Jeffs posts
My understanding is that the software used by the NHS – like that used by many government departments – is bought from large corporations that work on a “one size fits all” basis.
The problem? One size doesn’t fit all.
The simple fact, as it seems to This Writer, is that government – not just the current government, but any government – seems too willing to pay a fortune to huge corporations for off-the-shelf software that doesn’t work.
I mean, who provided the software under criticism in the article quoted below?
A much better policy would be to seek tenders from multiple software writers – including small firms – for bespoke software that actually does the job required of it.
It would be cheaper, it would be better, and above all… it would be safer.
Problems with computers could be blamed for up to 900 deaths in the NHS every year, two academics have claimed.
Computers are embedded across the NHS but many are “bad” and “low quality”, putting lives at risk they say.
From the PC that stores patient records to systems embedded in devices like MRI scanners and dialysis machines, NHS IT is “unnecessarily buggy” and “susceptible to cyber-attack”, according to Harold Thimbleby, professor of computer science at Swansea University.
Posted by jeffrey davies on 10 February 2018
will they won't they
The SNP Leader at Westminster has said the Prime Minister must ‘end the injustice’ for women facing pensions inequality.
Ian Blackford MP raised the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday – in the week that marked the 100th anniversary of the suffragette movement winning the right for some women to vote for the first time in UK elections.
Speaking during PMQs, he said the suffragette movement was about “democracy, equality and fairness for women”. But in the UK today, 3.8 million women will not receive the pension they were told they are entitled to.
Mr Blackford says WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality) women are still adversely hit by the Tories’ failure to address the injustice of the acceleration of the increase to the state pension age.
Embed from Getty Images
Commenting, Ian Blackford MP said: “Yesterday we celebrated the suffragette movement in parliament, but today in the UK women are still facing inequality with 3.8 million not receiving the pension they were due through no fault of their own.
“WASPI women are guilty of nothing. They have had the misfortune of being female and being born in the 1950s and live under this UK government who refuses to do the right thing.
Posted by jeffrey davieis on 09 February 2018
Jeffs posts
Scores of healthcare professionals may have been able to continue carrying out disability benefit assessments despite being the subject of multiple complaints about their behaviour, competence and honesty, confidential new documents have revealed.
The official reports, prepared by outsourcing giants Capita and Atos for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), show that up to 180 personal independence payment (PIP) assessors were the subject of at least four complaints each in three-month periods in 2016.
The documents, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show that 161 assessors working for Atos had more than three complaints made against them in a three-month period.
And 19 Capita assessors were also subjected to at least four complaints in a three-month period in 2016.
Neither Atos nor Capita, nor DWP, will say what action was taken against these assessors and whether they are still carrying out face-to-face assessments of disabled PIP claimants.
The revelations provide fresh evidence of failings by the two private sector outsourcing giants in delivering PIP assessments across England, Wales and Scotland.
Disability News Service (DNS) has been investigating claims of widespread dishonesty by PIP assessors for more than a year, and has now heard from about 300 claimants who say their assessment reports contained clear lies.
The new reports include details of the “management information” (MI) the two companies were contractually obliged to provide every month to DWP, so it could check their performance and take action when they needed to improve.
They show how they performed during 2016 in certain areas, such as how long face-to-face assessments took on average; how many face-to-face assessments were carried out; and how many assessments reports were graded as unacceptably poor.
They were released to campaigner John Slater, as part of his efforts to secure confidential DWP information that he believes will expose widespread failings by Capita and Atos, as well as DWP’s failure to manage the contracts properly.
He has been working with Disabled People Against Cuts researcher Anita Bellows, and DNS, to analyse the data since its release last month.
in a letter to Frank Field, the chair of the Commons work and pensions select committee, in December 2017, Atos boss David Haley said his company had received more than 5,800 complaints connected with the PIP contract in 2016.
Atos is likely to have completed about 800,000 assessments that year.
According to the MI reports, Capita completed about 240,000 assessment reports in 2016 and received more than 3,000 complaints in just the 11 months from February to December (there are no figures for January).
Slater said the information released by DWP showed there had been “serious failings in key areas”, such as complaints against the assessors, the quality of assessment reports, and the number of cases where Atos and Capita asked for further medical information (see separate stories).
He said: “It is important to remember that these failings are not simply about producing documents or following processes.
“These three areas directly impact the outcome of people’s PIP claims.
“It is almost certain that people will have been denied PIP or given a reduced award due to an assessment report that wasn’t good enough, because further medical evidence (FME) wasn’t obtained or because of assessors who shouldn’t be doing the job.”
He said DWP had now been managing the contracts for almost five years.
He said: “Problems of the magnitude uncovered by the disclosure of the MI shouldn’t exist after nearly five years if the DWP was doing its job properly.”
He said DWP should have learned the lessons from the “debacle” of the contract with Atos to deliver the work capability assessment, which saw DWP and Atos repeatedly criticised and Atos forced to pull out of the contract.
Bellows said the figures revealed by the reports obtained by Slater were “absolutely shocking”, and she pointed to the number of complaints filed against disability assessors, “and astonishingly against the same assessors”.
Other figures revealed the failure of Atos and Capita to request vital “further evidence” from GPs and social workers, and the number of Capita assessment reports that were found to be flawed.
Bellows said: “This is failure at every stage of the assessment process, and gross incompetence from DWP in overseeing and managing its contracts.”
Slater added: “When I asked for this information to be disclosed I suspected it would confirm the problems regularly reported by people claiming PIP and that the DWP was managing the three contracts poorly.
“The data did indeed confirm this, but I was shocked by what else we uncovered.
“In addition to the deplorable data on FME and the scale of the problem with unsatisfactory assessment reports, I was shocked by the fact that so much of the management information specified in the contract either wasn’t disclosed by the DWP or simply doesn’t exist*.
“I hope that the both the work and pensions committee and the public accounts committee will put the DWP under considerable scrutiny as a result of what has been uncovered.”
Atos has refused to answer a series of questions about the data released to Slater, including what action it took with the assessors who received at least four complaints in a three-month period, and how many of them were still working as assessors for Atos.
But an Atos spokesman said: “Throughout our relationship with the DWP around the delivery of the PIP contract, we have listened carefully to feedback provided by those being assessed and continually adjust our service to help deliver an enhanced experience for all involved.
“Less than one percent of the 844,000 cases we cleared and returned to DWP in 2016 resulted in a complaint.”
Capita also refused to answer the questions, but a spokeswoman said in a statement: “Our assessors are healthcare professionals who are equipped with the required skills and knowledge to carry out PIP functional-based assessments in a professional and empathetic manner.
“We are committed to delivering an excellent service and continue [to] improve this by heavily investing in our training, support, and audit processes to ensure accurate and quality reports.”
A DWP spokeswoman said: “We expect the highest standards from assessment providers, and we work closely with them to ensure PIP is working in the best way possible.
“We always aim to provide the very best service, and this is why assessments are carried out by qualified healthcare professionals who need to have at least two years of practical experience and must be registered with a medical body.
“Anyone falling below the required standards faces having their contract terminated.
“During the period you’ve outlined above, [Atos] and Capita completed a combined total of 945,000 PIP assessments.
“The total number of complaints that assessment providers received was less than one per cent of the total number of completed assessments.
“The PIP assessment providers thoroughly investigate all complaints and take appropriate actions.
“In addition, the PIP assessment providers have a target for customer satisfaction of 90 per cent, which they have consistently met since it was introduced in 2016.”
you can't make these stories up our government really do want you gone rise up rise up all you sick people and go back to work bugger they out for you
*DWP finally released this information to Slater last month, more than a year after he asked for it, following a ruling by the information commissioner.
But he has now been forced to complain again to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and DWP because DWP appears to have failed to provide key sections of the reports.
Posted by jeffrey davies on 09 February 2018
Jeffs posts
The amount of public money handed to private firms to carry out “brutal” disability benefit assessments has soared by around £40 MILLION over the last year, in spite of growing concerns about the fairness and accuracy of the hated tests, the Independent has revealed today.
Figures obtained by the newspaper through Freedom of Information laws show Atos (now ‘Independent Assessment Service’) and Capita pocketed a combined £255million over the last year to carry out assessments for Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which is replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for all disabled adults and people with long-term medical problems.
In total, the two firms have been awarded £824m since 2013 by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for their role in carrying out the controversial PIP assessments.
The shocking revelation comes less than a week after Capita shares plummeted by nearly 50%, after the outsourcing giant issued a dire profits warning, knocking £1.1bn off the value of the company on the share market.
And the Government announced last week that it is to review 1.6 million PIP claims following a humiliating defeat at the High Court, that will see an estimated 220,000 PIP claimants receive backdated and higher awards.
Government figures indicate that neither Atos nor Capita are meeting the required target of 97% of assessments conforming to standards. Audits show 6.4% of PIP assessments were deemed “unacceptable” in the three months leading up to October 2017.
Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Debbie Abrahams MP, accused the Government of “rewarding failure”, adding: “It is damning that the Government are spending more public money on private, profit-making contractors at a time when a record 68% of PIP decisions taken to tribunal are being overturned by judges.”
She also reiterated Labour’s pledge to scrap the disability benefit assessments when in Government.
Dr Jay Watts, from the Alliance for Counselling and Psychotherapy, said: “Atos and Capita are profiting, quite literally, from the suffering of claimants.”
He added: “It is difficult to communicate quite how brutal, fear-provoking and destabilising the process of constant assessment is.”
A DWP spokesperson told the Independent: “We’re absolutely committed to ensuring that disabled people and people with mental health conditions get the support that they need.
“PIP is a modern, dynamic and fairer benefit than the former DLA and focuses the most support on those experiencing the greatest barriers to living independently.
“Approximately 66% of PIP recipients with mental health conditions receive the higher rate of the benefit, compared to just 22% under DLA.”
There are growing concerns over the role of private firms in public services following the shock collapse of Carillion, and Unite has warned of a “Pandora’s Box of Carillion-type meltdowns” if NHS trusts in England continue to outsource contracts to private limited companies.
The Conservative Government was accused of propping up Carillion, after the company was handed £1.3bn of new contracts despite the Government knowing the company was in financial difficulty.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to put an end to the “outsourcing racket”. Speaking to the Guardian after a showdown with Theresa May at PMQ’s, Mr Corbyn promised to “rewrite the rules to give the public back control of their services”.
He added: “Theresa May exposed the failure of the outsource-first ideology at prime minister’s questions when she said the government was ‘a customer’ not ‘the manager’ of Carillion.
“I’m sorry, but if these are public contracts we should be the manager and not have a middleman like Carillion creaming off the profits.”
Posted by jeffrey davies on 06 February 2018
