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back to article Barnet Council reckons Capita's dropped the ball on outsourced services

Barnet Council has confirmed it is expecting outsourcing outfit Capita to hand it £4.12m due to services, including IT improvements, delivered under a 10-year mega deal being "not up to scratch". The London council has also recommended in its report that Finance and Strategic HR services be taken back in-house by April 2019 " …

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  1. Elmer Phud

    Oh Great

    Having slashed and burnt to achieve full 'It wasn't ME' status my LA is now admitting they screwed up?

    There is no office space left, few buildings, nothing much more than town hall and mayor with bling round their neck making comments so very close to 'strong and stable'.

    But with a record of not complaining when developers fail to provide the contracted social housing and ensuring that the borough's youth have had all local youth clubs buildings demolished to make way for new (private) development, I expect nothing but a mirror of Brexit with the borough continually blaming everything on other people.

    31 6 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "realignment" of its partnership with Capita.

    how about the "realignement" for the people you fired to re-align, you (..) (...)?! But hey, don't blame the council(s), blame the government for "austerity". No, wait here, don't blame us, blame the bankers!

    ...

    p.s. every now and then there's a mega-realignment called a "revolution", when a bunch of (...) is chased down the street, and when we plebs have had our moment of triumph, we replace (...) with (...)

    9 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "realignment" of its partnership with Capita.

      Yeats lived through major upheavals in Ireland. He wrote:

      "Hurrah for revolution, and more cannon-shot! A beggar on horseback lashes a beggar on foot.

      Hurrah for revolution, and cannon come again; the beggars have changed places but the lash goes on."

      Revolution is never a good idea, the problem comes, as now, when the government in power fails to heed the warning signs.

      14 1 Reply
      1. Aladdin Sane
        Reply Icon

        Re: "realignment" of its partnership with Capita.

        There's nothing in the streets

        Looks any different to me

        And the slogans are replaced, by the bye

        And a parting on the left

        Is now a parting on the right

        And the beards have all grown longer overnight

        5 0 Reply
  3. DJV Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Crapita

    "some aspects of our service to Barnet Council have not met the standard we and our client expect"

    Well, given it's Crapita, I would have expected a total clusterfuck and I'm sure they wouldn't have disappointed me!

    34 0 Reply
  4. Allonymous Coward
    FAIL

    What a surprise

    ^-- see title

    6 0 Reply
    1. Tim99 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: What a surprise

      The surprise might be that the article was written as though someone thought was surprising?

      9 0 Reply
  5. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse

    Capita said...

    Capita said : "We recognise that all aspects of our all of our services to everyone, have not met any of the standards our clients expect, because we don't have any standards ok!!!" and then helpfully added "be sure that we are fully living up to our corporate motto which is "Capita : we never miss an opportunity to miss the opportunity to shine.""

    3 0 Reply
  6. TomChaton

    I'm shocked that someone has found Capita wanting. Shocked, I tells ya.

    In other news:

    Grass: Green

    Pope: Catholic

    Bear: Arboreal defecation

    13 0 Reply
    1. Aladdin Sane
      Reply Icon

      Re: I'm shocked that someone has found Capita wanting. Shocked, I tells ya.

      The Pope isn't Catholic

      5 0 Reply

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Teiwaz
        Reply Icon

        Re: I'm shocked that someone has found Capita wanting. Shocked, I tells ya.

        The Pope isn't Catholic

        Going by the origin of the word 'catholic' meaning all-embracing, whole

        from Latin catholicus, from Greek katholikos universal, from katholou in general, from kata- according to + holos whole

        He hasn't really been catholic and neither has the Roman Church since the Reformation (further back if you count the Gnostic sects that the church brutally eradicated).

        4 0 Reply
        1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: I'm shocked that someone has found Capita wanting. Shocked, I tells ya.

          He hasn't really been catholic and neither has the Roman Church since the Reformation

          And it isn't particularly Christian either - and hasn't been for a long, long time..

          1 0 Reply
          1. Anonymous Coward
            Reply Icon
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: I'm shocked that someone has found Capita wanting. Shocked, I tells ya.

            The greatest compliment that Pope Francis ever had was Sarah Palin saying that she doesn't think he really "gets" Christianity.

            1 0 Reply
    2. phuzz Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: I'm shocked that someone has found Capita wanting. Shocked, I tells ya.

      "Arboreal defecation"

      That sounds more like shitting in a tree, rather than a forest, but I see what you were aiming at.

      3 0 Reply
      1. The Nazz
        Reply Icon

        Re: I'm shocked that someone has found Capita wanting. Shocked, I tells ya.

        Arboreal defecation.

        Or alternatively, gives new meaning to "shitting logs". Ouch

        0 1 Reply
  7. Snarf Junky

    The public sector has such a wonderful history of believing the private sector when they tell them they can provide a better service for less money whilst still making millions in profit. It's almost like they've never heard the 'If it sounds too good to be true it probably is' mantra.

    14 1 Reply
    1. Terry 6 Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Not the "public sector". Politicians on a " neo-liberal" leaning. They don't believe in public service and can't accept that services can be any good unless run for profit.

      Reality has shown that bean counters prefer to focus on short-term activities to provide short-term gains (profits), whereas public service is a long-term consistent system that tries to run to break even..

      6 4 Reply
      1. Teiwaz
        Reply Icon

        Not the "public sector". Politicians on a " neo-liberal" leaning.

        Don't confuse people - here in the UK 'liberal' is an actually party which generally holds to the line that if you want quality public services you must be prepared to pay in higher tax in order to fund them sufficiently - which goes to explain why there aren't many majority councils nor elected governments as the other parties usually promise more for less tax

        0 1 Reply
        1. Terry 6 Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          I am here in the UK. In Barnet as it happens.

          "neo-liberal" means very right wing, market economylead decisions, here too.

          https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoliberalism

          In historical terms, the difference comes in the difference between "freedom from" and freedom to" if my memory serves correctly. ( It was a long time ago I learnt this stuff.) As in Freedom from poverty V freedom to exploit the poor. In Barnet's case Freedom from lousy under-resourced services v Freedom to dodge paying adequate Council Tax.

          1 0 Reply
  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Typo in the article

    Someone has missed the letter R out of Capita again.

    7 0 Reply
  9. Ian Johnston Silver badge

    Has Capita ever done anything competently? Serious question.

    2 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      It pays my pension correctly and on time.

      0 3 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        True

        Why the down votes for a true statement? Ask the question and get an answer :-)

        0 0 Reply
    2. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Has Capita ever done anything competently?

      Yeah - they are ptryy competent and incompetence..

      (And pretty good at bidding for deals at below-market rates and then realising that they can't actually deliver at that cost)

      1 0 Reply
  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    More incompetence

    At the last London mayoral election, Barnet's (outsourced) electoral roll managed to print out the wrong list of people for each polling station, meaning that no one was on the list so they were denied votes. Took a few hours to get fixed. https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/16/barnet-polling-blunder-compensation-claims-london-assembly-electoral-commission

    I suspect it's the same shower responsible...

    7 0 Reply
  11. Confuciousmobil

    Pong pong

    Outsourcing saves millions. Everyone knows that.

    Bringing it back saves millions. Everyone knows that.

    Do it enough times and you will save enough s the service actually makes you money.

    Replace one shower with another is far better than paying for the service you actually want. Cheaper is obviously better....

    4 0 Reply
  12. Scroticus Canis
    Coat

    So Crapita is going to get its Barnet cut.

    Sorry ... but someone had to say it :)

    Mines got the copy of Sweeny Todd in the pocket.

    0 0 Reply

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