Search Results for: capita

Barnet UNISON gives Capita Estates service the Red Card

Austerity, H&S, Health and Safety, Local, News, UNISON Campaign

Last Monday all of the Waste and Recycling service started from Oakleigh depot. Due to a serious strategic mistake Barnet Council sold off their own depot which was based in the centre of the borough (Mill Hill) before they had secured an alternative.

As a result a small depot was built in Oakleigh Road South (east of the borough). This depot was not big enough which meant that Barnet Council had go to cap in hand to Harrow Council to pay to base some of their services from their depot.

Workers couldn’t believe it. They shook their heads in disbelief but then just got on with the job.

The costs of operating out of the depot have become a burden that can no longer be sustained and Barnet UNISON welcomes the attempt to re-unite what was previously united.

Barnet Council is now using the former Brogans depot for the extra vehicles.

Why the red card?

Early in September Barnet UNISON reported that the lighting was not working in the depot. It seems to take forever to get things fixed in the depot. This is not a criticism of the operational management as the estate service is run by Capita.

As the date of the move back from Harrow drew close Barnet UNISON again pressed for the lighting to be fixed. The extra vehicles increased our anxiety of the risk to the health and safety of our members.

It is important to remember that the existing site is about to become a building site as urgent engineer works are about to start to stop the depot sliding down the hill into Oakleigh Road South. This means the traffic management is under increased pressure.

On Monday 4 November I was sent pictures by our members to confirm that lighting was not on. It was predictable but UNISON hoped that this time things might change.

Day after day UNISON was contacted all week, five days in a row lighting problems down the depot.

Red Card

On Friday UNISON spoke with operational management to say that this could not continue and that measures must be put in place to secure the health and safety of the depot.

Barnet UNISON has attended the Committee meetings where the Capita contract was reviewed. For a short period the Estate function was down to come back in-house. However, in December 2018 Barnet Council once again let Capita off the hook.

Barnet UNISON is demanding the Estate service is brought back in-house our staff health and safety must not be compromised.

More later…….

Barnet UNISON Update: Yes it’s Capita and Yes it’s another Pensions Fail.  

Austerity, Pensions, UNISON Campaign

 

“The Pensions Regulator has issued a draft improvement notice to the London Borough of Barnet to tackle deficiencies in the pension fund’s administration processes and controls.”

“Meanwhile, a recent internal audit report has identified a number of “high risk-rated issues” in relation to the scheme’s administration, which is outsourced to Capita.”

http://www.pensions-expert.com/DB-Derisking/TPR-still-unhappy-with-pensions-admin-at-Barnet

The above are extracts from an article by Pensions Expert Sophia Imeson | July 15, 2019 “TPR still unhappy with pensions admin at Barnet”.

“It’s becoming a full-time job just keeping track of the relentless number of issues arising from poor performance of the Capita Pension Administration service. The question our members keep asking is “how many times does Capita have to fail before the service is taken off Capita and brought back in-house?” Whilst Barnet UNISON I welcomes the news that the Leader of Barnet Council wants to “get things right” where Barnet UNISON differs is why the reluctance to simply end the contract? Barnet UNISON has sat in too many committee meetings where councillors have heard the following: “Capita has put together a plan.”

It is too late for any plan. It is patently obvious there are some pretty fundamental problems with the Capita Pensions Administration Service which is why in July 2019 “internal audit report has recently flagged up a “limited assurance” level for the scheme’s design and effectiveness of controls in place.”

The latest news is that The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has issued a draft improvement notice to Barnet Council should be the final straw.

What should Barnet Council do next?

Barnet Council needs to seriously think about what it does next. The reason Barnet UNISON says this is because to run an efficient Pension Administration Service you need to ensure the HR and Payroll are working effectively as this can also have a serious impact on Pension Administration.

The problem Barnet UNISON can see is the Council knee jerk reaction due to understandable pressure to act could end in the Council simply moving to another HR provider.

This act fails to assess the impact of Payroll issues on Pensions Administration service.

For some reason, when Capita bid to take over our services in 2012, they proposed to split the in-house Payroll service by running payroll services out of Belfast and Carlisle.

It would be an understatement to say that there have been issues with Payroll.

If Barnet Council simply switch provider, fast forward six months’ time and councillors could be sitting in a committee meeting listening to LBB HR, Capita (Payroll) and Pensions (new provider) all arguing who is responsible for service issues.

Barnet UNISON has consistently taken the same approach to these endemic failures.

Barnet Council needs to bring back and rebuild the Payroll and Pension Administration services to work alongside the recently returned HR service.

Only then does Barnet UNISON believe that the Pension Administration service can return to the high standards it provided before the outsourcing to Capita”

End.

Background reading of previous reports on Capita Pensions in Barnet

  1. TPR still unhappy with pensions admin at Barnet

By Sophia Imeson | July 15, 2019

“The Pensions Regulator has issued a draft improvement notice to the London Borough of Barnet to tackle deficiencies in the pension fund’s administration processes and controls…..”

http://www.pensions-expert.com/DB-Derisking/TPR-still-unhappy-with-pensions-admin-at-Barnet

  1. Light at end of tunnel in Barnet admin fiasco

By Stephanie Hawthorne | May 23, 2019

“The problem was once so serious that Hymans Robertson, the actuary to the scheme, was commissioned by Barnet council to investigate the quality of the pensions data, and it was feared that inaccuracies could lead to a delay carrying out the triennial valuation later this year.”

http://www.pensions-expert.com/DB-Derisking/Light-at-end-of-tunnel-in-Barnet-admin-fiasco

  1. Ongoing data problems spark valuation concerns at Barnet

Sophia Imeson | March 28, 2019

“In 2017, the Pensions Regulator said it had fined the Local Government Pension Scheme fund £1,000 for failing to submit its 2016 scheme return on time.”

http://www.pensions-expert.com/DB-Derisking/Ongoing-data-problems-spark-valuation-concerns-at-Barnet?ct=true

  1. Barnet in TPR breach as Capita misses payments

Alex Janiaud | October 22, 2018

“The London Borough of Barnet Council has reported itself to the Pensions Regulator after failing to produce 447 pension benefit statements on time.”

“A spokesperson for the regulator confirmed that it was “in contact with those responsible for the governance and administration of the scheme”.

The spokesperson said: “We expect all those responsible for the governance and administration of a scheme to ensure appropriate internal controls are in place to ensure that non-compliant employers fulfil their responsibilities to that scheme.”

http://www.pensions-expert.com/DB-Derisking/Barnet-in-TPR-breach-as-Capita-misses-payments

Lest we ever forget the million pound plus fraud committed by a Capita employee

Austerity, Local, News, Report, Solidarity, Uncategorised, UNISON Campaign

Below is an extract from a report submitted to

Audit Committee 17 July 2018 

Corporate Anti-Fraud Team (CAFT) Annual Report 2018/19

(Source: https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s52410/Appendix%201%20CAFT%20Annual%20Report%201st%20April%202018%2031st%20March%202019.pdf )

2018-19 saw CAFT officers investigate and prosecute an unprecedented internal financial fraud. In Response to his officer resource was diverted from all sections within the team to deal with the investigation. The case was given the name Operation Rouble which subsequently proved to be the most challenging, complex and substantial fraud that Barnet has experienced.

  • The fraud related to two offences of ‘abuse of position’ which were committed by a Capital Investment Manager, employed by Capita and working for Regional Enterprise. The offender created instructions for CHAPS payments in excess of £2 million to be processed in relation to fictitious compulsory purchase orders.
  • The CAFT were notified in December 2017 and utilised their financial investigators powers to obtain tangible evidence which resulted in the offender being arrested and suspended within 24 hours of the investigation being initiated.
  • The criminal aspect of the investigation was evidenced and prepared for prosecution within five months which subsequently led to the successful conclusion of the case in July 2018 which saw the offender being sentenced at Harrow Crown Court to 5 years imprisonment.
  • CAFT has carried on the financial investigation and continues to do so in order to ensure all proceeds of crime are identified and recovered accordingly
  • CAFT has also worked closely with Internal Audit and Finance in relation to recommendation from the external review of financial controls and the ongoing audit testing relating to financial controls.
  • CAFT jointly conducting a payments data analytics exercise with Internal Audit in order to identify irregularities and/or make recommendations for improvement.

Further details of the investigation can be found in the noteworthy investigation section, and full details of the external review into financial control conducted by Grant Thornton is available on the council’s website Financial controls https://www.barnet.gov.uk/citizen-home/council-and-democracy/finance-and-funding/Financial-controls.html

12 months later at Policy and Resources Committee 17 June 2019 Barnet Council decided to keep both Capita contracts largely untouched with a review sometime in the future. 

 

 

Trying to make sense of easyCouncil and Capita?????

Austerity, Local, News, Pensions, UNISON Campaign

Barnet Council entered into two large outsourcing contracts with Capita in 2013. Six years later there has been a serious fraud and the services are not up to standard.

Who is saying this?

The Council both the staff who use Capita services and the staff that commission Capita services.

A year ago the Council announced a large number of services were to be brought back in-house yet a year on only a few have made it across the line.

On Monday 17 June 2019, Barnet Council gave Capita the thumbs up for both contracts.

You can read more about the Capita contracts here on the Barnet UNISON website

https://www.barnetunison.me.uk/wp/

Another Capita Pension Service Fail!

Austerity, Local, News, Trades Dispute, UNISON Campaign

The reports on data quality issues with the Capita Pension Administration Service based in Darlington have been many.

I noticed that there is another Data Quality Report submitted for the Pension Fund Committee, on Thursday 30 May 2019

(See here https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s52720/Data%20Quality%20Report.pdf )

It reminded me of the Open Portal web site all members of the Council Pension Scheme had access to before Capita took over.

It was taken down in 2014 with a promise that it would be back up soon.

It’s 24 May 2019 and it is not available and worrying Capita seem to think it was not in the contract to provide such a portal.

Whenever I need to check out the contract there is only one person to contact and that is Barnet Blogger Mr Reasonable I contacted him because I was convinced it must be in the contract and literally five minutes later he sent over the relevant section in the Capita contract.

The specific requirement can be found in the HR Method Statement (which is attached as a PDf document)

Final_HR_Method_Statement_Mar2013_Capita_redacted (1)

Scroll down to Page 30, paragraph (emphasis mine)

 2.8 PENSIONS ADMINISTRATION / OUTPUT SPECIFICATION REF: HR008

“Members will also have access their pension information via the web portal. This on-line service gives the members the facility to perform ‘what-if’ calculations, view and update their personal information including nominees. Benefit statements and other scheme documentation will be available for current and deferred members. Pensioners will have access and be able to view all their payslips and P60s.”

I can’t even begin to explain how useful this would be for members of the Pension Scheme, ironically if this had been implemented it would have saved resources for Capita.

Have I notified the Council?

Yes, I have raised this immediately with the Council.

I have two questions.

  1. When will Barnet Council hold Capita to account and insist the above web portal is put in place immediately?
  2. Why is the Council continuing to accept failure from Capita in particular why is not the Pension Service being brought back in-house.

At this moment of publication Capita are still providing our Pension Service and their Share Price is £1.05 p a share. See below 

Another Capita Failure in Barnet, Payroll this time…………

Austerity, Local, News, Report, UNISON Campaign

 

Late Friday afternoon 27 April 2019 Barnet UNISON were contacted to say that Barnet Council staff who had previously opted out of the Council Pension scheme had been enrolled back in.

Whilst Barnet UNISON supports and encourages members to join the Council scheme, workers do have the lawful right to opt out.

Barnet Council must obey the law and in this case this means they must auto enrol workers into the Council Pension Scheme. However, they must give notice to the worker and advise them of their right to opt out.

This did not happen.

What happened?

  1. Members on the Audit Committee were told that Capita Payroll only found out at the last minute (Friday 26 April 2019) that an auto enrolment programme had been set up to auto enrol those workers who had previously opted out of the Council Pension scheme.
  2. Members on the Audit Committee were told that 170 workers were auto enrolled into the Council Pensions Scheme which meant they had pay deducted from their wages.
  3. Members on the Audit Committee were told that although the workers had pay deducted they had not been auto enrolled.
  4. If this is true, it must follow that Capita’s auto enrolment procedure failed. Auto enrolment is directed by legislation. Barnet Council must auto enrol staff every three years, unless staff sign a form to opt out. This incident has exposed another Capita system failure which needs to be addressed immediately.
  5. Members on the Audit Committee were told that the workers contributions which had been deducted would be paid back to the 170 workers on Friday 3 May 2019.
  6. Members on the Audit Committee were not told if employer contributions were paid and if so where did the money go. However, if the employer contributions were not paid, why not? Is this another system failure?

Further Questions

  • Have Capita Payroll in Carlisle auto enrolled Barnet Council school staff?
  • If not, why not, as they are the same employer?
  • Why were Councillors auto enrolled by Capita as Councillors have not been eligible to join since 2014?

Barnet UNISON comment:

You really have to be in a Council meeting to believe what happens. Year after year different Capita managers roll up to give excuses and make promises that the latest service improvement plan will improve the services.

What is unbelievable is that Councillors are still accepting this serial offending.

All the while Capita are raking in the millions from Barnet Council.

We are in Year Six of a Ten Year contract and the two Capita contracts have cost £145 million pound more than they were originally contracted to be paid.

 

You mean Capita actually use SAP????

Austerity, Local, News, UNISON Campaign

 

What is SAP?

 “An important factor is to develop mechanisms to support service areas in developing their efficiency and the corporate capacity of the council. One way that this is being done is by implementing corporate frameworks to allow better ways of working. For example, modern core systems for finance, HR and procurement and a new technology infrastructure to support all technological advances. This dovetails with service planning where the Information Systems service engages with service areas to identify opportunities for development.” (Source: Cabinet ICT Committee 14 September 2005

https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/CeListDocuments.aspx?CommitteeId=0&DF=14%2f09%2f2005&MeetingId=335&Ver=2 )

Clear as mud? 

The implementation of SAP involved serious changes for hundreds of staff and included redundancies. As with many IT projects the original cost of SAP quickly escalated as local Blogger Mr Reasonable wrote “How a £2.5 million project ended up costing £21 million – Why we need to learn the lessons.”

You can read the whole sorry tale on his blog here

https://reasonablenewbarnet.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-25-million-project-ended-up-costing.html

Incredibly, after spending so much money on SAP, the Council entered into a contract with Capita in 2013 and as a consequence Capita replaced SAP and provided Barnet Council with Integra and HR Core.

Barnet UNISON can report that very soon after the replacement systems were implemented staff started experiencing problems. Five and half years into the contract and our members are still not happy with the systems.

Imagine my reaction when I found out that Capita use SAP.

So, it was ok to remove IT systems which cost Barnet Council upwards of £21 million with what appears to be an inferior product, but Capita choose to use SAP.

How does that work?

Why are the Council not asking for SAP to be restored at no cost to the Council?

I am often heard saying “You couldn’t make this up” when talking about issues that come to our Barnet UNISON office.

This is yet another sorry tale of how adherence to the mass outsourcing easyCouncil ideology has led to bad decisions for services, staff and residents and none of those who drove these changes through are around to answer the questions.

 

No, it is not an April Fool, Capita staff are coming back in-house!

Austerity, Local, News, Report, UNISON Campaign

On Monday 1 April 2019 Capita staff working in Strategic Human Resources (HR) and Finance services will return back in-house.

This follows a decision made at Policy and Resources Committee 11 December 2019 to start a review of which services should be brought back in-house.

Finance and HR were identified in Phase One to return back in-house.

Below are the details of the other Phases and the service included.

  • Phase Two: Highways & regeneration
  • Phase Three: Estates, Social Care Direct, Safety, Health and Wellbeing, Strategic planning, Procurement, Insight, Cemetery and Crematorium, Revenues and benefits
  • Phase Four: Customer services, Information Services (IT), Planning (development management and enforcement), Regulatory services, Transactional HR services (including Payroll and Pensions Administration), Any other remaining services.

You can read more details of reasons for the Capita Review by clicking on link below.  https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s50134/Review%20of%20Capita%20Contracts.pdf

Barnet UNISON has demanded that all of the above services are brought back in-house citing Southampton, Blackburn and Darwen, Sheffield and Birmingham Councils who in 2018 all made decisions to bring back services from Capita.

 

Bring back Pension Service in-house from Capita

Austerity, Local, News, Report, UNISON Campaign

Dear Councillors

Please find enclosed latest Barnet UNISON Briefing on the Pension Administration service.

The in-house service was taken over by Capita in September 2013 and in 2014 all the staff were sacked as the service was sent to the Capita Pension offices in Darlington.

This services has been subject to ongoing concerns since 2014. The service has been reported to the Pensions Regulator twice.

My observations are that in spite of action lists being agreed the service has not even reached the levels before the outsourcing and more worryingly the reports at the recent Local Pension Board meeting reveal that it is now impacting on Pension 2019 triennial valuation:

“The results show a significant number of ‘critical errors’ that the administrators, Capita, will be required to address before actuarial calculations can begin.”

https://barnet.moderngov.co.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=753&MId=9712

The Pension Service is something that our members strongly support. The performance issues since Capita have taken over are causing great anxiety and anger from workforce.

This is why on behalf of all of our members I am asking that the Pension Administration Service is fast-tracked in terms of the current review of the Capita contracts. This is a failing service that desperately needs to be brought back in-house.

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

0208 359 2088

www.barnetunison.me.uk

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