GPs criticise “appalling” decision to extend Capita’s primary care contract | The BMJ

NHS England and Improvement (NHSEI) has extended Capita’s Primary Care Support England (PSCE) contract for an additional three years, in a move worth £94m.1The announcement, made by the outsourcing company, means Capita will continue to provide digital, logistical, and support services for all of NHS England’s primary care practitioners (GPs, dentists, opticians, and pharmacists) until 31 August 2025.In the announcement, Capita said it has made a number of improvements since it took over the contract in 2015, including “standardising primary care processes nationally and launching the PCSE Online platform.” Additionally, it said it has “developed strong relationships with NHSEI and other stakeholders to enhance the PCSE service.”

Capita’s public service chief executive Al Murray said the contract …

============================================

I am not at all surprised that GPs are applaud that Capita have retained this contract, as the process of awarding contracts needs to be drastically and urgently looked at.

I assume this was done through some form of the ‘tender’ process, which is mainly a paper exercise, where prior knowledge is not considered. in reality all information should be considered. However, it is a somewhat open process as all decisions made can be challenged by the organisations being considered, so if there needs to be evidence on how decisions are being made, to include non-evidenced opinions can’t be allowed.

What needs to be practiced more is accountability and transparency, so that past history can be included where there is factual evidence available. But, in many instances there is no real factual evidence just an assessors opinion from non-proved incidents. So, when poor practice is brought to notice, these all need to be investigated and the evidence forthcoming used as evidence in the tender process.

But, in my experience very few incidents of poor practice are investigated or when they are not fully investigated. While not proved are the holding organisation, especially public bodies, such as the DWP, part of the poor practice as much public opinion believes, especially in benefit assessments.

This leads to distrust of all organisations involved and when distrust arises it is extremely difficult to overcome, so in all instances there needs to be openness, honesty and above all transparency, a lot of which is not evident in this and many other systems and processes.

 

 

Source: GPs criticise “appalling” decision to extend Capita’s primary care contract | The BMJ

Capita Pay Substantial Compensation To Family Of Philippa Day

At long last Capita have had to pay for their gross misconduct and so should the DWP, and I hope there is more to come, but will it make a difference?

Well, it might, if this is not a one off, so everyone who has suffered at the hands of Capita and DWP should put in claims. But really this gross misconduct should not be occurring, is it too much to ask for Capita and DWP to put their own houses in order, well that depends on whether the gross misconduct was deliberate or done by accident, I know which one I believe so no change and gross misconduct will continue until they learn that when they do, it will cost them.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

Capita have paid ‘substantial’ compensation to the family of Philippa Day, a single parent who took her own life after she was told that she had to attend a face-to-face PIP assessment in spite of her anxiety, depression and agoraphobia and in defiance of pleas by her CPN. It is believed to be the first such payment made by a DWP health assessment provider.

Ever since her death in 2019, Philippa’s family have been fighting to make the DWP and Capita admit their role in her death and to change the way vulnerable claimants are dealt with.

In a call the DWP tried to prevent the coroner making public, a clearly very distressed, sometimes crying, Philippa told a DWP call handler she was “literally starving and cold”, “genuinely can’t survive like this for much longer”, was “in…

View original post 591 more words

DWP Slammed By Judge For Trying To Rely On Evidence Of Disgraced Capita Assessor Alan Barham

The DWP are so out of touch with reality,

Firstly they should be aware to the numerous assessments from Capita assessors and others where there quality is very much in question

Secondly this is expressly so, for in this incidence for the named assessor in this article it states ‘Alan Barham was discredited by the Channel 4 “Dispatches” programme, following undercover reporting in 2016.’, so the DWP should have been well aware of the poor quality of assessments done by Alan Barham

also has stated in the article, ‘Capita dismissed Barham and he was found guilty of misconduct by a professional standards tribunal in 2017’

So, were the DWP not aware of the above, which, if so, indicates a lack of knowledge, which they should have been aware of, if they are deemed to be professional and a body of ‘note’.

The alternative is that the DWP could not careless  about claimants and their only wish is to refuse as many claims as they can and then pursue through the legal system when they are challenged, when the evidence is so conclusive that their challenge will be dismissed.

Not only is it not respecting the claimants, but it is gross misuse and completely inadvisable use of funds.

So, it is down to gross incompetence or deliberate acts of malice, either of which one should not expect from a Government department, but do find is being done on numerous occasions

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

An upper tribunal judge prevented attempts by the DWP to rely on evidence of a disgraced Capita assessor who said on one occasion that he had completed an assessment on a claimant before they had even walked through the door and boasted of earning £20,000 a month.

Alan Barham was discredited by the Channel 4 “Dispatches” programme, following undercover reporting in 2016.

Barham told the undercover reporter:

“The money? It was ridiculous. I was getting around 20 grand a month, most months.

They’d pay around £80 an assessment for the first 8 assessments, then they paid £160 an assessment for 8-14, then they paid £300 per assessment for 14-21. . . we was flying through them, because of that money. That’s 20 grand a month.”

In relation to a claimant who had had a leg amputated, Barham said:

“I’d literally finished his assessment…

View original post 448 more words

Capita PIP Assessors Slam Employer And Claimants

PIP Assessors and Capita, well what can be said, claimants have said much about them and a lot is not good, so are the assessors doing payback to claimants.

But benefits are a very emotive subject, as many claimants are coming at a time of great need, so any problems could well cause comments from claimants, no matter how or not justified there are.

But, assessors are supposed to be professionals, well they are being paid to do a job of employment and therefore it is very unprofessional to make adverse comments at all about about claimants, let alone on the various media outlets.

Similar could be said about assessors criticising their employers, Capita, but, I feel Capita are big enough to take it.

With all the various criticisms of the benefit system, Capita and to some extent Atos and some assessors, should this benefit and others still be maintained in the private sector.

I believe not and it should be transferred in-house to the DWP, who may not be any better, but then they could be better.

Will the Government do this, well it appears not and it looks like they are not prepared to mention why.

Is it because they do not wish to admit failure, when it is staring everyone in the face, or are there other reasons, which we could only speculate on.

Whatever, it is and there could be many reasons, it is apparent that the benefit process is not ‘fit for purpose’ in many respects, but not all as some claimants could well be happy with their outcomes, but are not as vocal as those who are not.

The benefit process is in dire need of improvement as are many other areas this Government has meddled with, lets not mention Test and Trace. Oh, too late I have.

This Government needs to put many actions in place to improve many areas, but are they up to it, well that is the question and currently it appears the answer is NO.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

Assessors allegedly working for Capita have given a string of 1 star reviews for the company on the Indeed website, slamming long hours and unpredictable audits. Some warned of a lack of care or compassion for claimants, but one former assessor calls claimants “aggressive liars” and “supposed invalids” whilst another claimed that they had been “physical and verbally abused” and had a claimant “stork” them.

The reviews all appear on the Indeed website and we have no way of knowing whether they are all from genuine current or former employees of Capita. But they go all the way from the present back to 2014 and it would be very surprising if Capita had not taken action long ago if they believed they were bogus.

Dissatisfaction with Capita clearly goes back years and it seems that a switch to telephone interviews since the…

View original post 995 more words

PIP Assessments Now Being Audio Recorded

This appears to be good news for claimants with regards to ATOS, but not so with regards to Capita.

The recommendation for people to make their own covet recording is also sound advice for it will also be evidence if the recording do not match.

Referring to Capita, surely the DWP should make this part of the contract and if, Capita do not comply then they should be removed as authorised agents.

The more that can be done to make the process more transparent the better.

What would be even better is to cancel all the contracts with Atos and Capita and any other outside agencies as soon as possible, then we would only have to contend with the DWP, which alone is more than enough.

The whole benefit processes need to be more user friendly and based on a person-centred approach, rather than a system approach.

Same Difference

With many thanks to Benefits And Work.

 

IAS (Atos) have begun recording telephone assessments for personal independence payment (PIP) Therese Coffey, secretary of state for work and pensions, told the Work and Pensions Committee on Wednesday 30 September.

Coffey told the committee that IAS had begun recording the assessments on 21 September

“But that has not yet started with Capita. That is under, I can assure you, active management to get Capita going quickly on this”

This means that claimants can now ask for a copy of the audio recording of their assessment if they wish to challenge the decision or if they simply want to have a copy for their own records.

We’ll be updating the PIP guide later this week and the latest version will include a simple Subject Access Request you can send to request a copy of the audio recording.

We don’t know when…

View original post 91 more words

Capita benefits assessor who ‘laughed‘ at disabled woman is suspended

Is this a change for the better by the DWP in PIP assessment or even any assessments, well we need to wait for the final outcome. But I do welcome the speed with which Capita offered the £600 compensation.

T%hese actions have been a long time in coming, as many other assessments should also have been dealt with accordingly.

However, the best outcome would be the total withdrawal of all these assessments, which are plainly an insult to all claimants.

PIP assessor challenges claimants son to a fight

I thought I had heard about some diabolical benefit assessments and assessors and that nothing could be worse thanthose I had aready heard about.

This just proves how wrong you can be. This particular assessor would appear to have some serious problems relating to his behaviour and I would question whether he is capabable and competent not only to do benefit assessments, but to do his sunstancial job in the NHS.

In this persons behaviour I would go on to say, that during this assessment some elements of criminal behaviour to place and this does question his ability to have conducted proper assessments with other benefit claimants.

The process is stressful enough for the benefit claimants and their families and they can do well not having to put up with the conduct of this particular assessor.

It also beggars the question of how many more like him are also conducting such assessments in the manner similar to him.

He appears to be assuming a position of power over the benefit assessees, which should not be so.

Disabled benefit claimants forced to pay for GP letters they don’t need : Welfare Weekly

Disabled people are being forced to travel several miles to attend benefit assessments and pay for GP letters they don’t actually need, it has been revealed.

The Department for Work and Pensions are allowing private companies like Capita, who are in charge of carrying out benefit assessments, to make it more difficult for people to get the financial support they desperately need.

More than 160,000 people have signed a petition calling on the UK Government to end the injustice.

 

Source: Disabled benefit claimants forced to pay for GP letters they don’t need : Welfare Weekly

Tories hand private firms £95 BILLION in public service contracts : Welfare Weekly

A year on from Carillion’s collapse GMB, Britain’s general union, has revealed the total value of outsourcing contracts let by the public sector rocketed by 53% in the past year.

In 2017/18 the lifetime value of public sector contracts awarded to private companies rose to £95 billion, up from £62 billion the year before.

Capita was one of the biggest winners of public outsourcing, receiving contracts worth almost £1.4 billion in 2017/18 – despite issuing a profit warning in the same year.

The private firm, who were given responsibility to carry out disability assessments for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), have been criticised by MPs over the accuracy of reports sent to the Department for Work and Pensions.

 

Source: Tories hand private firms £95 BILLION in public service contracts : Welfare Weekly

Private profiteers Capita to continue benefiting from benefits contract : Welfare Weekly

 

 

Source: Private profiteers Capita to continue benefiting from benefits contract : Welfare Weekly