I wrote a letter to Colin Birchall, the Chief Executive of Pertemps People Development group Ltd. After all, the buck stops with him.
Here is some info about him:
If Pertemps take money off the state without delivering much, it makes Colin Birchall rather like any other dole scrounger, other than the fact that he gets paid more than the average claimant.
Nothing from Colin yet.
I also wrote a letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton. I am very ecological and believe strongly in recycling, which you might notice when reading the two letters.
His website is here. I don't know exactly how much he earns, but there is a really interesting website about how much public employees like him are paid.
Nothing from John yet.
Since Nick Parton's declaration that he cannot answer my questions, non response from Colin Birchall's delegate and also from John Hutton, I decided to write to Lesley Strathie, Chief Executive of Jobcentreplus. Let's see what high quality she has to offer.
Lesley didn't answer my question about contract compliance, so I sent off another letter, with accounting accuracy and Job Outcome payments thrown in for good measure. It is possible that the no salient response method will be employed with respect to this letter.
Third time lucky? There hasn't been a reply so far, so I let Lesley know that I am prepared to do take the long way round if that's what I am forced to do. The message doesn't sink in easily. If asking directly doesn't work, then there is the ask someone to ask someone else who will then ask Lesley method. It all adds up to raising the profile, which is a strange option for either Jobcentreplus or Pertemps to take, but preparations have already been made in anticipation of such an event. I have always assumed, rightly or wrongly, that Nick Partion's avoidance of answering me was on orders from above. When a boss delegates, they expect it to end there. Underestimation levels are high in both these organisations.
Are you starting to notice a pattern here? It looks like they can't be bothered.
Lesley didn't reply, but someone did take the time to do it for her.
By virtue of the fact that he can be bothered to reply Phil Bartlett is hereby promoted to most respectable of the highly respectables. He skimped on his reply, so I had to make a repeat request to him. Hopefully he will continue to indulge me and I won't have to get the stick out.
Funnily enough, I had to make a repeat of the repeat. The time to use alternatives is nearing if he doesn't deliver.
He duly replied, and so did I.
Lesley gets a challenge about the contract.
Lesley got someone to reply to the above for her. All diplomatic ties are now officially severed.