms of it being 'damaging to apportioned value of the organisation' at a time when 'commercial confidentiality' is king.....man in the pub says that there would be little they could do about it if CRC staff asked their NPS colleagues to fly the flag on their behalf and vice versa......man in the pub says that this blog is having an impact at the highest level and what's the first casualty in a war????

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I also know a man in the pub and he says all areas have at least TWO bidders ......issue might be how good these bidders are? If they are tinkering with the process all areas now might have FOUR bidders by now! I might suggest to the bloke in the pub that he gets these bidders to create merry hell 'cos they are been shafted like the staff (sheds crocodile tears for bidders!!). Who said "buyer beware"......

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MoJ/NOMS will divvy the areas up between bidders - you watch - each will have a similar number of areas so that no bidder is left empty handed. Talk about cooking the books. The skids need putting on this debacle as soon as possible - because at the moment all staff are scoring Significant Problems' on their own oasys assessment for Emotional Wellbeing.

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Sounds like Grayling's employing an old market trader tactic - shiny, beautiful apples on display, but damaged, bruised fallers are loaded into the customer's bag:
"Probayshun! Come and get yer luvverly Probayshun! Fresh from the Trusts, mind. Two for the price of one. Come on, darlin', you look like you could do wiv a bit of TR. Cash only. Come on, come round 'ere and we'll see what we can throw in for you (wink, wink)."
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One of the chief architects of privatising public services, and "best friend" of Francis Maude, has resigned.
"The government’s chief operating officer Stephen Kelly has today announced he will leave the civil service in November to become the chief executive of business software firm Sage Group."
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C'mon, see this for what it is...Mr Kelly can now help SAGE develop financial and IT packages for "providers of probation services". Bet SAGE now step into this game (err sorry, probation) big time. Conflict of interests? Think we should all be writing to Ms Hodge about this one...it stinks...

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Grim story in today's Observer. Substitute CRC for Care UK and you are probably in the presence of the future. Substitute Care UK for NPS in a few years time and you probably have the same. 35% pay cuts, state and third sector squeezed out - get those debts paid down now folks, while you still can:-
Care UK won the supported living contract from the (Doncaster) council after telling officials that it could deliver it for £6.7m over three years. Yet the wage bill alone for the service was £7m.
Richard Murphy, a chartered accountant and anti-poverty campaigner who has analysed Care UK's business model for another union, Unite, said he recognised similarities with all the major private equity-backed care firms.
He said: "They often win contracts on the basis of making losses or small profits. At the same time they are putting in place what look to be tax-driven structures that are designed to mitigate taxes on profits. I believe that what a lot of these companies are trying to do is to undermine any chance that an NHS organisation can win contracts.
"Once they have squeezed out the state sector, and the third sector, we will then see prices rise; then we will see profits; then we will see these tax-efficient structures working."
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NAPO!! UNISION!! Get hold of this expert accountant Richard Murphy NOW, he understands the metrics and the future and could prepare an expert briefing paper. C'mon use your heads and start talking to this expert now! Let's publicly prove Grayling is a liar and misled Parliament by producing the figures to prove it. We are really great at probation work, accountants likewise with figures...Let's start to work smart, if this is all about the figures let's disprove them maybe even collect some data relevant for JR...now there is a thought.

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No doubt a thought already expressed, but something that struck me recently... Most of the likely bid candidates are already suppliers of services to the UK govt. If they win the probation contracts, how does that affect the facilities management contracts? For example, will a bidder be allowed to rent a property from themselves, cleaned & serviced by themselves in a pre-existing contract? 

It beggars belief that such totalitarian control of government contracts, i.e. Public money, continues to be handed over to Tory chums running global monopolies when the EVIDENCE is clearly available that subsequent service provision is crap to non-existent; that staff are abused, deskilled, poorly paid and neglected; and that it actually costs many times more than when previously provided, but the lying cheating weasels use accountants and PR and bullying tactics to hide the truth.

I have written to the monopolies and mergers agency. I have written to my (useless and TR collusive) MP. I have written to Watchdog. I have written to the European Parliament. I have written to Radio 4 (today & wato).

15 comments:

  1. I'm against TR as mush as the next person and understand the counter propaganda effort. But then I've been a probation officer for many years and there's always been problems resulting from too much work, high caseloads, too little pay, shoddy IT systems, staffing shortages and not enough recognition of what probation actually does. We're not the only public sector organisation with these problems either.

    The tactic here seems to be rubbish probation for all it's worth. This means undermining the good work and perseverance of the many probation employees that are still getting the job done, and as a result there many offenders still benefiting from probation input, I dread what they must think if they read this blog. It's about time to put out stories of where probation is working, a more balanced view, even amidst the difficulties of TR. Failure to do this will only play into the hands of those wanting to disband probation altogether, and here we have a probation blog full of posts and testimonies from probation staff that probation is not working. Yes we may be putting the bidders off here, but at the same time attracting the worst bidders that will have the intention and bartering info to buy the CRC's and strip them out completely.

    As I've said already, Jim you've got your million hits, now be a bit more balanced and provide a few positive probation posts since the world is watching HERE! Yes it's your blog and you post what you like, blah blah blah... It can't be too difficult to find a few positive comments to copy and paste.

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    1. The 'negatives' I read here are the systemic failures. The staff, as
      I read most comments, generally appear in a positive light, i.e concerned, determined, focused. And the value added of this blog for many is its therapeutic value, to be able to safely share their vulnerabilities without persecution.

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    2. Probation Officer - you've made the same point on TR Week Ten and I republish my response:-

      "It's about time to put out stories of where probation is working, a more balanced view, even amidst the difficulties of TR."

      I'm not the BBC, we're in a battle for survival and I'm publishing what I see and hear. Your blog, the Probation Institute and other sites may well be rather better placed and informed than me of where things are working well.

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  2. I'll add it is a pretty poor show that the fight against TR is now nothing more than a feeble Union effort to slow the process, while probation is rubbished by all and sundry in the meantime. There has been so many justice and rehabilitation related stories in the media lately but no probation or Napo rep making themselves available to comment and raise our profile, but Napo has also always been quick to publicise what's going wrong internally in probation. Our failure has been people had little care for probation or didn't know what we do. It seems we're not doing much to change this unfortunately. Think about it.

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    1. Most of the stories have been put in the paper by NAPO! What an ill informed opinion.

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    2. What IS your agenda, PO??

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    3. What IS your agenda, Anon at 11.42? Your question is so derivative of the probation mentality of recent years: if you are not with us, you must be against us type of groupthink.

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    4. Probation Officer - why don't you submit a piece to Jim that you think would balance things?. What you've done with your post is exhort others to in a hectoring tone. You didn't give a specific example of the good work you wish to highlight. TR is THE salient issue for practitioners and other colleagues right now. The negative effects are driving good people away. Our dept had 8 permanent staff but presently has 2 temps because experienced colleagues couldn't handle the uncertainty and voted with their feet. All of the others have put in for VR - ALL of them. I don't know of a single colleague in corporate services that hasn't applied. Personnel were collating the apps in a photocopy paper box to send off en masse. So, if you'd like to add balance, feel free to anonymise your caseload and share the successes. That may reach some of the decision-makers and get them to think again. Meanwhile, I pray that I get VR asap.

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  3. Aren't you missing the.point?

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  4. Any areas where TR is working well ?

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    Replies
    1. Yeah London Community Payback. Best run element of probation in London right now. Good for them.

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    2. Right well I think we'll draw a line under this thread and move on to the next blog post - some more 'lazy posting' about meltdown in Manchester. I'm sure Probation Officer is quite capable of telling some good news stories over on their blog site.

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  5. this posted today on our Bulletin Board:

    CRC Staff Council

    "you are invited to attend the first meeting of a working group to look at how CRC staff will establish a Staff Council. This will include looking at the role of the council and how its membership will be selected.

    We want to ensure a wide representation of staff so all views are considered. So, please, do get involved as this is an opportunity to shape your future.

    Once established the Staff Council will play a complimentary role to that played by the Trade Unions, it will be set up as an independent body representing staff to voice, shape and influence future business thinking and decision making. Trade Unions will continue to be the representatives of staff in negotiating terms and conditions.

    Before booking onto the working group meeting please check with your line manager. To book a place use the Seminar Booking system. Due to the constraints on the size of room numbers will be limited to 20 participants, places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. However, the details of all those who express an interest in attending will be kept for involvement in future workshops".

    Do they really think they'll get 20 volunteers - I can see staff being co-erced into attending.

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  6. Probation Officer11 August 2014 at 20:27

    To be honest I'm more of a tweeter than a blogger, although I do roll out a post or two every now and then. Jim I don't believe the probation institute is capable of providing stories about probation, whether positive or negative. I'm glad someone picked up on the comment suggesting if an opinion doesn't massage the status quo, or isn't said by somebody that's 30 years in then, there must be something wrong with it. This held us back in the past and thankfully many of that old guard have now moved on.

    The only agenda needs to be the defence and preservation of probation, but I do think that while bidders are put off and the TR process delayed, the danger is in going too far in identifying probation as a failing organisation which will make it even easier for the next government to scrap it altogether following the election.

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    1. The reason, I believe, that eventually, even if probation, as now exists is scrapped, will be brought back - eventually - is that traditional probation, applying the latest learning and especially in liaison with others - such as with MAPPA, SOTP/Circles of Support and Accountability, social services, victim support, and such as family group conferencing/restorative justice - is better and cheaper for the public than a CJS without it, no matter how much electronic monitoring is involved.

      I think things may have to get far worse before they get better, but eventually good sense, will have folk looking at what successfully exists, elsewhere in Europe and further afield particularly New Zealand & Canada and England & Wales will import back the models from overseas that have been influenced by traditional probation as began in the USA & UK.

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