National News End Child Food Poverty

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Poor performance based on what?
Contractual measures?
I thought the issue was there were no contracts (there are but its a moot point)?

The failure of track and trace is much of the reason we find ourselves where we are. Serco is a big part of that. It would be great if in a crisis of international proportion it would deliver a quality of service that wows, goes the extra mile etc. Something we could all be proud of.

Back to hungry kids............... lots of other organisations have filled some of the gaps.

Some of them got fed, some won`t have.

The problem of child hunger has not been resolved short or long term............... but hey some folk think they have "done there bit" by tweeting or signing a petition.

They have achieved nothing and that is the truly sad part.

I agree it's a problem that should not exist but doing something is always better than doing nothing however small that something may be.

 

[Essexyellows]

The failure of track and trace is much of the reason we find ourselves where we are. Serco is a big part of that. It would be great if in a crisis of international proportion it would deliver a quality of service that wows, goes the extra mile etc. Something we could all be proud of.

I agree it's a problem that should not exist but doing something is always better than doing nothing however small that something may be.

Doing something practical has a far greater impact than "signing a petition".
Putting something extra in the shopping and passing it on, dropping off some surplus to the local foodbank.
All far more effective.

 

[Paul Cannell]

Serco had and has no expertise at track or trace, whereas each health authority has an experienced department that does tracing and has knowledge of their area / locale. It was a government decision to by-pass the one reservoir of expertise in order to centralise operations and undermine local capabilities. They are to blame for the failure of the tracking app, which was a vanity project outsourced to their mates, and the failure of tracing, was dogmatic and careless. They might have got away with it and degraded NHS capabilities.

 

[Essexyellows]

Serco had and has no expertise at track or trace, whereas each health authority has an experienced department that does tracing and has knowledge of their area / locale. It was a government decision to by-pass the one reservoir of expertise in order to centralise operations and undermine local capabilities. They are to blame for the failure of the tracking app, which was a vanity project outsourced to their mates, and the failure of tracing, was dogmatic and careless. They might have got away with it and degraded NHS capabilities.

And will probably be the demise or rebrand of PHE...........

The "simple" fix would have been to pile resource into local PHE teams but would they have coped with the influx of people not up to speed/needing training? Or is it easier to outsource and let SERCO et al carry the can?

 

[Paul Cannell]

Well, at least they'd (local teams) have had the expertise to train resource, unlike Serco who, having none, tried to use call-centre managers and call-centre scripts. Local teams also have local knowledge and presence to approach people in ways slightly more sophisticated than cold-calling them through an IVR then giving up.

Easier? It would have strengthened non-central authorities and diverted much-needed cash from private companies.

 

[Marked Ox]

And will probably be the demise or rebrand of PHE...........

The "simple" fix would have been to pile resource into local PHE teams but would they have coped with the influx of people not up to speed/needing training? Or is it easier to outsource and let SERCO et al carry the can?

Yes, they'd have coped because their job is already normally in a dynamic environment. Sod setting somebody up to "carry the can", get the experts with the knowledge/skills to do the job, know the gaps and know what is required/how to train somebody for the job. Serco have to learn from a base of nothing, it was moronic from the Govt to get them to set up such a system while simultaneously cutting out the experts from the process.

 

[Essexyellows]

Yes, they'd have coped because their job is already normally in a dynamic environment. Sod setting somebody up to "carry the can", get the experts with the knowledge/skills to do the job, know the gaps and know what is required/how to train somebody for the job. Serco have to learn from a base of nothing, it was moronic from the Govt to get them to set up such a system while simultaneously cutting out the experts from the process.

There are 5,500 PHE employee`s across England. 8 local centres and 4 regional ones.

Serco/others brought in 18,000 new staff to T&T.

Imagine going into work and finding you have at least 3 new people to train/teach. It would impact the day job some what.

The outcome over time has been that those people are now working with the local PHE teams.

NHS test and trace to cut 6,000 jobs but strengthen regional teams

Tracers to focus on specific areas and could be sent to knock on people’s doors

www.theguardian.com

 

[Paul Cannell]

Ah c'mon, Serco laid off 6,000 after a month or 6 weeks cos they couldn't train them or use them.

And you know why they're working with local teams, cos otherwise they'd be sitting in a flat waiting for a call.

 

[Marked Ox]

There are 5,500 PHE employee`s across England. 8 local centres and 4 regional ones.

Serco/others brought in 18,000 new staff to T&T.

Imagine going into work and finding you have at least 3 new people to train/teach. It would impact the day job some what.

The outcome over time has been that those people are now working with the local PHE teams.

NHS test and trace to cut 6,000 jobs but strengthen regional teams

Tracers to focus on specific areas and could be sent to knock on people’s doors

www.theguardian.com

Considering those teams were saying get us involved from very early on in lockdown so yes they would have welcomed it.

Whilst Serco, Deloitte etc still get their many £ms and palm off the tricky cases to the local Public Health teams (that is the working with bit you talk about), the PHTs/Local Authorities didn't get any extra money to do the work. This has meant they've had to pull existing staff from other jobs and training some of them.

Serco/Deloitte and the like shouldn't have been involved and the Country would have got a lot more for its money. Even a good possibility that we'd have a system that actually worked. I'd have thought you'd appreciate getting the best value for taxpayer money?

 

[Essexyellows]

Considering those teams were saying get us involved from very early on in lockdown so yes they would have welcomed it.

Whilst Serco, Deloitte etc still get their many £ms and palm off the tricky cases to the local Public Health teams (that is the working with bit you talk about), the PHTs/Local Authorities didn't get any extra money to do the work. This has meant they've had to pull existing staff from other jobs and training some of them.

Serco/Deloitte and the like shouldn't have been involved and the Country would have got a lot more for its money. Even a good possibility that we'd have a system that actually worked. I'd have thought you'd appreciate getting the best value for taxpayer money?

Agree about the local specialist knowledge etc & getting value, however how long would it have taken PHE to recruit, induct & train 12-18k people?
That is where Serco et al get the advantage they say they can deliver the boots on the ground and bypass the public sector "slow start".
Broadly speaking its 5-6 months from advertising a public sector post to having someone sat in the chair doing the job.
Unless the powers that be allow the public sector to use "old fashioned things" like a probationary period to sort the wheat from the chaff?

 

[Essexyellows]

And back to food banks etc.
This shocked me.

Geneva: Why the world's highest minimum wage was needed

Geneva is very wealthy, but not everyone is rich and now it has the world's highest minimum salary.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Marked Ox]

Agree about the local specialist knowledge etc & getting value, however how long would it have taken PHE to recruit, induct & train 12-18k people?
That is where Serco et al get the advantage they say they can deliver the boots on the ground and bypass the public sector "slow start".
Broadly speaking its 5-6 months from advertising a public sector post to having someone sat in the chair doing the job.
Unless the powers that be allow the public sector to use "old fashioned things" like a probationary period to sort the wheat from the chaff?

Well Serco etc demonstrated they don't have an advantage and failed as they trained for people to be in a call centre. They didn't understand what was required, the resources needed and where, trained for the wrong thing as a result and wasted the taxpayer tens, if not hundreds of, £ms again. They still got paid a fortune even with that failure.

The Public Health teams wanted in at the start of the 1st lockdown but as usual with this Govt it didn't happen as public sector experts aren't Tory donors or Dom's buddies. As said previously, with the PHT experts we may have actually had a working system that cost less, compared to now, which may have led to the economy staying open rather than going into lockdown.

The Govt has operated without tendering for contracts (hence £bns wasted) throughout this so no reason why they can't have set the rules around employing people for this situation. Local Authorities can be flexible when required just as they are now for tracing/covering Serco etc failures.

When SAGE, Independent SAGE are bemoaning the awful test and trace system then I'm sorry but no way did the likes of Serco/Deloitte have the expertise or advantage over PHTs other than in the dogma of this Govt.

Have you watched "Totally under Control" about Trump's handling of the Coronavirus pandemic which was on last night? He's handling has remarkable similarities to our Govt's in that it is about ignoring/sidelining public sector expertise so as to use the private sector. So the driver for the pandemic management is private relationships rather than expertise and clear management structures.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

If only there were a simple way to make public sector contracts offered to private sector firms strictly not for profit.....

 

[Essexyellows]

If only there were a simple way to make public sector contracts offered to private sector firms strictly not for profit.....

Can`t mention the "P" word........... even internally our operations try and trade at a "surplus".
Internal trading in the NHS (and other services) costs more than it is worth and adds no value.

However it keeps lots of folk in jobs.... like me.

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Can`t mention the "P" word........... even internally our operations try and trade at a "surplus".
Internal trading in the NHS (and other services) costs more than it is worth and adds no value.

However it keeps lots of folk in jobs.... like me.

Much better to keep people in "gainful" employment, contributing to the tax take, NI and pension pots, rather than spiriting it away into the pockets of fat cats to sit untouchable in offshore accounts...don't you think?

 

[Essexyellows]

Much better to keep people in "gainful" employment, contributing to the tax take, NI and pension pots, rather than spiriting it away into the pockets of fat cats to sit untouchable in offshore accounts...don't you think?

Can be argued both ways to be fair.
I would rather there were more clinicians in the NHS than pen-pushers & accountants.
Especially when many of the number crunchers are pushing the same "number" from A to B for someone else to move from C to D ad infinitum....

 

[Sheik djibouti]

Can be argued both ways to be fair.
I would rather there were more clinicians in the NHS than pen-pushers & accountants.
Especially when many of the number crunchers are pushing the same "number" from A to B for someone else to move from C to D ad infinitum....

Hence why I said "gainful" employment. And I would still rather 10 of them then bloating the offshore account of someone who already has more than they can possibly need in 10 lifetimes.

 

[RyanioBirdio]

Marcus Rashford welcomes school holiday support climbdown

The government is to spend about £400m to support poor children and their families in England, in a climbdown.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Essexyellows]

There will be extra money, you know it I know it. It won`t make headlines, deals will be done. Its politics.
LCC have a rather large sofa and tradition dictates the Shire is Blue and the City is Red.

Marcus Rashford welcomes school holiday support climbdown

The government is to spend about £400m to support poor children and their families in England, in a climbdown.

www.bbc.co.uk

Yellowsforum leading the world, national & local politics......

 

[MC Yellow]

It seems that some children have lost the ability to use a knife and fork during lockdown.

WTF do some parents do when bringing up their children.

I blame Boris.