The RMT Union is still in negotiation over terms of employment and pensions with Serco, the major private sector services contractor to the UK government, the shock recipient this Spring of the contract to run Scotland’s Northern Isles ferry services.
In the light of this situation and Serco’s stated interest in further moves into ferry services – with the Clyde and Hebridean Ferry Services tender in the offing, the implications of a story that came to light at the end of last week are substantial – for the travelling public and for business, as well as for staff and the union.
On 20th September The Guardian ran a story showing that Serco had presented deliberately falsified data on the performance of an out-of-hours GP cover service it provides under a contract to the NHS.
This is in respect of its contract for this service for the NHS Cornwall Primary Care Trust, with no fewer than 252 instances of falsified data submitted, disguising the fact that the service was so regularly understaffed that a whistleblower alleged – with demonstrable reason – that it was unsafe.
The situation is so serious that Margaret Hodge MP, Chair of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee has asked the National Audit Office to undertake an investigation.
The Primary Care Trust instructed Serco to audit itself following the whistleblower’s concerns. The findings of 252 instances of manipulation of data to show that the required performance targets were being met when they were not, appear to relate only to the six months of this year which Serco has audited to date.
Staff have reportedly told the Care Quality Commission that Serco’s falsification of the data goes back four years, leaving the possibility of a massive long term scandal.
The Guardian, which conducted its own investigation into the matter this May, in which the whistleblowers’ information emerged and which led to the Cornwall Primary Care Trust requiring Serco’s internal audit, reports:
‘Serco’s failure to fill shifts for clinical staff remains a serious concern.
‘The PCT’s [Primary Care Trust's] report also reveals that Serco failed in the last two months to meet targets on passing calls involving an immediately life-threatening problem to the ambulance service within the stipulated three minutes; failed to meet targets for clinical assessment of urgent calls, and missed targets on the length of time it took for people to get through to the service.
‘While a review found patient satisfaction was high, a survey of local GPs whose patients used the service raised serious concerns about staffing levels, inappropriate assessment of cases and poor sharing of information.’
This last paragraph would appear to indicate a gap between the methodologies of the ‘review’ of patient satisfaction and the ‘survey’ of local GPs’ first hand knowledge of patient responses. Certainly the specific failures identified by the GPs are of material concern. Staffing levels – at the heart of the falsifications, erratic diagnosis and poor record keeping are matters that put patients substantially at risk.
Serco have admitted to the falsification – they could hardly do otherwise.
Bizarrely, according to The Guardian, local MP Andrew George was actually criticised by the Cornwall Primary Care
Mr George points out that Serco’s admitted 252 falsifications of data took place in the six month audit period where it, of course, knew that it was under scrutiny. He says, with good reason, that it is their performance in the years before this period, when they were unchallenged, with which he is mot concerned.
He is reported by The Guardian as saying – and who would not agree, that: ‘This also raises wider concerns about opening up even more of the NHS to private companies who, it seems, will go to any lengths to win and retain contracts.’
By the way, as is the empty fashion of the day, Serco has said ‘Sorry’ to the Cornwall Primary Care Trust which is its paymaster. There is no record of it having seen fit to issue even these meaningless apologies to the patients put and left at risk.
The issue here is the corporate culture involved, the preparedness to falsify data to keep a contract when you cannot or will not honourably meet the commitments you have signed up to deliver.
In the case of lifeline ferry services, poor staffing levels are of concern to ferry users, staff and the RMT, as, in maritime operations, is erratic record keeping.
Handing over lifeline ferry services to a company whose culture demonstrably accepts as a commercial expedient the falsification of data in the failure to deliver both a safe service and the service it is contracted to provide is of real concern.
This is not a situation the Scottish people are likely to endorse should the Scottish Government consider replicating it in extending Serco’s grasp of our ferry services to the Clyde and west coast.
Newsie, “Serco had presented deliberately falsified data on the performance of an out-of-hours GP cover service it provides under a contract to the NHS”
So what? Big deal? Looks what happened just last week with another contractor – G4S was severely criticised by MPs for the Olympics fiasco, which forced the UK government to dragoon 4,700 troops and police to London to ensure safety at the event.. And guess what happened next???
The Chief Executive of G4S admitted the olympic’s debacle was a “humiliating shambles”.
Yet only a few weeks later the SNP Government unbelieveably awards the self-same G4S a £13 million contract to bring in satellite tracking for offenders in Scotland!
With this sort of track record SERCO obviously have nothing to fear from this SNP government.
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Much as I think Serco are a complete shower, manning levels on ships flying the red ensign are set by the MCA. Serco have no control over this.
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A couple of points: falsification of data by employees is a problem in the NHS when in public hands as well as in the private sector as we saw in NHS Lothian.
Also you say that “Serco” falsified data. That implies that Serco’s senior management were not only aware of the situation but condoned, perhaps ordered it. Whereas it looks as if Serco’s own quality control system picked up on the falsification. The BBC’s report gives a rather more sanguine report of this incident that looks pretty small scale and maybe more about inaccuracy rather than deliberate fraud. Seroc itself doesn’t appear to have benefited from it. On the face of it this looks like good scrutiny and corrective action when a problem was encountered.
Having said all that, I find it a worrying sign of the times that we have a company that is responsible for an out of hours GP service also running a ferry service. The two skill sets required do not obviously overlap making me think that Serco’s skill is in winning tenders. This is part of the problem with tendering. Government procurement and EU tendering rules has (possibly) reduced the cost of government contracts but with the effect of driving out smaller scale businesses leaving the field to these behemoths whose only virtues seem to be the ability to under cut smaller opposition and be able to afford the large costs associated with tendering for major contracts.
This needs to change.
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Point of information. As we understand it, it was The Guardian’s investigation that alerted the Cornwall Primary Care Trust to the situation; and it was then the PCT who instructed Serco to audit itself – which they did for the first six months of this year. finding 252 instances of false reporting.
There can be no credit in finding what someone else tells you to look for.
This was not a case of Serco’s own internal monitoring identifying an independent staff manoeuvre. This was a corporate failure, raising questions on the calibre of the company’s internal auditing as well as its culture. The fees paid cannot have added up to the reported staffing levels.
The real issue is not whether they benefited, or to what extent – but that they were providing a seriously unable service, were concerned to disguise that fact and would appear successfully to have done so for a considerable time.
Out of hours medical needs are, by definition, urgent, so this concealed position of serious understaffing, which cannot but have defrauded the PCT to some degree – more importantly left a critical service dangerously dysfunctional.
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I repeat, the BBC’s coverage of this suggests that the transgression was much less serious than you make out and was not “institutional”:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-19665640
I don’t know what Serco’s QA system is but it’s a fair bet it is based on ISO 9000. An external query would trigger a QC procedure which revealed these non-conformances. It should be remembered that there were only 252 of 107,000 records between January and June 2012 which were wrong: less than 0.25% of the records. There is a world of difference between “falsification” and “error”. What would you say your own error rate in this blog is?
This is in any case obscuring the real issue which is the encroachment on public services by private companies that seem to be designed solely to win government contracts. They do this by having lots of attention to their QA systems and price so that it is very difficult for government procurement NOT to give them the contract as Serco will have ensured that their tender perfectly ticks every box in what is usually a very structured and formalistic procurement process.
If you look at Serco’s market portfolio
http://www.serco.com/markets/index.asp
It is incredibly diverse. The old adage of jack of all trades readily springs to mind and I automatically distrust any organisation that considers itself to have genuine expertise in such a range of areas. They certainly won’t have that where it matters: at Board level.
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In relation to “QA systems based on ISO9000″, I remark that the MAIB, in their report on the loss of the tug Flying Phantom, wrote:
“The port’s reliance on their ISO9001 quality management system audits to highlight safety
concerns was fatally flawed.”
Putting it into my words, a reliance on ISO900x only checks that your procedures are such that “you will do what you say you will do” (which is fair enough, and is valuable in itself); but ISO900x does not check at all that what you say you will do is really what you should be doing.
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A neat and telling point that applies to much of our cynical box-ticking culture.
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Serco hve nothing to fear from this SNP government. In addition to the GS4 shambles this govt signed a wacky contract with the Argyll ferries.
The AFL bathtubs are cancelled today because of the weather – but Western are still running. Why? Purely because the AFL bathtubs are totally inadequate for this route.
But, and this is the important bit, in terms of AFL’s performance figures the cancellations today won’t appear as a service failure!Why? Because the govt contract states that if the Master (probably wisely considering the tubs he commands)deems the weather too rough for the unsuitable boat and doesn’t sail then under the contract signed by this SNP governemnt that is not counted as a service failure.
This is a scandal that highlights SNP political ineptitiude and betrays the travelling public.
And then, to compound the scandal, numpty Newsie, slavering at the mooth in her eagerness to dump on the Dunoon Ferry Action Group. then publishes detail of the AFL performance figures that ‘proves’ an impressive level of service. Impressive that is until you remember all those times the Master decided he wisnae daft enough to sail the tub in a wee wind. The performance figures are fixed and this disgrace is perpetuated by Newsie doing the SNP’s work for them again.
Fix the contract and prove how ‘good’ this service is and denigrate and villyify anyone who argues otherwise by directing them to the figures. Simples.
Serco have nothing to fear from this inept SNP government who cannot even provide the simple ferry service that the people of Dunoon want and that they were promised – by the the snp.
Nae wonder naebody goes to your demos….
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A little like a Council publishing incorrect data (possibly manipulated) on timings of a school transport run meaning the school in question could be considered for closure.
I don’t recall you being too bothered about that Simon.
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Integrity – I’m on record as saying that proposed school-closure proposals should be conducted, openly, transparently and with full engagement from the communinty. I’m also on record as applauding the radical iniitiative Ulva Ferry people who are trying to attract more families to the area in order to try to ensure the long term survival of their school.
So, please, do me a favour – don’t try to put words in my mouth – words that perhaps you wished you had heard but actually never did.
That said – if you have any commnets on the comments I made in relation to this article – I’d be interested to read them. If , however, you are just going to spread rumour and gossip – you are an amatuer and really should just leave that to Newsie.
Have a nice day.
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I note that Serco have had three significant accidents to their ships in the last two years or so:
Engine room fire on SD Dexterous, Gareloch, 2010;
Accidental discharge of CO2 from fixed fire-fighting system, SD Nimble, Faslane, August 2011 (one serious injury);
Crew member overboard from one of the Woolwich ferries Ernest Bevin, August 2011 (one fatality).
In the Dexterous case, the MAIB report seemed to remark that (in my words) shuffling the crews around between the various ships (presumably to save crew costs) meant that the crew members never really “took ownership” of their vessel, and in consequence minor faults might not be picked up and repaired.
In the Nimble case, Serco didn’t seem to have proper control over their sub-contractor.
In the Woolwich case, the risk analysis for the activity being performed was sketchy (based on the reverse operation, and assuming that the risks would be the same — wrongly, unfortunately).
This background does not fill me with confidence for the future.
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This seems both germane and of real concern to the NorthLink situation and to the future of the west coast ferries.
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